Second EVENT-ful weekend is done! And I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Friday I took the girls up to Globe and left them again with G-ma & G-pa Hansen. Caden had 1/2 day at school and Spencer went in early to get home early, so we could get on our way down south to Douglas.
Once there, we met up with Spencers brother Taylor and his wife Erin at packet pickup and spaghetti dinner. Erin and I were registered for the 45 mile race and Taylor for the 92 mile. (There are two other distances at this event. A 157 mile and 252 mile race. I cant even begin to comprehend riding for over 12 hours to do that '252'.) At the close of the evening we check into hotel selected by Taylor. This was a very cool hotel, it is just over 100 years old.
So, I said I enjoyed it more than I thought I would....the month of September, Spencer set my training and I was feeling ok about making the distance. It was the weather report that I was watching the few days prior to the race that had me thinking/feeling, "what in the heck did I get myself into? why am I even going to show up to the race at all? and...I'm so mad at Spencer for talking me into this!"
Forcast was this: Race start time 69 (not bad I guess), rain showers (I wreck just fine on my own on a dry road, I dont need wet conditions to increase my chances), and winds at 25-35 mph. This I really wasn't excited about. The past week or two the winds had picked up here in Kearny and I felt my rides were so slow and I know that those winds were not as strong as the ones predicted. I hadn't even thought to far into this whole commitment. As I was complaining about the upcoming weather, Spencer informed me that it is always windy down there. I guess this is something I should have known and if I had, may not have agreed to ride. Nevertheless, Saturday morning arrived and I was at the starting line. The temp. was ok, I was just a little cold which I would be fine once riding. Here is Erin and I before the race.
Getting started...
The temp. wasn't bad at all and it didn't rain on our course during our ride . The wind however was definately present. We had a lot of crosswinds, the help of a tailwind for a few miles at about 22miles into it, more crosswinds and a good strong head wind in the last quarter or so of the race. After all the different thoughts that went through my head, I was really glad I did it. Just like my mother-in-law said I would be! And thank you Spencer for pushing, training and motivating me to try it.
For weeks, Spencer and Taylor had pitted us against eachother. So on our ride we talked about holding hands and crossing the finish line together, just to spite them! Well, in the end we both sprinted to the finish. About 3 miles or so before the finish we came up on and passed a lady who caught on to us and drafted in to the end. As we turned the last corner I no longer was thinking about Spencer/Taylor's smack talk of who would beat who. All I wanted was to beat her in, but she beat us to the finish line. Here we are
After it all!
My final results were: Out of 59 total riders for the 45 miles I finished 23rd. Of the 59 riders, 14 were women and I finished 4th among the women. My final time was 2:31:23. Not bad I thought for my first race. Last year Erin was the 1st female finisher, and this year she beat her time by about 4 minutes, so it was a good day!
A few more pictures of the hotel lobby and then we were off to pick up the girls in Globe and give Paxton a few birthday presents.
Yes, you heard right. We abandoned Paxton on her birthday. In our defense, she chose to stay with G-ma & G-pa rather than go to the bike race. Some of her cousins were up visiting with G-ma & G-pa also, so she didn't seem to care that we weren't there for most of the day. After the race started Spencer and Caden called and sang Happy B-day to her, so she was still feeling loved!
Paxton turned 4 on Oct. 11th. She had fun with cousins and grandparents. It was Octoberfest in Globe, so they got to go have some fun at the park with events going on there and some face painting also. Here are a few pictures of her opening presents. A makeup case full of nail polish and lip glosses.
A Hanna Montana microphone that transmits through a radio, she loves to perform!
A tea party set from G-ma & G-pa
Here is a picture of the birt-day, birt-day, birt-day girl!!
Pax and I
And we decided to take a snapshot of the family as if we had spent the whole happy day together!
