A 50-Mile OBX Bike Ride

I woke up this morning at the beach, and my day started like many others–with a sunflower butter and banana sandwich on an English muffin.

That’s where the similarities end.

Our friend Sarah is doing a metric century ride (62 miles) next weekend and had to ride 50 miles on her bike today. I’ve never rode more than 20 miles on a bike, but I decided to join her anyway. (Why? No idea, other than I like to think I can do anything sometimes.)

Things started out easily enough.

We were at about 20 miles at this point, and I was getting hot and hungry. I went through: 3 liters of water, 1 banana Honey Stinger (ew. Wasn’t a fan.) and a White Chocolate Macadamia Luna Bar. (I was a fan of that.)

Me, Sarah and Bill.

We rode from where we’re staying in Kitty Hawk up to the tip of Corolla, at the northern end of the island and back. The picture above is from the turnaround point.

I rented a bike because I don’t have a bike rack for my car, and this bike was definitely heavier than mine, which made the ride pretty difficult. Half of us (Tamsin and me) were on hybrids and inexperienced cyclists; half of us were experienced cyclists on road bikes. Tamsin and I definitely took quite a few breaks, but we powered through and finished the ride anyway despite contemplating bailing a few times.

When we got back, I had half of a BBQ chicken sandwich from yesterday.

And french fries. The salt was actually exactly what I needed after sweating so much.

Back to beaching.