Worst 4 miles on a bike.... EVER!!

Spending the day at the beach with my sister and her 2 children was just what I needed; a day of fun in the sun while sitting and watching the kids make sand castles. Oh, and ice cream after all the sand was washed from our sun kissed and sun-screened skin. We had a great time. THIS is what summer is supposed to be. Family. Fun. Sun. Water. Ice cream.

Then I had to go and ruin a perfectly good day by going on the bike ride from hell. I wanted to work off the ice cream, so a ride on the rail trail would be just the way to do it. Well it was nice until I entered the beginning of a 3 mile trail, 2 miles from the house. I felt a bite on my back and figured a horse fly had bitten me. Then I felt another. When I turned around, there was a swarm of bees following very close behind me. There must have been 50 or 60 of the wretched flying aircraft's. I had no choice but to speed up in hopes of losing them.

No such luck. I was pedaling as fast as I could, on loose dirt, about 10 mph. I knew the end of the trail was 3 miles ahead and there was no way I could keep up the pace. My heart and lungs were working hard and felt as if they were going to explode in a violent exit from my chest. My only option was to make a u-turn for the open road a half mile back and hope the flying brigade of stingers would keep going in the other direction.

Again, no such luck. I tried to swat at them, but each time I did, I lost speed and they got closer. Once I was back on pavement I thought for sure I would be able to out pace them. At 15 MPH, they were still on my ass!! I kept going and so did the mutant robotic bees. After another mile and a half they finally fell back.

I have never ridden that fast for that long. Total exhaustion!