Cold, Wet, Hilly Ride

Today was the very first American Cancer Society Bike-a-thon Cycle Splash in Pittsburgh.

Since I was not able to ride in the Philadelphia Bike-a-thon because of my knee injury, I wanted to ride in Pittsburgh.

After 4 weeks of physical therapy for my knee, and only 3 weeks of outside riding (2 while on vacation) it was time to ride.

It was very cold (only in the 50's) and wet (it rained all night, and most of the day).

We got up at 5:30 and headed to the start line. We met Miss Dawn from the Cancer Society and she said I could wear my #49 from Philadelphia - that made me happy.

Then we were off. We hit our first hill in less then a mile. And then another one, even bigger than the first. And then another one even bigger than the second.

They just kept coming, and coming.

At the bottom of one, I crashed. My Dad patched me up and we were off and riding up more hills.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the entire route -- too many hills, not enough training, and my parents think I am sick (I've been coughing up a lot of gunk for a week or so).

It was a hard day. I'm glad I tried.

Thanks to my sponsors, I still raised a lot of money to help people fight cancer.

And I can't wait for Bike-a-thon 2008 back in Philadelphia!

Kate