Back in Memphis for the week, because it's wedding week! I got in town last night in time to get some sleep before the Ride for Your Mind this morning in Bartlett.

I haven't been on many group rides lately, except for a couple in Panama City last weekend during Girls Trip!! Casey had a couple of good workouts for us on those flat roads just north of town. My usual riding buddy and future husband had a few hours, in between working night shifts and sleeping, to do some running, riding and swimming with me last week. Then I caught the plague cold he passed onto me (good husbands share), and I haven't shaken it yet.

So this morning's ride was small for a supported group ride, and consisted of lots of teammates, my Magnolia's creator, and my German Freunde -- lots of familiar faces. Upon getting there Laura let me know that we were in for 58 miles instead of the expected 50. That works even better for my half IM training!

Riding on half lung capacity, I wanted to hang on as long as I could. And that would be about 24 miles. The pace suddenly picked up around a corner or something and I was Off The Back. Of course this had to be during a headwind stretch, and I watched as my spedometer dropped 7, 8, 9 mph. Suddenly, like an angel from Heaven, Dave from Velo appeared behind me and told me to pull him a couple minutes so he could catch his breath. He kept telling me to go my own pace and not gas myself, but as soon as I got below about 22, he'd come around and pull again. Not that this bothered me one bit. I kept saying thank you thank you every time. Let me add that he'd been dropped immediately following a pull, whereas I'd been hanging in the back the whole time, usually following the largest rider I could find.

Just 5 or 6 miles after going OTB, the aid station appeared and we caught up with the pack. Only a few miles after rolling out, there was a flat. I admitted my prayers had been answered! God cares about little me! Haha. Surprisingly, the pace was slower the second half and I had no problems hanging on the rest of the ride. I mean, it hurt, especially on a couple of long hills. But the legs were somehow there.

With our team duathlon tomorrow we headed over to the course to clean up. I might have been a little late and therefore "clean up" consisted of "chatting it up" with some teammates. Oh well, I was there for moral support! I'll be one of the first to arrive in the morning to make up for it.

The weather will be beautiful for a race tomorrow, AND it's looking pretty good for my race to the altar on Saturday too:

Wedding weekend should be beautiful! Now, what am I forgetting to do?