Muncie Edurathon; Nashville 90*

Friday:
I left work an hour early to hit the road to Muncie for the Endurathon half Ironman triathlon Saturday. I had several friends competing and wanted to go watch them and see all of my old peeps in M-Town. We rolled into town about 7:30 and parked in front of the coffee shop downtown that outs on an outside party every Friday night in the summer w/ bands and stuff. I had to go to the Endurathon expo to get my parking pass and stuff, but right when we pulled up I saw a few people I wanted to talk to, so I hung out for while, then went to the expo. Of course, while at the expo I saw about a million other people I knew and had to/wanted to talk to, so I ended up there for a good while too. Linds and I were staying at Luther and Jaynes house, so we eventually retired there and got to bed around 11:30. I had to be at the Endurathon at 5:30 to set up my work stand and stuff to give mechanical support to the athletes. I didn’t sleep real well, but whatever, it’s out of town, I went to bed at 11:30 and had to get up around 4:30, what should I expect.
Saturday:
I was pretty busy with fixing and checking people’s bikes this year. I have not been in the past, so it was a change. I missed the start, but once the transition area closed, my work was done (no outside help once the race starts). So I got to watch after that. It was a good race, considering the heat. My old Muncie homie Zach Ruble won, but was penalized for improper bike racking and ended up second on a technicality. Sucks for him (cost him $500), but rules are rules.
After the race I went home to Luther’s and put on my riding cloths, despite the mid 90’s heat and went for a ride. I went around the resevoir, but came in Smithfield because there were still people finishing the race and I didn’t want to interfere that by going across the start/finish area. It was good to ride in Muncie, but sooooo different than what I’m now used to. You can ride hard there, but you have to pedal hard the whole time to achieve that. It makes good TTer’s I suppose. Here you just have to ride to ride hard. My 30 mile ride climbed 340 feet (this will be important later). The plan was to stay Saturday night and ride Sunday w/ a group of guys. That plan didn’t end up panning out for travelling reasons, so Linds and I drove back Saturday night and got here around 1:30am.
Sunday:
I rode to Nashville. I teased the title by calling tit the "Nashville 90" because it was so stinkin hot. I really just went the normal routes, over Bear Wallow hill. (note form earlier, my ride in Muncie was 340’, BW hill gains 300’ in about 2 miles! So basically, I climbed the amount of feet I climbed in the whole 30 mile ride in Muncie over a 2 mile hill in Nashville!) I left around noon, and it was hot and sunny. On the return route, when I hit Trevolac (about 10 miles to go) I fell apart. I just shifted into my small ring and pedaled along at 17mph and coasted down all hills, just trying to make it home. The heat broke me yesterday. I felt like crap for most of the day afterwards, but I put in my normal 1 hour spin on rollers this am and feel fine.