Day 81: Peer pressured into my first 100 mile day!
Fuck…
Manuel was serious about cycling 160 km / 100 miles to la Paz today. This I realize when I hear his alarm clock going off before sunrise.
Why is this a stupid idea? It is a huge distance Legs have been sore from long distances the last few days. Quite a lot of climbing We will have headwinds Got a really shitty night sleep with the highway so close. Was a drunken decision made after drinks. Wait… That is redudent… Aren’t all drunken decisions made after drink?
So I say again… Fuck
But peer pressure is a powerful drug… Plus it would make a good story… So I unplugged the air stopper from my mattress and let myself be lowered to the uncomfortable ground. Time to get up!
Packed up camp in the dark, ate some beans and cheese on bread and a few cookies and we started cycling towards the sun breaking over the horizon.
We played some mental games early to make 160 km seem not so bad. For some reason we decided that doing 40 km four times is far easier than doing 160 km. The brain is a funny thing.
The first 40 km were tough and took the legs this time to warm up and get settled in. Had 2nd breakfast outside an Oaxo shop after which the 2nd 40 km was much easier.
The third 40 km were rough. This is where most of the day’s climbing was and where most of the headwinds were. But again, the goal isn’t 160 km, it is 4 times 40 km. Which if you really think about it is only 8 times 20 km so not so bad.
The end of the 3rd 40 km there was a little shop with the sweetest dogs. We refuled on coke and crisps and good vibes from the dogs. Looking at the map shows that the last 40 km is all downhill or flat which is very motivating.
And the downhill was long and nice. Pretty sure the last 40 km were the fastest. Cycled the last 10 km into la paz after dark. Don’t normally cycle in the dark so put on all the lights. Was cycling from sunrise to sunset but made it!
Only problem now is that because I seriously didn’t think we would make it, we didn’t have a place to stay tonight. I have booked an Airbnb for a week starting the following night but nothing for tonight. However I messaged the host and she agreed to change the booking to allow us to stay tonight. Great!
When we got to the Airbnb, there were instructions that didn’t make sense. After waiting for an hour for the host to respond, I ended up passing my hand through the door gate bars and pressing the fingerprint sensor from the inside… Thumb didn’t work but my index finger did. Wow… Ok…
Then there was a choice of 4 keycode lock boxes that would have the key to the apartment. The Airbnb booking didn’t say which apartment was mine. But it did give a code for a lock Box but didn’t say which number box it was for. So I decided I would just try the code in all of the lock boxes until one worked. The code worked in lock box 1 so I got the key and the key worked in apartment 1. Great! Feel like I just broke into the room, but this one has to be my one, right?
Wrong. 10 minutes later, I got a message from the host saying that I was in apartment 3 with a different code. Oops. So carefully put everything back the way it was and snuck out and into apartment 3. No one will ever be any the wiser.
But all good. This 2nd apartment is much much nicer. Have a downstairs with a mini kitchen and dining area and an upper floor with a couple of beds. More on this later but am planning on taking a week or two off here so this will make a great (and pretty cheap) rest and recovery place.
In bed later that night, I realized that I had finished the Baja peninsula, and done my first 100 miles. Body is sore (don’t even talk to me about my arse) but feeling quite proud of myself. Feel like getting here marks a big milestone.
And ok, I didn’t actually do 100 miles /160 km. Was really 157km. But fuck ye all, I am calling this 100 miles!
Not sure how long I will stay here but there will be at least 2 weeks between here and Mazatlan (just a ferry to the mainland). So you won’t see anything more in this journal for at least a week.
