2006 Trans-NH Bike Ride Review

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Day 1:

100 miles completed (Border station on Rt. 3 to Littleton) Click here for a map of the route.

9 hours 17 minutes start to finish (including scheduled and unscheduled rest stops)

7965 calories burned (according to Polar computer)

3799 feet of climbing

Day 2:

66 miles out of 85 miles completed (Littleton to Laconia) Click here for a map of the route.

6 hours 30 minutes start to mile 66 (including scheduled and unscheduled rest stops)

4841 calories burned

3241 feet of climbing

Day 3:

65 miles completed (Laconia to Portsmouth) Click here for a map of the route.

6 hours 9 minutes (including LONG rest stops to regroup, travel time was much lower)

3809 calories burned

1319 feet of climbing

Totals:

231 out of a possible 250 miles completed

21 hours 56 minutes event time

16,615 calories burned

8,359 feet of climbing

It's difficult for me to comprehend that eighteen months of training and preparing for this event is finally behind me but it is.  I rode the Trans-NH and completed all but 19 miles of it.  Of all the bike training that I completed this spring nothing I did prepared me for the climbs that I overcame with shear determination (and a lot of prayers for strength!)  I reached down so deep so many times during this ride that I lost count.  I constantly prayed to our girls, Noelle and Bethany, for the grace of strength and endurance to continue mile after mile.

This year's Trans-NH Bike Ride broke ALL records.  This was the first year that broke 100 riders (there were 105).  The Trans-NH board set the event fundraising goal at $125K this year and hoped to meet that goal.  Well this goal was met and SMASHED by our donors.  The event has surpassed $165K so far and donations are being accepted until the end of July for this year's event.  This resounding success set total fundraising so far in the 19 years since its inception to over One Million Dollars!  My personal fundraising total has reached $10,305.  This is an amount that I never would have even dreamed possible for me to raise but family, friends, co-workers and many more visited my website and supported my reasons for participating with donations big and small.  I am so grateful for everyone's support, YOU are all the heroes in this story.  Without your support this ride would have been just that, a bicycle ride through NH.  Your donations and support brought this ride to life and sent a clear message to those in NH living with muscular dystrophy, WE LOVE YOU, WE SUPPORT YOU, WE'RE HERE FOR YOU.

THE RIDE

As far as I'm concerned we couldn't have had better weather.  It rained a little bit north of Dover during the bus ride from Portsmouth to Colebrook making us wonder what the next three days would hold for us but it did not rain one bit on us while we were on our bikes!  I slept very little Thursday night seeing every hour that night and worrying that my inability to fall asleep would doom my first day's riding.  We awoke to wet roads on Friday morning as we boarded the bus at 5:30 am for the ride to the Canadian border.  As I prepared for departure while other riders began their trek Ron Gale, one of the ride founders, asked me how I was doing to which I replied that I was standing there terrified of what lies ahead of me.  He chuckled not realizing immediately that I was serious!  So I began the journey.  Friday was the one hundred mile day and though there were many hills and climbs ahead the big named climb that everyone spoke of was "Week's Hill".  We rode the bus down this sadistic piece of roadway on the way to the border and the first year riders, including me, picked our jaws from the floor realizing that we would soon enough be approaching this from the bottom.  The worst thing about this climb was that it was eighty miles into the first day so energy conservation was paramount for me during those first eighty miles so that I could have enough energy to attempt this ascent.  This was a two-mile climb and I must have stopped at least a dozen times into the climb to drink and gather myself together, push off and pedal for a few more minutes before needing to stop on the hill again.  I don't know how long it took me to ascend this hill but I eventually managed it a little bit at a time.  I'm happy to say that I completed that hill completely on my bike and at no time did I dismount and walk like I had to do on a previous training ride.  I vowed to myself that I was not going to walk any of the climbs that weekend.  At the rest stop at the top my heart-rate was easily in the low 200's and it took about 10-15 minutes to recover.  That hill totally spent me but I still had twenty miles to get to Littleton.  Sp far all of Friday's riding was on Route 3, in Whitefield we turned onto Route 116 toward Littleton with about 11 miles to go.  Rt. 116 was an interesting road for the end of this ride.  The hills were fairly short but there were too many of them.  It was defeating to spin up the first hill and down the other side only to see another hill just ahead.  This went on for the length of the roadway into Littleton.  Another rider told me there were SEVEN short climbs on Rt. 116 before we arrived into Littleton.  I was second to last on that day but rode into the host hotel very tired but not "fall off my bike" tired which I was very grateful for.  With as little sleep as I had the previous night I felt my performance exceeded my expectations.  I took advantage of a massage offered by our support staff of massage therapists.  A hearty supper that night was graciously provided by the Littleton Fire Department and we all ate our fill.  I slept a little better Friday night and woke feeling much better than I thought I would.  I believe the massage did the trick.

