Mr. Beanz And His Bike Rides: GMR 8/31/13

A pretty heated ride up GMR. Had to be the humidity cause the temp on my Garmin only said 81.5. I've done other GMR summer rides with higher temps and a lot less sweat. By the time we reached the 2 mile point, the top of my jersey was soaked in sweat. And BUGS! Oh my garsh! As soon as we arrived at the dirt lot the bugs attacked me. Getting the bikes off the rack I had a swarm of 10 bugs circling my face the entire time. Gina and I both sprayed lots of bug spray but yet we were targets the entire time on the climb. At about 3 miles up Gina asked me to check the back of her arm as she felt a stinging. It was a huge flea looking bug. I brushed it off then looked down at her leg only to see blood dripping from near her hem. Hmm, she did 't feel that but she felt the flea ha ha! I can't imagine what the ride would have been like without bug spray.

As we were suiting up JohnR rode by with a group. He hung back with us for a bit to catch up on the times. He's way too fast for us anyway so I got what footage I could. Not long after he split I stopped to wait for Gina who had fallen a bit behind. Uh oh! Gina was really struggling with the heat today and said she had doubts about the climb today. Of course I gave her the ole "relax and take your time" speech. Works every time but honestly today I was pretty unsure of it's value on this ride. 4 miles up she was still having doubts. Hmm, time for the "Baby, you've been here a hundred times, you know how it goes". Thank goodness she's been up there quite a few times cause this one worked. I was actually willing to head down early knowing how she suffers in the heat but she managed to tough it out. Like I have said many times before, the riders up there are so encouraging! I can't count the "good job!" comments she got from other riders. I'm willing to bet that helped her up today knowing how she was feeling at the start of the climb. We did see Pinoybntr Ron again, man that due is everywhere ha ha!

We only stuck around at the shack for a very very short while because of all the stinking bugs. Good decision because the descent is much cooler than just sitting around. Up there we ran into Bill (GMR blogger's hubby). He headed off a few seconds after we did but he managed to slip by me on the climb of the descent. HEY wiseguy! It's OK, gave me a chance to get some Bill footage ha ha!

On the descent I stopped at Newman's Point to get some Gina descent footage. As she rolled by another female rider was heading up around the turn. As she rolled by (in the video) she said, "hey Mr. Beanz!". Well what do you know, it's Maria (Magda00?). A few seconds later her fiance Carey rolls up and stops with her. She introduces us then we get to talking. You know, I never like the fiance guys, they always have this wiener head look on their face. Btu Carey got to talking and he's a pretty cool guy! Very important to me, a good sense of humor! If you can't laugh, then I really don't like you ha ha! But Carey was COOL!

Poor Gina, she didn't realize that I never remounted the bike so she kept going figuring I'd catch her. But when I didn't she stopped to wait. By this time she's about 3 miles from the bottom. She gets worried when another rider stops to ask her if she's OK then mentions that there had been a crash up the road. So she starts to climb GMR once again. I had a pretty good visit with Maria and Carey so poor Gina got in an extra mile of climbing ha ha!

Luckily it wasn't me but I did get a scare on the way down. I'm always worried about Gina on the descent so I encourage her to take her time even if it means my holding back a bit. She has gotten pretty good on the descent but you never know.

So I'm thinking I don't have time to catch Gina but as I am rounding a blind turn, the sun makes it so I can only see a shadow of the images in the road ahead. Looks like 3 guys in the middle of the road tending to a downed rider in pink! My gut drops but as I get close, it's an Asian dude in red. Whoah! thank goodness I'm not married to an Asian dude in red or I'd probably be at the hospital all night.

The dude seemed to be OK from what I saw, sitting up and holding his head. I've seen worse but there were maybe 10 rescue vehicles on the way up. Either the due is related to the president or he was seriously injured, I Hope it wasn't too serious!