A Little Bit of Inspiration for the Trans-Sylvania Epic

I've been enjoying waking up every morning and heading straight to this live results site to see how our ultra endurance USA girls are doing in South Africa. Selene Yeager (a.k.a. Fit Chick) and Cheryl Sornson (Churtle le Turtle) both are doing the Cape Epic, an 8 day stage mountain bike race that makes the Trans-Sylvania Epic seem like a walk in the park. The overall distance is 438 miles with 47,736 feet of climbing distance compared to the TSE distance of 232 miles and about 30,000 feet of climbing. And to think I think I'm climbing a lot when I do 2,000 feet on a ride. (I got some climbing to do!) Selene is the overall Female winner of last year's TSE and we've run into her a time or two on Pennsylvania trails. We'll have the pleasure of sharing the trails with her at the TSE this year too. Cheryl is a fellow-Michaux rider and an ultra-endurance riding extraordinaire. She's a fan of hundred-milers and gets several under her belt during a season. I must admit, these girls are inspiring. To ride these amount of miles, and climb those distances has to be an incredibly rewarding feat. I can't imagine how they'll feel the last day when they realize wow... look what we just accomplished. Well, maybe I will get that feeling on day 7 of the TSE. Watching them makes me crave biking. It's truly an addiction, isn't it. Donna and I were talking about when this is over, it'll be such a let-down -- nothing on the books to work toward. Hubby is already looking forward to having me paddle with him again and yes, while I miss paddling (I whitewater paddle with hubby in the warm months), I am really loving the biking for hours on end. I'd love to sign up for something else outside the norm right away, but life will be in the way. Maybe when I retire I can ride until my heart is truly content -- like it is now and for the next 9 weeks. Weeds can grow and dust will wait, I'm riding my bike! This IS life right now.