"It's all downhill from here!"

The ride is over. I survived. I finished.

You can't tell from our chipper "Yay, we're starting!" picture, but the weather on Day 1 was miserable. It was about 50 degrees, and it was very windy. We had a headwind most of the day. My toes and fingers were frozen until almost 1:00 in the afternoon, when it finally started warming up. My fingers were also swollen from their role as shock absorbers for the vibrations of the handlebars from the bumps on the road.

When AJ and I left lunch together, several people assured us, "It's all downhill from here!" They lied. Thankfully, though, just a few miles from the finish line that day, the quality of the road was awesome. It was nice to finish up on smooth pavement.

Like last year, someone from our team had driven along the route for Day 1 and spraypainted silly motivational comments. My favorite was not far from Tex@s Motor Speedway, which was our finish line for day 1: "We're getting close (that's what she said)!!!" Hilarious!

When we turned into the speedway for the end of Day 1, we still had 3 miles to go around the track. After the entrance, we made a turn that again put us riding directly into the wind. It was a relief to be finished for the day. We had ridden just over 86 miles.

After hanging out in our team tent for a while, we headed to College Friend's house, where we stayed the night. She and her husband cooked us an amazing dinner, and we all stuffed our faces with grilled shrimp, grilled hamburgers, chips and guacamole, asparagus, and fresh strawberries. When I finished eating, I curled up into a content, exhausted ball on the couch. We were all chatting when all of a sudden my ringtone for K went off (since he calls from a call center, it's always the same number that shows up on my phone). I went from barely moving and being ready to fall asleep to skipping across the room to get my phone and then ran out of the room so I could talk to him. Everyone was laughing at me for the sudden giddiness that had completely woken me up.

I was able to talk to K for about 20 minutes. I filled him in on Day 1, and he wished me luck for Day 2. After our phone call, I headed back to the living room. Everyone was tired, so we all got ready for bed and passed out after a few minutes. It was only 9:00!

We woke up at 5 a.m. for Day 2. Since the day before had been so miserably cold, I put on a thermal shirt under my jersey. College Friend had a windbreaker she let me take as well. Our other friend had an extra set of arm warmers for AJ. We were all set to ride through the cold.

Which is why the weather on Day 2 was gorgeous. There was hardly any wind, and the temperature was much warmer.

We got to the speedway about an hour before the start that day. We ate breakfast and stopped by the real bathroom to spoil ourselves before spending the day waiting in line for porta potties again. We filled our water bottles, aired our tires and then climbed on our bikes to begin the final 74 miles of the ride. As you can imagine, it was extremely uncomfortable to be sitting on that hard little seat again so soon. Thankfully, about 10 or 15 minutes into Day 2, your rear end gets numb enough that the soreness is no longer an issue.

AJ and I got off to a great start. We stopped briefly at the first rest stop, just long enough for AJ to stand in line for a porta potty and for me to fill up on oranges, a protein bar and some Gatorade. We got back on the road and got into such a good groove that we skipped the next rest stop and drove through lunch at 9:30. As we rode straight through the lunch stop, the volunteers directing us on our path said, "It's all downhill from here!"

Again, liars! We hit quite a few hills. None of them were particularly memorable or tough, but it was just hill after hill -- and they were all false summits, meaning there was no nice downhill slope to reward us for topping the hills. My technique for the hills is the same as it was last year: I pedaled up them pretty quickly (for a hill) to get them over with. The slower you pedal, the harder you have to work and the more it burns (and for longer). I tended to pass people on the uphill, only to have them pass me on the downhill, since many of them were bigger than me, resulting in more momentum on the downhill slopes.

When I got to the next rest stop after lunch, I was exhausted. I called my dad and told him I thought I was about to die, and I kind of wanted to. I talked to him for about five minutes as I waited for AJ to reach the rest stop. Once she did, I walked over to the food and drinks. When I saw what they had to offer us, I immediately felt rejuvenated!

The rest stop had fresh PINEAPPLE!! My favorite! AND they had pickles (I know they don't go together, but I enjoyed them both anyway!)! I ate bananas and pickles and pineapple and canteloupe. I filled up on Gatorade, and I even drank a couple cups of this yummy pineapple-cherry drink they had (with the fruit in it!).

AJ and I took our refreshments to a grassy area and sat down on the ground. We relaxed and enjoyed the soothing tropical music coming from the food area. We even decided to lie down for awhile. I was at that rest stop for over an hour, and I really think I owe at least some of my finish to this stop. It was amazing.

A couple of friends of mine from work caught up with us before we left the rest stop, and the four of us set out on the rest of the ride together. One of them is pretty intense with his cycling, so he and I rode ahead, and the other co-worker hung back to ride with AJ.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of me riding on my own, then waiting at the rest stops first for Intense Co-Worker, then AJ and the other co-worker. Many times, I wanted to just ride ahead and finish, but I waited. As much as I wanted to get to the finish line and be done, I still wanted to cross the finish line with AJ as well since we'd trained together and I'd convinced her to join our team.

Day 2 is the hillier day, so my legs were burning quite a bit. After I climbed my most-hated hill (this picture does it NO justice, and you can't see the similar hill -- another false summit -- that you climb just a quarter of a mile or so before this). At the rest stop after the Hill From Hell, AJ noticed a neat rainbow halo that circled completely around the sun.

After the halo rest stop, we had one of the most (if not the most) notorious hills in the entire course -- a gently sloping hill that left you climbing around corkscrew turns for over 2 miles. Everyone talked it up just as much as they did last year. I was worried I'd have more trouble with it this year and that my memories hadn't given it enough credit. The hill was no cakewalk, but just like I expected, the burn in my quads on that hill just didn't quite match the torturous burns of the steep hills we'd already climbed.

After that hill, we stopped at our last rest stop before the finish line. I waited for five minutes for Intense Co-Worker to catch up. AJ and Other Co-Worker took another 10 or 15. It turned out they'd had some technical issues with Other Co-Worker's cycling shoe. When we finally set out to complete the final 9 miles of the ride, we passed a cop who was directing traffic in an intersection. We said thanks as we rode by. He nodded back at us and called out, "It's all downhill from here!"

Thankfully, we knew better. In addition to a couple minor hills and a short, steep climb through a neighborhood, we still had the steep final climb that waited for us a mere quarter of a mile from the finish line in downtown Fort Worth. We all made it up just fine. Intense Co-Worker and I waited for AJ and Other Co-Worker to catch up. When they topped the hill, AJ was crying. I think all the frustration, burning thighs, emotion and relief of finally being done finally caught up to her. I had cried a bit at the end of the ride last year, so I could understand.

The four of us spread out across the road so we could all cross the finish line together. The announcer called out AJ's name as we crossed and told her to wave to the crowd. I thought it was neat that they had chosen her, since the other three of us had all done the ride before. She was the only first-timer with us.

We didn't stick around downtown Fort Worth for long. After spending two days on a bike and burning 3,000 calories each day, we had some catching up to do. We each headed home and took showers, then met for dinner to stuff ourselves with calamari, salad, bread, pasta and sangria. We chatted about the ride and how relieved we were to be done with it. We talked about training and doing the ride again next year.

And we also happily talked about the fact that both our bikes will be collecting dust for at least a few weeks. We deserve a break!