Tour de Cure!

We did it! I really should say "I did it" it wasn't much of a challenge for Brooks. I didn't get any pictures during the ride because my camera was too big to take on the bike with me so I just took one when we got home of one of our T-shirts and some other stuff they gave us. It was harder than I expected. Mostly because we had a horrible head wind the last 7 or 8 miles back. We had a little rain those last few miles also but not too bad. The ride was pretty uneventful except that when we started, we were riding over an over pass and I was trying to gear down and my chain came off. I stopped and my bike kind of fell over and then two women that were riding behind me rode up to Brooks and told him that I had tipped over! Brooks thought that I really had tipped over until we were driving home and talking about it. The rest of the first half went really smooth. We rode to Bear River City and there was a rest stop with all kinds of snacks and water and power drinks. (port a potties also) We sat and snacked for a few minutes and then got back on our bikes for the return ride. The route was a little different on the way back and the first five or so miles were really easy. I felt great and we made really good time. At one point I thought we would get back really fast. I was very wrong! The sky started to cloud over and then we turned East and that is when we got the head winds. Some of the gusts made it seem like we weren't even moving. We hit a really busy highway with no shoulder and cars just whizzing past us. At one point we got off to walk a little ways. Some other bikers were doing this. We decided it was harder to walk than ride so we just got back on and rode. The last few miles, all of the 100 mile rider were passing us. I felt pretty wimpy by then but I really was doing my best. When we got to the finish, we were riding downhill and all of the volunteers and families of riders were there to cheer us and tell us good job. I thought for a minute I might run over one of them. We were a little wet but not too bad. We had good clothes for the elements. It took us about three hours to do the ride. We didn't stay for the free food, the wind was really blowing so we decided to go to Maddox. Always a good choice! When we were loading our bikes into the truck, I was watching Brooks and I thought, "I should really help him." I told him that and he said that he was fine and he really didn't feel like he had done much of anything today. Not fair! I will say that at 7:00 PM tonight, he was in bed.

What have I learned from this day? I am really happy that I did the ride. People are generous! You know who you are and thank you, it means more to me than you know to be supported so well! I want to do this again next year but I need to be better physically prepared so I can enjoy it more. I'm not sure how many prayers I said today (some-where in the neighborhood of 50-100) but most of them were answered! I am so very grateful that I have a patient husband who was willing to do this with me. It would have been really hard to do it alone. Yes! I will do this again next year. As soon as I find out when, I am putting a team together so those of you that might be interested, plan on it.