So last year I found out about the Wish 100. It was a bike ride to raise money for the Make A Wish foundation which we obviously have dear feeling for and absolutely love. I didn't own a bike but knew that I really wanted to ride in it so I did the 60 mile ride on a borrowed bike (I was only planning on doing 30 and last minute did 60 instead). After the wish 100 I decided that I really wanted a bike of my own. This is not something you can just go out and buy. They are not so cheap. So we canceled our gym membership and I started going to biolife and trying to save money where we could. This was a goal for me not only to do something I enjoyed, but it seemed to be a sort of therapy for me. It got me up out of bed in the mornings and I had a good hour or more of relaxation to myself. The mornings were so peaceful to ride and it was nice to have some "me time." After many months of saving I was outside talking to a neighbor when Ashton came home from work and what was on the back of his car? A BIKE!!! I was sooo excited! One of my friends who had helped me get ready for the Wish 100 asked me if I wanted to go with her and a bunch of girls to ride at the Little Red Riding Hood in Cache Valley. I was so excited and it gave me something to work towards as I was learning how to ride and training my very untrained body. Even the training for the ride was a lot of fun. I am actually sad that it is over. It is fun to have something to look forward to. So I told Ashton that he WILL be riding his bike with me around Bear Lake when we go up there in July. So now he has to get on his bike (and wipe of the dust).
So the Little Red was a blast. It was Natalie's birthday so we just celebrated all weekend. Long drive in the car, dinner at Maddox with the best rolls ever, and then stayed at my parents house for then night. The next morning was the ride. The sky was overcast and looked like it was going to rain, but with only a light sprinkle and the sun not coming through the clouds until about 11 am it was the best day for a ride. We started in Lewiston and circled around the whole valley from Trenton, Amalga, Logan, Mendon, Newton, Trenton, Cornish, then up into Idaho to Weston, and circled around Dayton, and back to Cornish then over to Lewiston. We ended our 100 miles at 5 hours 9 minutes. That put us at an average speed of just under 19 miles per hour pretty much the whole ride. For the first 30 miles we were 20 and above, but we decided if we kept that pace we may not make it to the finish line so we backed of a little. The ride was absolutely perfect all except that the roads in cache valley don't really have a shoulder. So we were pretty much on the road the whole time. This made the drivers pretty angry at times. There were still a few courteous ones, but the not so nice ones always seem to stand out like a sore thumb. One of the girls that was riding with us got a head a little with a lady we had just met at the ride. They took a wrong turn and we could not get them to answer their phone. So when we finally got a hold of her she told us to keep riding and she would meet us at the lunch stop. As we were eating lunch, waiting for her to come, we got a phone call from the lady she was riding with. They were following a girl they didn't know and a car came from the opposite direction. This car was being very rude, honking, hanging out the window and pointing and yelling at the riders to get of the road (again, there is no possible way because there is no shoulder on the road from mendon to newton. It is a very small two lane highway). The girl in the front of the line that they did not know paniced and hit her brakes. This a is big no no when you are leading a pace line. As you can imagine the domino effect then takes place. The first lady we had just met slid, scraping up her whole body and ripping up the whole side of her jersey. Then Steph, the girl that came with us, then hit heidi (the girl we just met) and flipped head over heals with her foot still stuck in her one pedal. She gashed up her knee and the back of her head had big cut in it as well. She had a concussion but still could remember all that had went on. One of the girls from our little group waited for the emergency vehicles to bring her to the lunch stop to the first aid station. They were transported back to the finish line and our other friend drove steph in her car back to her family in Eden. You can replace most broken parts on a bike. First and for most is the bikers health and safety, but after they find out they are going to be fine they want to know about their not so cheap bike. Poor steph looked at her bike and was in tears. Her seat was all bent up and would have to be replaced, but after looking at it further she found her frame was cracked. A cracked frame it pretty much the end of a bike. There is no repairing it!!! Stephs bike was only a few months old. She had signed up for the summer games, and now because of her injuries, and not having a bike to ride she will instead be saving money and healing her body all because of a car that thought they were soooo much more important that the life of another person. It is hard to share the road when you are not use to it. There aren't many events like this in Logan. Living in St. George I have gotten used to the fact that almost every weekend their is a run, or a bike, or a triathalon, or an art festival. Something that either takes up the road space or even closes down roads. But this bring in so much money to our community. It supports our local businesses and it bring entertainment to us. I love to watch the athletes run across the finish line of the marathon or the Iron Man just knowing how hard that is and how much they have worked to get there. Everyone isn't a biker, and they just don't get it. I will say that until I started riding my bike I didn't fully get it. I was still nice to the bikers, but now I have even more respect for them knowing how scary it is to be on your bike and have a big truck that flies by at high speeds and doesn't even spare and inch of space. Just the wind from the truck almost blows you over and it is super scarey. Anyway, I wasn't going to go off so much on that, but I just feel so bad for Steph and her injuries and her very expensive now damaged bike. Come on people these are real living people on their bikes.
Now off my soapbox, the weekend was so much fun. I had a blast with all the girls. I tried sushi for the first time and actually liked it....weird!!! I learned a lot more about girls that I have been riding with and what amazing people they are. I accomplished a goal that I set out to do and it was a lot of fun and feels very good to know that I can do anything that I set my mind to. My next goal.....to get my husband to make it at least 50 miles. This might be harder than riding the 100 miles on my own:)
 |
| Mile 30ish! |
 |
| About mile 95 in front of my cousin's house. Family was there cheering us on to the finish line. This was the point that my butt was screaming to be done:) |
 |
| Finish Line. We actually did it!!! I am no longer a 100 mile virgin:)!!! |
