One day, 109.49 Miles

Well, the Salt Lake Century 09 has come and gone. I'm a bit sad that it's over. Wow, what an experience it was. I was thinking back to last year when Dave biked the SL century and I played cheerleader with the girls on the sidelines. I wanted SO bad to be one of those sweaty, tired bikers crossing the finishing line. I'm so happy I was able to bike it this year. It always feels GREAT when you make a goal, work your butt off and accomplish that goal. There is something so rewarding in pushing yourself past where you think you can go. It feels even better when your husband/best friend is with you 100% of the way egging you on.

All-in-all the ride was AMAZING. I did struggle quite a bit for about 20 miles in the middle of the ride. It was a loooong, hard stretch for me. The headwind, hills and bugs on Antelope Island didn't help much. I got to the point where I was concentrating SO hard on just cranking the peddle one more time, then another, then another...well, that and concentrating on actually staying on my bike. I was dizzy, beat, exhausted, my muscles were SCREAMING and I couldn't think straight. But ya know what, I got through it and I'm so glad I did because it's an experience I will always look back on to prove to myself that I CAN make it through hard times. Bit by bit, little by little, with a little support, I CAN. I think quite a few other riders were struggling at about the same time because we saw many turn around. Dave could see I was struggling and was right there beside me with his positive attitude and good humor. Dave made me down a GU. I literally started crying and gagging and choking on the stuff. It was disgusting, like thick blueberry-pomegranate flavored snot. Ugh. It worked wonders though and helped me work through my bonk.

I loved the pit stops. Not only was it a chance to take a little break and refill the water bottles but there were bowls and bowls full of candy, granola bars, nuts and those little debbie oatmeal cookies (my favorite) and yes even some oranges and bananas ;). One stop had a make your own hoagie bar. It was lovely. We hit that stop twice ;). It's crazy because you stop thinking about food as food and start thinking about it as fuel. There were many times I wasn't hungry, borderline nauseous, but I would still force myself to partake of all the sugary goodness knowing I NEEDED the calories to keep me going. There is no way on a normal day I would waste 100 calories of my daily intake on something so disgusting I have to gag it down (GU). I burned about 3700 calories on the ride, so you can see why it was important to keep the "food" a comin'!

On the ride I finally learned to draft. I've always been too scared to do it because you have to have your front tire within inches of someone's bike tire. It took getting too tired to care if I crashed to get me to draft ;). Now, I'm addicted. On one stretch of the ride back to SL Dave and I grouped up with another couple going about our pace and had a good little pace line going on for about 15 miles. It was fabulous. We eventually lost the other couple though, I think we may have pushed and set the pace a little fast and wore them out. I feel a little bad about it.

As Dave and I were nearing the end we both started talking about how sad we were to see it end. We have looked forward to it for a such a long time and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Next year (if I'm still not prego) you can bet we'll be doing it again.

Oh and real quick, thanks mom for watching the wee ones and meeting us at the finish line. It made my day to have someone there cheering for us :)