Memorial Day - 43+ miles!!

We got "on the road" shortly after 8am on Monday the 26th (Memorial Day). We left directly from our home and headed north to the ASU campus. You can see our outbound jaunt across campus in the following video.

Prior to getting to campus, we had to pass over the I-60 freeway. The next video shows a bit of this. (I was having problems with the camera, hence the reason it cut out. I also think the batteries were running low.)

The outbound portion of the trip was not too bad. We undoubtedly got on the road a little later than we should have. By the time we got to Shea Blvd, it was getting a bit toasty. We were half way done (at about 21 or 22 miles).

On the return trip, the heat started taking it toll. I think we were both pretty tired by the time we got back to Tempe Town Lake. There is not a lot of shade in that area. In fact, once you get south of Curry Road, it's pretty much sun and "desert" (or sun and dirt).

By the time we got to the south end of campus, we were getting really tired. We made it south and back over the freeway bridge (the one in the short video above) and stopped to rest. My wife used up the last of her water at that point, and I had only a bit left (lesson here - two bottles of water were not enough - we needed to refill the bottles at the northern most point of our ride at one of the parks in the green belt).

I was also noticeably "red" at this time. We had used sun screen, but apparently had not slathered on enough (or we should have taken some with us to re-apply about half way through the ride). The following photo of my arm demonstrates the "ouch factor" in my sunburn. Unfortunately, I was also starting to feel nauseous, a sure sign of heat exhaustion (probably coupled with not enough water).

We did make the last 3 or 4 miles of the trip back to our home without "calling for help". And were we ever so hot and tired. BUT WE DID IT! After this 43 mile ride, we knew we could do the 35 mile portion of the Tour de Tucson. We will keep riding and keep extending our "reach" each time just to keep ready. In fact, we plan on re-doing this 43 mile trip within the next few days (with one of our sons - if he can keep up). We'll be leaving a lot earlier this time (around 5am) so we can be done and back before the temperature gets too much beyond 90 degrees (the temperature forecast for the day we are going is 101).