THE BIG ONE!!

Well after months of training for it, June 12 had come. It was the big day, Our 100 mile Tour de Cure for diabetes! Whewww and I barley made it out alive! No just kidden... but seriously it was pretty brutal! The morning started bright and early about 4:00 am it was actually pretty beautiful outside, you could tell it had been raining through that night, but the sky had cleared, it was only partly cloudy, clouds here and there, the sun started peaking over the mountains. The wind was starting to pick up, not horribly, but it was a pretty good blow. We had picked up Shaun, Kev's brother, who decided he would ride the ride with us as well. We got to the start line about 6:15am picked up are registration packets, numbers, everything we needed then we were ready to go, but the only problem was we had to wait another hour before the ride would even start. But we were sooo ready to go... the course was marked and after all it wasn't an actual race... just a ride.. so after talking to another guy who was waiting at the start line with us, we all decided to take off a little early. We wanted to just get it done and get ahead before the storm was suppose to blow in. Man I was feeling really good that morning! Mile 12 was the first rest stop, Kev and I had drinks on hand so we decided to just keep going... then about mile 18, Kevy gets a flat tire! (We had to take a picture of it lol) Good thing my hubbie is fast at fixin those dumb tubes, so about 5-10 minutes later we were off again, we were still feeling really good, except for the fact that Kev's PSI in his tire was really low, like 60, when it was suppose to be 120, for about 15 miles. We got to the rest stop at ATK which was mile 34, got his tire pumped back up to full pressure and we were off again I was still feeling pretty good, the hills were beginning, but I wasn't to worried about it, the map course said they were only suppose to be a 4% grade max... well the next 14 miles were heck! Very brutal! Our GPS we had on our bike said the hills we were going up were 16% grade! It was pretty nasty. Not only that but it started sprinkling on us, the wind was blowing so hard by this time.. I wanted to cry! The last hill I finally just had to be picked up, Kev said he would just meet me at the next rest stop which was probably about 4 more miles away. Kev got there so quick, once you get up past that last hill, it is just straight down... Kev got this cool picture of it right before you go down... oh and I forgot to mention that through all this they had these cattle guards that were just horrible to go through! I hated them! They made me very nervous! So anyway after I met up with Kev at the rest stop we were 48 miles into the ride... and those hills and the wind constantly blowing at me, had gotten me pretty exhausted, but I was determined to get this done. So about mile 55 Kev starts feeling like he had better eat.. before he passes out, we didn't have his blood tester with us (I know not very smart) but Kev is usually really good about knowing where his blood sugar levels are. So we had to pull off to the side and he had some things in his pockets that he was able to eat to get it back up. So 10 minutes later we were off again, the lunch stop wasn't to far ahead, mile 59 we were able to stop and get some lunch. By then the weather wasn't all that good at all! The wind was horrendous! We had slowed down our time by quite a bit due to all this. The 100 milers were, from the lunch stop, suppose to do a 15 mile loop that goes around the city fielding, but due to time and the weather conditions, Kev and I decided to cut that off and start heading back to Brigham city about another 26 miles. By this time I was feeling pretty run down, it was freezing cold, the wind would just not stop, it would sprinkle on and off, luckily, I am just glad it wasn't a down poor like it was a home! So by mile 70 I told Kev... "Honey if you want our kids to have a mother, I had better call it quits here" I felt so bad, but Kev was totally cool with it. He was getting pretty worried about me anyway, I guess I must have not been looking to good... but sadly I was picked up. I met back up with Kev and finished the last 3 miles with him... by that time it started raining pretty good on us, the wind was just ridiculous, I swear like 60 mph wind gusts! There were moments were I swear I was not moving an inch the wind was blowing me back so hard! It had gotten pretty cold by this time too and the rain was not helping the situation at all! But We did it!! 7 hours and 40 minutes later! Needless to say I was pretty exhausted that night! I seriously thought I would go to sleep and NOT wake up the next morning I was that exhausted! and my poor hubbie, when we got home his tooth just started aching, so bad he couldn't stand it and no pain medication would help so he had to call the dentist and go in for and emergency drilling. My poor man! We were joking on the way home saying "So you ready to put our bikes on e-bay" We were that tired! The next morning though I felt SOO great! I was ready to venture out again! It is amazing what a couple hours of sleep can do for you! and I WAS able to wake up the next morning! Whewww I sure was worried about that though!! Hahaha not even kidden! I look back and I think I should have trained for hills more and what not but It was such a great adventure! I would defiantly do it again! In fact we ARE going to do it again next year! Tour de Cure can't wait! Here are just a couple of pictures I snapped just before it started! We were just waiting there impatiently at the starting line!