Day 5: Lemonade From Lemons

Today was one of those days where many things did not work out as planned, partly because of faulty planning, partly because of human error but mainly because the One Above had a different plan.

Nevertheless, Zev and I had another fantastic day of riding. Not only that, but our "escape" from the always chaotic scene at hospital after the ride could not have worked out better.

Let's start with the main story, the weather. It was over 98 degrees and some of the riders' computers were registering temps as high as 103! I'll get back to that later.

Second, the City of Ashkelon police. For whatever reason, after diappearing on our way in on Wednesday night, they made us regroup many times on our way out so our exit took a while.

Third, faulty planning by the "Vaad", the organization that runs the ride. In conjunction with the five day ride, they also insist on running a one day ride called "Galgalyn". (A play on words that combines the Hebrew word for "wheel" with "Alyn"). This ride is integrated with ours and, besides making the logistics much more difficult, drives the Jerusalem police crazy. (Worst of all, it raises virtually no money for Alyn. Don't ask).

Despite all that Zev and I put in 52 hard but fun miles and climbed over 3000 feet.

Here's how:

Zev and I went to bed at 9:15 last night after ditching the after-dinner party. We had experienced a brutal day of riding and were scheduled to get up at 4:30 a.m. Today. Not being party animals, we figured sleep trumped rock and roll.

We'd been told that today's ride had been abbreviated by the Jerusalem police but would still entail 60 miles and about 5000 feet of climbing. The highlight was to be the ascent of a killer 7k climb of Nes Harim, a hill only slightly less daunting than Tuesday's Maale Akrabim.

Starting from the west coast at sea level and ending in Jerusalem meant that virtually the entire ride would be uphill. The challenge riders led the way and, once out of town, set a fast but manageable pace for 24 miles until the first rest stop at Bet Guvrin, where we met up with some of the one day riders.
While the heat was already intensw during that first segment (at times I felt as though a hair blower was aimed at my face), as long as rode it was tolerable. I was drinking litres of water and pouring water over my head. (Of course the water over the head thing was not too effective since you could almost have brewed tea from the the water in our bottles). We were also religiously going through our electrolyte pills and nutrition supplements. Drinking water alone on a day like today can actually be dangerous.

After a short break it was 24 miles from Bet Guvrin to the bottom of Nes Harim. This stretch of road was almost "off road". We were riding on narrow one-lane farm roads in wine country. At one point the road narrowed and sloped downhill (a treat on a day we started at sea level and were mainly climbing). Unfortunately, that lovely 2 mile stretch turned out to be an inexcusable mistake (a sign posted by the organizers pointed left when it should have pointed right. After a long delay, we had to circle back, this time uphill (it was so hot that a couple of tire tubes popped on the asphalt during the wait).

After a few more miles we stopped at a rest stop. We had been hearing whispers that the day's ride would be terminated early because of the heat and the rumours were now confirmed. The organizers rightly decided that it was too hot to allow riders to ascend Nes Harim and decided to stop the riding after 45 miles and bus everyone to the top for lunch and then to Alyn for the final ceremony. (This was a no-brainer; I've done Nes Harim a dozen times and even the best riders would have been endangered in this heat after almost five days and over 300 gruelling miles. At mid-day there is literally no shade for at least two miles of Nes Harim and one is totally exposed to the sun (Just where the gradients exceed 12 to 15 percent)).

The group, tired and hot and disappointed, took the decision in stride. Everyone knew it was the only choice and many weren't too keen about getting back on their bikes anyway.

Here's where plan B kicked in. Although neither Zev nor I knew exactly where we were (because we were on an unmarked farm road), we sensed that we were close to Zev's house in Ramat Bet Shemesh (the Heights of the house of the Sun). We found out it was indeed only 10k away (albeit all uphill).

Our choice was either bus up to Nes Harim for a lunch in our wet and dirty kits in 100 degree weather followed by a bus trip to the hospital ceremony in our wet and dirty kits in 100 degree weather or ride 6 miles to Zev's air conditioned house, shower and change and drive to the hospital in an air conditioned car

Duh.

Zev and I loaded up with water and cranked our way home at a very strong pace given the heat and the gradient. All told, we had pounded out 52 miles and over 3000 feet for the day, most of which I spent riding with Zev.

What a great and fortuitous finish to an awesome week of riding. (While not doing Nes Harim was disappointing to many riders, we didn't care. I do it almost every time I visit Zev and Zev does it almost every week).

After hanging out at Zev's house (where my one-year old grandson Daniel was starting at me in my spandex outfit and riding sunglasses the whole time, we drove to the always inspiring ceremony at the hospital (ironically taking the road to Ramat Raziel, an even harder climb than Nes Harim), I got my bike boxed in 6 minutes and picked up my bags, said my farewells and made it to dinner with Rebecca by 6 p.m.