How bad is this going to hurt?...

Ok, I know it's over a year until I race my first Ironman (possibly my only Ironman), but I just had to know how far 180 kilometres felt. Well, it's far...really far.
I rode most of the course last weekend and, inadvertently, went further than I had anticipated. I rode to Osoyoos then up Richter (thanks, Eric...) and then back-tracked to Penticton where I started. I had a great ride up Richter; paying close attention to heart rate and managed to get to the top before my legs gave out. When I got to the top there was a volunteer from Cops for Cancer handing out ice cold Gatorade, Red Bull, Powergells, etc...it was like heaven!!!! I gratefully accepted a cold Gatorade and stated that I had accomplished my goal for that day and it was time to head for home. The man looked at me a bit funny and said, "...you've come this far, why don't you just ride the whole course?". "Oh no," I said, "...that's much too far for me today, besides I don't have to ride that far because I'm not doing IM until next year". I still remember his puzzled look as I rode back down the monumental hill...
To make a rather convoluted story short, as I was approaching Okanagan Falls, after pretty much bonking from not eating or drinking I did a bit of third-grade math and shook my head at myself. By the time I got back to Penticton I will have completed close to 160 kilometres...the damn course is only 180 kilometres! Grrr....
That was it. I had made it up in my mind that I was coming back the following weekend and doing the WHOLE course. And...for my first kick at the cat...it was something I'll never forget.
I promised myself that in doing this absurd task (I mean, really...I don't HAVE to do that distance until early next summer...what the hell was I thinking?!) that I would achieve 3 things. First: I had to keep my heart rate low. This is not a race, this is an exercise in endurance. Let's just see how far I could go and for how long. That seemed fair enough, right? Second: I HAD to eat. One thing I figured out the weekend previous was that as time went on I just "forgot" to eat. And then, when it was too late, I had nothing left. Hmmm, this could be a problem if I wasn't able to eat or find things that I wanted to eat after 2 or 3 hours in the saddle. The weekend before when I had gotten back to Okanagan Falls, in my pseudo-diabetic coma...I reached for...you got it...Red Bull and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. Boy, did that nutritional combination taste good for the first 3 minutes...followed by waves of complete euphoria coupled with gut wrenching nausea! (...mental note to self: no more Red Bull and PB Cups...) Yikes! But, back to the nutrition...I selected a veritable buffet of random gel flavors (6-8 of them) for this adventure, a Cliff Bar, Shot Blocks (they were awesome...I'll note when and where they came in handy), a protein bar, and a Sun-Rype Fruit bar...all of which did the trick! I made sure that I had a gel every 35-45 minutes. After I got board of sucking back gels, I switched textures with the Cliff Bar (a bit too sweet, but there are so many flavours to choose from, thankfully) and that seemed to give my stomach what it wanted. And thirdly; I had to drink LOTS. I was really fortunate that the weather didn't start out as hot as it was the weekend before, but given that I was in the Desert, it did get hot. I made sure that my electrolyte mixture was pretty strong and also added 3 sodium tablets to the bottle as well. I brought a ziplock baggie of more electrolyte powder and sodium tablets to add to water that I would buy along the way. I really think that my dillagence in all three of those areas really made the adventure enjoyable.
7 hours is a lot of time to be doing anything...and to be doing anything alone for that length of time was challenging at times. Eric had given me the run-down on the course. "...go easy up Richter, the back side is fast...the rollers go on forever so don't be too keen to power over them...and, if you're lucky the nasty head-wind into Keremeos might relent just enough for your legs to grind it up to Yellow Lake...then you're almost home".
I achieved the first objective; conserve your energy up Richter. Done. I just had to keep in mind that the "rollers" on the back side of Richter will eat me up if I didn't take it easy. It was at this point that I chucked a Shot Block into my mouth and just sucked on it like a hard candy. That little electrolyte block was just what I needed to keep me sustained over those hills. When I reached Keremeos I had realized that I missed the out and back section. Crap! This almost sent me over the edge. I got some infromation from some other riders and made my way down the rough road that the out and back is on. Well...I saw one. A snake. It was big, and ugly and lying at the side of the road...not too sure if it was alive or sleeping, but the exclamation of "Lord Jesus and baby Jesus" at the top of my lungs probably woke the dead. Uggghh, they are the bain of my existance, really. It has been quite a journey to get past this fear...and I still have a way to go. Back to my journey...
I made it back to Keremeos, only to realize that I should refil my water and who should I run into, but Eric! We chatted for a few minutes, got refueled, rehydrated and we were off! "See you in Penticton...you're almost there!" and he was off! Up ahead, I saw what would toy with my mental strength for the rest of the trip...the green mileage markers...Penticton 45 kilometeres. Yippee! I'm almost home! That was short-lived.
Yellow Lake. The climb to get to Yellow Lake is aweful. Plain and simple. It sucks. It keeps going and going up and up and up some more. I fell into cadence with this guy who chatted my ear off for about 20 minutes...another funny story for another time, but he got me up that horrible hill. The Universe does work in mysterious ways. I needed something external to focus on for the part and it was presented to me. Getting to the top was SUCH a huge achievement...I let out a little yell...and kept on pedaling. I could feel Penticton getting closer.
The upside to pedaling uphill endlessly is going downhill...FAST! I almost scared myself I was going so fast...it took everything I had to hold on. It just had to be done. Before I knew it, I was across Highway 97 and was heading North to Penticton. Then the Airport...and back into town. Oh my God, is that the big Peach...am I really back where I started? Yep, there's my car...there's Eric...and I'm done. Well, I did put my shoes on and ran for 15 minutes just to see "how bad is this going to hurt?". It hurt, but a hurt that can only be felt after completing 180 kilometers for the very first time.