Day 50 The Finish. All Good Things Come to the End!!!!

My last blog post....

I made it!  A dream that I have had for 40 years was now a reality.

Like the beginning of the ride where we dipped our wheels in the Pacific Ocean, we rolled into Portsmouth and carried our bikes to the Atlantic Ocean and dipped our wheels into the waters of the East.

It was a moment of celebration!  We had been escorted by the police for the last three miles of the ride and to be honest with you it was hard to push back the tears.   I can honestly say this was the hardest thing I have ever done - so the emotions were pretty heavy at the end.  With each turn of the crank I went from happy to sad, happy to sad, happy to sad.

It was a roller coaster of a ride for the last mile.  And when we turned into the beach for the last 100 yards - egads.  But I made it and headed in a beeline to the ocean.

We joked as a group about knocking off items from our bucket list - and I actually got one off the list!   And it was a big one - a three and a half thousand mile bike ride.  Mountains, Plains, Great Lakes and the Green and White Mountains of the East.

It was a thrill to wake up each day, get on your bike and experience something new and spectacular about America, each and every moment of the ride.  The sights and sounds of America pushed you, and motivated you, through the pain and soreness.   It has created a memory that will be with me for the rest of my life.

Amazing.

So one last look at the statistics..

The ride was touted as a 3,667 mile ride.  I ended up doing 3,683 miles (got lost a couple of times).

We averaged 75 miles per day and the ride took 50 days (with 4 rest days included).  My total ride time was 284 hours, 8 minutes and 17 seconds.  I averaged 13.0 miles per hour and my average heart rate for the entire ride was 96 BPM (my heart rate stayed the same for the ride but my speed picked up significantly).

I burned 118,672 calories during the ride according to my Polar watch and I lost somewhere between 20-25 lbs during the ride.  Alison's wedding is less than a month away so I have to go buy a new suit and some casual clothes as everything I own is now too big - like watching the Biggest Loser on the last day when they hold up their original clothes.

So the ride has ended - but the memory will be there forever.

As I mentioned I knocked one off the bucket list - but picked up a couple new ones.  I want to go back and ski Grand Targhee (Steve B - I see another men's weekend in our future).

And I am hoping that Cathryn and I can go back to Jackson, WY and hike and bike the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks next fall.

As for the bicycle ....  there is always the Ride the West ride next year (23 days and 1300 miles).  Love to get Alison, Ellen and crew to join me (my treat of course).

One final note..   I want to thank all my friends and family for the continued words of encouragement that I received during the ride.  Notes of cheer and best wishes from friends I had not heard from in 20, even 30 years.  They really helped!

And of course, a big thanks and shout out to Cathryn for encouraging me to do the ride.  Love ya!

In closing, all I can say is pursue your dreams.

And keep on biking.