3 State 3 Mountain "Challenge"

More like "torture."

My friends and I love riding bikes and torturing ourselves, it turns out.  So, we traveled to Chattanooga for the annual 3 State 3 Mountain torture ride.  We went to Niko's for dinner and good gracious was it deee-lish!  I had the farmer's pie.  It included all sorts of veggies rolled up in flaky filo.  Mmmm-mmm!

 

The day of the ride, we started climbing about 2 miles into the ride and climbed and climbed all day.  There were a few sweet descents sprinkled in.  When we topped the first mountain, it started drizzling.  Within about a minute, we were riding in an - all out - down pour.  Now, I'm a big ole scaredy cat when it comes to just riding in the rain, much less descending a mountain in the rain?  No thanks.  But, I was there, and there was only one way down.  So, cautiously, I descended.  My hands were cramping from my death grip I had on the breaks.  I was kinda freaked out, but survived.  This was the view from the bottom of the mountain.  I guess it was a nice consolation for living through that descent.

 
After climbing the 2nd mountain, we stopped to enjoy the view and take pictures.

Here is our rendition of 3 mountains. 

After the walk (yes, I walked and have no shame) to the top of lookout mountain, I was relieved, because, all we had to finish the 102 miles, was descend.  Well, yes, and no.  The route had so many hills left to climb on the descent.  Needless to say, it finally broke me.  About 90-95 miles in, I tried to cry about it.  However, I was so dehydrated, I couldn't even cry.  I even said, "I hate this ride...and I can't even cry.  I fail at life."  Once the climbs stopped, I was back to my old, smiley self.  Ok, after the climbs stopped and I had a fat beer in my hand...

On the descent from the last mountain, I got up to 45.8mph.  One thing I learned on this ride, I LOVE to descend - as long as it's not raining.  Climbing, not so much, but flying down a mountain, yes, please!

Would I do it again?  Probably not...unless my friends do some fancy convincing.