My ride

After waiting five years to do this race again, I finally convinced some friends to ride in the Little Red bike ride with me.  Just getting people to say yes to me was a victory in itself!  We entered the lottery to see if we'd get in the ride and sure enough we made it!  This all happened while Jared and  I were finding out about our major life changes.  I still wanted to do the ride though, no matter what.  Initially I wanted to go for the 100 mile distance but soon realized that I wouldn't have the time to train for it since we'd be moving almost the exact time as the race.  I decided to go for the 50.  As it turned out, we moved to Utah one week before the race and I still got to train in Boise with my friends! Perfect!

The race is in the Cache Valley and goes along all the farm roads.  It is gorgeous in springtime there.  Race day was perfect weather.

I met up with my friends from Boise and we stayed up Logan canyon in a pretty little cabin on the river.  There were six of us Holly, Carin, Melinda, Wendy, Kim and me.  We giggled and painted our toes and enjoyed the time away from mommy-hood for a minute.  I slept so well that night and didn't get awoken even once by a crying kid.  Heavenly!  

We all got up, loaded our stuff in the cars and drove to the starting point in Lewiston.  I was so giddy the whole time, it was ridiculous.  Some of the gals were nervous, others were pumped.  I had a goofy smile on my face because it was just so much fun.  After checking tire pressure, filling water bottles, strapping helmets on, and climbing on the saddle we were off.  We chose the 50 mile distance and some of us had trained well up to 40 miles in the previous weeks.  I was totally sure we would all make it.  And then I said, "OK, no one gets a flat tire today!"  Foreshadowing, possibly?

Starting the race in the morning gave us a couple of hours of gorgeous cool weather to ride in.  As we stopped at the rest stops to get water and fuel up, we all seemed to be in good shape.  We broke off into two riding groups with Wendy, Holly, me and Melinda in one 

and Kim and Carin in another.  Our paces were enough different that it just worked out that way.  As we neared the 30 mile mark we hit our first hill.  It was short but hard and then we were rewarded with a lunch break in Newton.  Jared and the kids had driven up and were hanging out with his sister Julie (who lives there) and they came to cheer us on at the lunch break.  

Wendy and Carin:

Melinda and Holly:

Kim and I:

After a nice break we got back on our bikes.  My butt bones were yelling at me and my legs felt like cement at first.  It took several miles to get a rhythm and it did not help that those miles were all up hill.  Ouch!  As I was starting to really struggle, the hill flattened out and we were done with the climb.  I think some of the other girls were cursing my name at this point.

The reward for climbing the hills was a super steep downhill that we FLEW down.  We got going over 40 miles an hour.  It was better than a roller coaster as I screamed with glee down the whole things.  I tried to keep my legs moving doing downhill because I could feel my muscles tightening up from the hard work right before the downhill.  As we came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and waited for Wendy to make it down, we laughed and whooped at how fun it was!  Wendy hated it, poor girl.

About five miles later we were going along a flat, straight stretch and I suddenly heard a loud BANG and felt my leg get coated with green tire slime. I had a flat.  And not just a flat tube.  My tire had shredded in an inch long section.  I was so bummed because I was fairly sure that meant my ride was done.  We called on the support vehicle and two nice guys stopped to help.  I called Jared on my phone and told him the bad news.  He was with the kids at the finish line, just 8 miles away.  I told him I was probably done and he might as well come out and pick me up.  My team rallied and Carin offered me her bike to finish.  What a fantastic team!  The guy helping us out said he had a trick and it might just get me through to the end.  He put a new tube in and then used the cardboard box from the tube to line the inside of my shredded tire.  He pumped up the tube about 2/3 and told me to give it a shot.  I was super cautious at first and was pretty resigned to not making it.  But I gave it a shot and it held at first.  And then we got going a little faster and it kept holding.  And then we made to the finish line and it held the whole time!  I rode in on cardboard and we all finished the ride!!  Woohoo!  It was so much fun!  Jared was there at the finish and Holly's family was there too so we even had a cheering section.  It was so gratifying to finish it and I loved every minute of riding with my team.  Our pink team jerseys were one of my favorite sights along the course.

The rest of the day we hung out in our spandex and ate at a yummy restaurant.  Then we headed back up the canyon to the gorgeous cabin, took showers, watched a chick flick and fell asleep happy and sore.  It was the perfect ending to my lovely time in Boise with awesome friends.  We vowed to do it again next year and I headed one way while everyone else headed the other way back to Boise.  Overall a fabulous experience!!