Night Rider strikes again! Wasn't sure how far I was going to ride nor what route, so I just started riding and went with the flow. I started out slow as usual but at 20 miles I decided it was takig too long, so I upped the Ante! Things were going great until the turn around I was looking back to see if any cars were coming up and I ran over something big the rear tire deflated immediately! There was a lot of light at the turn around pulled out the 60mm stem tubes in my bag for my 60mm rims. Can you guess what happened? Yup, stems were too short luckily, just put a stem extender in my bag. When I listen to that inner voice that speaks to me it is always good! During the time it took me do everything it got cold and the wind picked up most of the next 27 miles was to be into a head wind. I started out and my legs were screaming, my back barking, left knee aching... things weren't looking nor feeling good. Now I was determined not to punk out the headwind which was kicking my butt, riding on sheer determination to maintain the increased effort but slower speed. I knew with 10 miles to go I had to do another turn around so I would have a tailwind for 5 miles before heading back into a headwind again for the final 4.5 miles. The tailwind wind was a major relief, I was able to pick up a lot of speed to start bringing my average back up and at the same time recover. The last 4.5 miles I was determined to finish strong, before I knew it I was in the final mile. Finished, feeling beat up, pain all over and HAPPY I was!