Quite a day we had Tuesday. From my perspective, we met and exceeded expectations, for everyone. We probably hit 35C, which felt like a hair dryer blowing in our faces at times. It’s hard to stay ahead of the fluid loss, but we did pretty well.
Princesses Joyce and Charlie knocked it out of the park today. Joyce (the dark horse) on her 800 pound hybrid bike. They were the first up the Wall. What? I think Joyce surprised herself. She might just be a budding cyclist after all. There we were on our million dollar carbon fibre rides – behind her. Says something about the ‘little engine that could’, yes?
Princess Charlie with what could be a broken rib from her GPS-mishap Monday and riding my Specialized hybrid – found it sore to breathe, sore over bumpy roads and ok, sore to laugh – but that didn’t stop her from doing any of these. A little concerned about riding too close to the group – but no qualms about powering up the hills or gutting it out for the day.
Princess Sandy, is very strong this year powered up the hills. She CLAIMS that she’d not been on her bike outside before camp but evidently the work she did this winter worked. Unfortunately, our third ‘crash’ for the week. Sandy hit her ‘tipping point’ literally – on the last bit of the Wall – but emerged relatively unscathed. Finally, even when feeling overcome with heat – found she had something a little deeper to get her home. Mind over matter you say?
Princess Michele who was hesitant in joining us on this week-long adventure, claimed someone stole her legs coming out of OK Falls yet was able to tough it out on the homeward stretch. Not bad for a heat-intolerant rookie!
Today included many firsts for a few of the Princesses. The first time up the wall. The first time in a pace-line. What was most impressive was the attitude. Sometimes you don’t know how tough you are until you are faced with it. We had plenty of reason to be irritated but everyone kept more or less positive – confirming that attitude is sometimes, everything. Good work Princesses.
The stories are flying. In fact they’re flying so fast I’m not catching even a fraction of them – which tells me that the energy is good and they’re having a good time (even if they secretly want to kill me). Onward!
LiveSplendidly!