11 October 2014 | Yangpyeong, South Korea | ‘Gran Fondo’ – 100km

After coming back to Seoul from a world wind tour in Europe, Jacky and I wanted to top it all off by participating in the Han River Rider’s Annual Gran Fondo. It sounded like a great idea when we were putting together our schedule. What we didn’t factor in was our jet lag and change in climate. We basically had 3 days to recover from our trip before participating in the 100 km Bike Ride in Yangpyeong. We arrived at the meet up location with time to spare. We did our last minute checks on the bikes, finished our registration and took a group photo before linking up with our fellow riders. We weren’t familiar with any of the riders in our group but after quick introductions we took off at the scheduled departure time. Since Jacky had plotted the route on her Garmin she started off in the lead. Unfortunately (Or fortunately) she got a bit queasy after the first climb. She got off her bike with a blank stare and white as a sheet. She looked at me and said, “I’m done… I feel too sick to make it.” I told her not to try it if she didn’t feel up to it. She agreed and gave me her Garmin and some money. That was the last time I would see her for the next seven hours. I’m not going to lie, It was definitely a rough ride but I was determined to get it done. We hadn’t rode our bikes in a month because Jacky was worried we may sustain an injury that would impact our Berlin Marathon. The impact of that decision was a series of painful cramps in my thighs when I got to some of the more challenging climbs.  I had fared much better during our training ride a month earlier but we had spent a lot of time in the saddle prior to that preparing for our triathlon events. I completely separated from the group I had left out with but having the Garmin really worked out well.  I did link up with other riders and after 7 hours of riding with breaks I finished in time for the Dinner. Overall it was a successful ride. A year ago we would never have tried to do something like this but all the training and efforts were paying off.

 

 

 

 

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31 August 2014 – Pre Ride of the course