34 miles + 1 gear = FUN!

The Four Hours of Pig Trail, as it's officially known, was Sunday. More affectionately, the 4 Hours of Pork, or Pork-a-thon, was a great success and a whole lot of fun.

This is the first time the event's been held, and it was a grassroots sort of race, strictly to raise money for the Georgia Industrial Children's home, on whose land the Pig Trail resides. It's a great cause and you just can't beat 15 bucks for 4 hours.

When I built up Sweet Susie Singlespeed a month or so ago, my goal was to do the Pork-a-thon riding it. Riding the SS is tough but fun and I really needed a goal to work toward. So I thought that if I could manage to ride for four hours in one gear, I'd be an official member of the Singlespeed Army.

Well, give me my stripes, lieutenant, because I did it.

My plan was to try to get in 4 laps in the 4 hours -- which was more like 4.5, because you could depart for another lap up to 3:59. I did the run start at more of a trot, and Beth and I were some of the last folks into the woods. Beth wanted to ride the first lap with me, so that she wouldn't go out too hard and then bonk later in the day. I didn't want to be in front of the fast folks cause I knew I'd just slow people down. Let's face it, the Pig has a lot of fast, flat stuff, and with one gear, I can't keep up with the folks who can throw it into big ring and pedal away. So we started in the back and turned a nice 45 min lap (we estimate, as there was a run start and then a parade lap). Beth took off on the second lap, and I didn't see her again until the finish.

I pedaled on, and each lap the hills got harder and harder. Toward the end I was having to walk a hill or two that I normally can zip up. Laps 2, 3 and 4 continued with no major incident, and I was tired but still excited to be on the bike. My lap times were fairly consistent with about a 45 min lap, with a few minutes of break time between laps. After the fourth lap (my goal) I stopped at the tent, ate a banana, and decided that since I still had 40 minutes till the cutoff, I should go back out for a fifth lap. Off I went. The fifth lap was very hard, and I was hurting pretty bad. It got to the point where in the flats I just cruised along, pedaling slowly. I just wanted to finish strong and walk as little as possible.

I finished and come to find out, I finished in 3rd place! 3rd out of 5 women. Everyone else had gears, so I thought I would finish last. I really surprised myself with riding that long, and sticking with it on the SS (I brought Baby Rush out as my backup bike just in case I couldn't hack it and still wanted to ride). Beth finished 2nd place and got in 6 laps! Another local rider, Donna, took 5th -- so we had a nice local showing on the women's podium!

You know, sometimes you race and finish well and are proud of yourself for making the podium. And then other times you race and finish poorly but are still proud you did it. This was one of those races that, no matter if I had finished 100 out of 100 riders, I still would have been proud of myself. I thought it was an almost unachievable and crazy goal to hop on a SS for four hours after only riding one for a month. I even doubted if I could do it. The fact that I finished on the SS, and did one more lap than I had expected, meant so much more to me than taking home that 3rd place medal.

In true Renee fashion, I pigged out last night on brats, beer and ice cream! That whole "ride to eat" ethic is strong in me!

One final lesson I learned yesterday at the 4 Hours of Pork: I CAN do a six hour solo event, maybe next year -- and maybe on a bike with gears.