Katy and I were shot at on our 56-Mile Bike Ride today!!! I f*cking kid you not!!!
I know this is freaking Texas y'all, but that was crazy!! Of course, we can laugh about it now, but I've never felt a bigger surge of fear or adrenaline in my entire life. We literally heard the gun fire and the bullet going through the leaves of the trees right next to our heads.
Believe me, we gave a whole new meaning to the aero-position! We were ducked underneath our top tubes for crying out loud! To this second, I have no idea if it was someone practicing their skeet shooting or practicing their aim at passing cyclists. We never saw anyone and the "Dick Cheney wannabe" never yelled at us. It was just the oddest moment of my life because we didn't know whether to stop, duck or try to ride away as fast as possible.
The adrenaline must've carried us through the rest of the course because we had a fantastic bike ride--our best ever training ride on that Longhorn Tri course. We averaged a little over 17 mph and did the course in about 3:13 (according to my garmin). Both of us were experimenting with new nutrition tactics that seemed to pay off as neither of us really bonked. Yes, the last 10 miles were tough, but we both carried and pushed each other through it. It was definitely a confidence builder for both of us since we're 3 weeks out from the Half-Ironman!
Katy also came to the rescue for some other cyclists who were riding the course for the first time. They were a little ahead of us at one point and they very clearly missed one of the turns because we lost sight of them and then finished several minutes ahead of them. Knowing how tough the course is and how much we've struggled in past weeks with hydration, Katy bought a few bottles of water and we started driving the course backwards in hopes of finding them and giving them some water. Fortunately, they were turning off on the last stretch (near where Shawn passed out before!) and seemed to be ok.
As always, a good deed always comes back to you--that is, if you don't get shot in the meantime!!!
I know this is freaking Texas y'all, but that was crazy!! Of course, we can laugh about it now, but I've never felt a bigger surge of fear or adrenaline in my entire life. We literally heard the gun fire and the bullet going through the leaves of the trees right next to our heads.
Believe me, we gave a whole new meaning to the aero-position! We were ducked underneath our top tubes for crying out loud! To this second, I have no idea if it was someone practicing their skeet shooting or practicing their aim at passing cyclists. We never saw anyone and the "Dick Cheney wannabe" never yelled at us. It was just the oddest moment of my life because we didn't know whether to stop, duck or try to ride away as fast as possible.
The adrenaline must've carried us through the rest of the course because we had a fantastic bike ride--our best ever training ride on that Longhorn Tri course. We averaged a little over 17 mph and did the course in about 3:13 (according to my garmin). Both of us were experimenting with new nutrition tactics that seemed to pay off as neither of us really bonked. Yes, the last 10 miles were tough, but we both carried and pushed each other through it. It was definitely a confidence builder for both of us since we're 3 weeks out from the Half-Ironman!
Katy also came to the rescue for some other cyclists who were riding the course for the first time. They were a little ahead of us at one point and they very clearly missed one of the turns because we lost sight of them and then finished several minutes ahead of them. Knowing how tough the course is and how much we've struggled in past weeks with hydration, Katy bought a few bottles of water and we started driving the course backwards in hopes of finding them and giving them some water. Fortunately, they were turning off on the last stretch (near where Shawn passed out before!) and seemed to be ok.
As always, a good deed always comes back to you--that is, if you don't get shot in the meantime!!!
3 comments:
I don't want to sound like a total square or some kind of alarmist, but gun safety is very important. If you were biking on roads and not skulking through the brush on private property, you should not have come that close to gunfire. Anyone owning a gun should know better than to fire that close to where people could be. You were also riding on a future race route, which is a concern, too. I hope you'll think about reporting what happened to you to somebody so that they can check it out. If you could hear it right before you saw it, then the shooter was very close to you and should not have been firing anywhere near there. Okay, I'm done now. :)
Holy crap!! I grew up in gun country and personally know a couple morons who managed to accidentally shoot themselves, but I've never heard of anything like that! I really glad you guys are ok.
WOW - Glad you're ok!!
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