I Can Do Hard Things

At the start!

Last Friday Shalane, Malorie and I drove up to Logan to get ready for the "Little Red Riding Hood Bike Ride".  We had a nice dinner, stretched and went to bed in our hotel.  It was a rough night for me as the garbage truck--flashing lights and all, picked up the garbage right next to our room at 4:00 am.  Then after getting back to sleep, someone's car alarm went off and then I heard a flood of water and realized it was just the room above us flushing the toilet.  Being tired before even starting the ride was not in my plan.


The hotel was full of women and bikes.  There were some hardcore looking biker chicks getting ready Saturday morning.  There were over 3000 riders with 1000 signed up for the hundred miler.  Shalane's knees were really bothering her, so she opted for the 18 mile ride.  Mal and I missed her competitive spirit but found out we had a little competitiveness in us as well.


It looked like it would rain any minute as we drove to the start in Lewiston.  We parked in a field and carried our bikes to the road for fear of thorns and started around 8:00.  At mile 4 I saw someone with a flat and thought, "they didn't carry their bike."  At mile 6 there were a few more flats and I started to worry about my bike. I had all the stuff to fix one except the actual patch and the ability to use the stuff as I haven't changed a flat yet.


I lost Mal at around mile 5 when I got stuck in a large group and couldn't get out.  I found her again at the first rest stop and we kept going.  We were riding about 20-22 MPH and having so much fun.  It was flat and we felt great.  We stayed together until mile 50 where we had lunch.  We still felt good and had so much fun passing groups and getting passed by them again and again.  After our quick lunch, we left for the second 50 miles.  It started out right up a hill and I got down to 10 MPH and thought that I would never finish going that slow.  We started to follow a group that were obviously together.  They went fast, had cool hand signals and stayed right together.  I drafted them for many miles and it was my favorite part of the ride.  Mal was right there with me until I got stuck in another crowd again and off she went.  I was behind for a while and then caught back up.


We got to mile 75 and we were both pretty tired and sore.  We stopped and stretched, ate and drank and wondered if we could do the last 25 miles.  I saw Rosie Nelson there and she looked quite surprised to see me there.  I loved it.  We didn't see many flat tires after the first 50 and I think all the centurions had better bikes.  Several times I thought how thankful I am for a wonderful husband who makes sure I have the best equipment and knows how to outfit and take care of a bike.  I know that Mal thought the same thing about Kevin.


We rode on and on through little tiny Idaho towns that my grandparents grew up in, Preston, Dayton and Franklin.  There were a few more hills and we were tired but we tried to keep to about 15 MPH or more.  My feet started to feel like they do after skiing all day, they were going numb and then burning as if on fire but I kept on going. As we rode into the finish, I checked my bike computer and we had finished in 5 hours, 59 minutes and 14 seconds.  I had a goal of finishing in 6 hours.  I hadn't ever looked at the clock, I just watched the MPH and the total miles, so I was very happy and even a bit teary as we finished up.  It was very hard and I don't know if I want to do it again real soon, but I felt so good that I actually could do it.


Malorie and Shalane are the most wonderful daughter-in-laws in the world.  They treat me like I am one of them instead of the old grandma that I am.  We had so much fun together.   And for that reason alone, I may be persuaded to do it again!

At the finish! I was so tired I forgot to take off my helmet.