Pollen & the Ride from Hell

Stuart and I were supposed to do the Howard County Life Festival 100K on Sunday. But apparently we forgot to sign up, and by the time we got online on Saturday it was full. oops. I was looking at the bright side, I really wanted another long ride on my Orbea, so we could do 60 ourselves on the trail. By the time we left the house at about 10:20a.m. it was already 80 degrees. I'd smeared myself all over with sunscreen to avoid a repeat of last week's sunburn.

I was feeling good as we neared Reston when my eyes began to act up from the pollen and dryness. And that was the story for the rest of the day. Ride a few miles until my eyes started to swell shut and then pull over. Clean the contacts, sit with my eyes closed and let them water. Stopping at every water fountain to flush my eyes with fresh cold water. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. I made it to Smith's Switch which meant my ride would be about 44miles roundtrip. Decent, but not ideal. While sitting there wishing I could be magically transported home, I got a text from Stuart that he had made it to Leesburg and was turning around. That was incentive to start moving, trying to maybe stay ahead of him the whole trip back.

That second half was a mix of emotions and feelings. When I got moving, I was really hauling. Pulling a few other girls on bikes at over 19mph. And then my eyes would act up, and I'd pull off to the side again. I was feeling low on energy, my morale was low, and I don't think it was a nutrition thing. It was more about the amount of time and energy that I was pouring into my eyes and keeping them open while on the trail.

I beat Stuart home by only about 5minutes. Once inside, I popped out my contacts and wore my glasses the rest of the day. And as someone who HATES her glasses, that means it was bad. They were still swollen and sore at bedtime.

Now starting taper week, and rather than feeling confident going into this race in two weeks, I'm scared. Already a lesson learned that early season long-course might not be for me, but still uneasy that I'm not ready at all. We'll see.

On a more promising note, the warmer weather is paying off. Lake Anna is up to a balmy 61 degrees!