…about 3 miles into the ride I was wondering if I would really make it. I was hurting like I had not hurt before so soon into a ride. Between the cold and the fact that 2-3 weeks prior I had pinched a nerve that caused pain in my left leg and numbness in my left foot, I wasn’t feeling so good to start the ride.

Going up some of those hills about 20 miles into that first ride, the mental picture I had of myself was as Tim Conway riding a tricycle, struggling up a hill, just getting to the top and then toppling over like a stump. It was at that moment I knew one could feel like their [...]