Day 4 of 17 Days of Texas. Rode the whole day by myself. The word from the weatherman was for 45 mph gusts and dust storms possible by 3:00 p.m., so I wanted to get in early. I began with a comfortable pace and gradually warmed up, felt good until I hit a stretch of freeway shoulder, slightly up, slight headwind and chip seal roadway – the combination had me down to a crawl. After a few miles it changed to better road, better wind, and better time into checkpoint.
After checkpoint there was more tailwind – made it pretty easy to go 21 mph and sometimes 26 - 28 mph in parts. Good thing too, because after getting hit with a couple of side gusts of wind, I knew I didn’t want to be out any longer than necessary.
Setting up our tents in the wind was a real challenge – had two others help me – the dust was really blowing out there. Doing laundry at the KOA, we just went through the “who’s out there yet,” while waiting for dinner.
76.4 miles