The title of this blog post does not refer to each and every single bike ride I endure.  It refers to the local “fun” event held yesterday by a very generous businessman/avid cyclist.  Over the past 10 years, he has sponsored 3 long and painful rides each year, appropriately named Sufferfest I, II, or III.  Each year, the Sufferfest I ride (what I braved yesterday) consists of 2 Red Rock Canyon scenic loops, 1 climb up Potosi, then back to the Red Rock loop for a third torturous circuit.  Anyone who has ever cycled the Red Rock loop knows that the first 5 miles = pure climbing; it is a 13.1 mile one-way road that begins with a 1000 foot climb….then retreats a little bit, then ascends again, topping out just before mile 5, after which the road descends and cyclists joyfully ride downhill….then at mile 7, you hit a “wall,” which basically feels like you’ve run into a brick wall.  After that, though, it’s pretty much downhill to the end.  Imagine doing that loop once.   Now imagine doing that twice in a row.  Then you ride up to the Potosi summit, which is a 9.5 mile ascent that gains just over 2200 feet in elevation.  Yuck.  Then you zip back down to do ANOTHER RR loop.  Then you collapse.

(Cool photo that a friend took during his hike in Red Rock Canyon!  This is during the third and final RR loop.  I am at the back and my SAT is in front.)

Honestly, I was dreading this event.  Some people ENJOY putting themselves through VOLUNTARY PAIN for HOURS on end.  SAT, this means YOU and your like-minded sickos that you call “friends.”  I started out slowly, as I usually do, and my SAT was with me the entire time, sometimes chatting with another unwitting cycling victim, sometimes pushing me uphill (literally….he wanted me to experience a “friendly boost” whilst on the saddle).  The first loop was fine, the second was a bit more difficult, Potosi was hard (but I managed to dig up some extra energy and sprint the last 50 yards to the top only to get that dumb climb finished!), and the last loop was awful.  I didn’t eat enough during the day and “bonked” (totally depleted of glycogen/energy, felt lightheaded, had tunnel vision and slurred words….basically, I felt like I was drunk).  The good thing about bonking this time compared to the last time (which was a few months ago, I believe) was that I recovered much faster.  I guess I can attribute my quicker recovery time to all this training I’ve been doing.

(Do I look like I’m having fun?)

There were specifically three cool things about Sufferfest yesterday: 1) I wasn’t the slowest one!, 2) the free food and support, and 3) the pig-out fest my SAT and I enjoyed after the ride.  (Burgers and bottomless fries at Red Robin.  They disappeared fast!)  Ok, maybe I have a *teeny tiny* sense of pride in accomplishing something I never thought I would do.

(Cyclists at the last aid station at the top of the RR loop climb.)

(Screenshot of my Suffering.)

As my SAT kept reminding me, the group of cyclists who tackled Sufferfest I yesterday is a select group and being on the slower end of the spectrum is still pretty strong.  There were about 50 cyclists who signed up for the whole ride, but at the end of the day, only about 10 finished.   Most people already knew they would only do 1 or 2 loops, then go home and do something fun.  A fair number of people were deterred by the threat of rain and didn’t bother showing up (it didn’t rain).  Because I actually finished the whole thing, I will get a (free!) t-shirt commemorating the event.  My SAT thinks I’ll be doing Sufferfest II and III with him.