California Eye-Q Classic Part 1

We left El Sobrante at almost noon. We wanted to get to the event expo as early as possible to avoid the typical long lines in events like this. After battling with our Tomtom GPS for the entire trip, we gave up and used Angel's phone's Mapquest. Normally our car GPS which we bought last Christmas on sale at target, functions reliably well - until this trip. Now I refer to it as an expensive paper weight that just shows "waiting for GPS signal..." forever.

After a quick lunch at Burger King in Merced, we made our way to Terrio Health Club in Fresno at around 4 PM. Surprisingly, we were in and out of there in no time. We did take a peek at the expo's vendors but there wasn't really anything interesting - none related to cycling at least. On our way to the expo, I remembered driving by a street called Van Ness which is the same street name where our hotel is. I figured we could get to the hotel through it. Problem is, this wasn't the same Van Ness (is it so hard to make street names unique?). We finally made it to the hotel at around half past 5. It was located right at the heart of downtown Fresno and just a walking distance to the starting line.

Fast forward 5:30 AM, May 19th. My breakfast consisted of cereals with non-fat milk. Something I don't usually eat at home (normally not a good idea to try something new on the day of but it didn't turn out too bad). I was both anxious and excited. I wasn't sure if the training I put in was be enough for me to finish the ride in the goal time I personally set for myself - and that is, 4 hrs and 30 mins.

We had to wake up Rafael earlier than usual. He didn't mind it except when we were about to leave the room. He became visibly upset that he will not be part of the bike ride. He kept mumbling all the way to the starting line. I promised him that the next time, we will find an event that includes kids his age.

To pacify him, I told him to help me roll the bike to the starting line. The look on his face was just heart-breaking. He just wanted to be part of the ride so bad.

Technically, a metric century is not a bike race but an endurance ride with cyclist of all levels. I guess some people treat as a race. A race against themselves by trying to beat a previous PR for instance. But personally, I joined this event to find out exactly where I'm at with my fitness. I have been cycling on and off for almost 2 years now but have done it a little more consistently in the last couple of months.

Just a few minutes before the 7 AM start, I got a call from Sonny, the one who invited me to this event. I met Sonny through Angel's friends in one of their parties at Arlington. He got into cycling thru triathlon and was invited to this event by a friend of his. It's been more than a year since I last saw him. He looked fit, almost skinny - just like a seasoned cyclist. It is definitely a relief to be riding with someone. I can't imagine going solo on rides longer than 3 hours. Not that you'd get a chance to talk much but just knowing you are riding with a partner is a comforting feeling. Angel took a few photos of us when the horn sounded. Click, click, click, click. The sound of thousands (1600 was the estimate) of riders' shoes clicking in to their pedals. The weather was nice. The temp was in the 60's but not chilly enough to require a base layer.

The day started out really nice. The route was mostly flat. This year (their 2nd) is the only time they opened 10 miles of the 168 freeway. We skipped the first rest stop as we still felt good and strong. When we got to mile 25, we stopped to take in food and refilled our bottles. A few miles after we left, we passed by what seemed like 2 or more riders who collided just a few minutes before we got there. EMT's were all over the place. I guess these occurrences are what they had us sign the waiver for. I read somewhere that last year, there was actually one fatal accident in this event.

End part 1