We started day 2 leaving our host hotel in Littleton with a fire truck escort though the center of Littleton and left us at the edge of town as we started toward Franconia.  The roads immediately ascended and demanded that our muscles remember the punishment of the previous day.  My own muscles quickly began objecting to my demands but at my insistence they warmed up to the constant movement.  Saturday's named climb was Kinsmans Notch, a four-mile climb of increasing incline only 19 miles into that days 85 miles total.  We rode Rt. 116 from Franconia to Rt. 112 East which brought us up Kinsmans.  Lost River is on this road.  The first two miles are a gradual incline and I easily fell into a steady pace at moderate speed.  The last two miles increased its grade and demanded more of my muscles.  I neared the summit before I needed to stop on the road to recover slightly and I did this a few more times to allow me to regroup my efforts and pedal several more minutes just like I needed to do on Week's Hill the previous day.  Eventually I overcame the summit and stopped at the rest stop at the summit.  My heart-rate and breathing was much more controlled than the previous days climb on Weeks.  I rested and then began the decent from Kinsmans Notch, about a six mile downhill into North Woodstock before turning back onto Route 3 south.  I reached 50-mph during this descent!  I followed Rt. 3 through Plymouth to Rt. 104 East to Rt. 132 South.  It was on Rt. 132 South that on mile 66 that my upper arms, shoulders, and neck began shaking uncontrollably.  Realizing I could not control my bicycle under these conditions I had no choice but to end the ride that day for me.  I flagged down Gayle, ride support person, who drove the SAG van following me from a short distance since I was the last rider on the course and told her I was done.  Although I really wanted to complete the entire route I understood that my body was telling me it had to stop and for safety sake I agreed.  Only 19 miles short of the ride end that day but I completed 66 miles after riding 100 miles the previous day.  This was already a record breaker for me personally.

We began day 3 with a fire truck escort through Laconia beginning at 7 am.  Ron Gale told me that they'll be pushing me during this last day since everyone MUST arrive as a group in Portsmouth at 1 PM.  I knew this wouldn't be a problem for me since I can keep a decent speed on flats, it's only on hills that I become a brick!  We followed Rt. 11 out of Laconia heading for Alton.  There were enough hills during the first twenty miles or so that my muscles quickly remembered what I did to them the previous two days and were girding themselves for another day of demands.  After Alton though the roadway smoothed out and I found a group to keep pace with around 16-18 mph as we headed for the regrouping in Rochester.  After regrouping in Rochester we rode with an escort on to Newington to regroup again then through Pease and regrouped once again three miles from Pierce Island to follow a Portsmouth Fire Department escort through Portsmouth to Pierce Island.  Our fire truck escort altered the route slightly to bring all 105 riders past the Portsmouth Fire House where they cheered us on before we crossed onto Pierce Island.  At the last regrouping in Portsmouth Kevin Campbell, ride founder, called me over and told me to stay with them near the escort fire engine.  He said he wanted me to ride in the front next to him for the final ride in.  I told him I was planning to ride in the very back of the group since I spent the previous two days there and felt I should end the ride there too but he insisted that I stay with him.  Following the truck through Portsmouth was an experience, 105 bicycles following a fire engine through downtown Portsmouth isn't a sight one sees very often.  Then to my surprise as we turned to the road leading to Pierce Island Kevin shouted to me to take the lead as he dropped back and told me to "TAKE US IN JOHN!".  There I was, lead bike following our PFD escort on and around Pierce Island as the DJ blasted Queen's "We Are The Champions" though his loudspeakers, WHAT A RUSH!

Yea that's me with the "It's almost over" look on my face.  I don't feel too bad since several other riders looked the same way!

The final crossing onto Pierce Island

The End!