The Century That Wasn't

On most long bike rides I end up with a theme song of sorts.  It's usually a random song that pops into my head that I hum, chant, and sometimes even belt out at the top of my lungs throughout the ride.  I've found singing helps distract me when I need a distraction from the pain of a steep climb, the terror of a terrifying decent or just tired legs and a sore bottom. It's weird but it works.  Last weeks century my theme song was "It's Only The Wind" by Billy Dean. Heh. Heh. So fitting. As was yesterdays theme song which happened to be:

"Every Storm (runs out of rain)" by Gary Allen.

And it's true.. every storm does eventually run out of rain.  Unfortunately yesterdays storm didn't run out until about two hours after they shut down the ride. I knew going into the ride that we were bound to get wet, I just didn't realize how wet!

As we began the ride Saturday morning in downtown Salt Lake it was a light drizzle.  Even though I was only in my bike shorts and a light long sleeve jersey I was plenty toasty thanks to the pace we were keeping.  The sky kept darkening and the rain kept coming down thicker and thicker but Dave and I still biked along talking and laughing and just enjoying the event.  About 10 miles in we noticed quite a few people were turning around.  Interesting.  About mile 18 we arrived at the first aid station and stopped in for a quick potty break (we were in a hurry at the start line and didn't have time) and to refill our water bottles. Looking back I wish we had just kept going because stopping allowed our bodies to cool down.  As we hopped back on our bikes to start out again we noticed that about 3/4 of the riders were turning left and heading back towards Salt Lake (most of them the elites) and only 1/4 were continuing on with the ride.  Dave and I made the decision to continue on.  There was NO way I was wasting a babysitter on a 32 mile ride!

After only a few minutes on the bike Dave mentioned that he was really cold and that maybe it would be best to turn around.  I convinced him we would be fine and the rain would probably start to clear up in a bit so we kept on going.  I still laugh about that.  Anyone who knows us knows that I am the overly cautious and practical one and that Dave is the throw-all-caution-to-the wind type.  I probably should have listened to him ;).  He has already sent several friendly "I told you so"s my way.

Dave and I have both biked in the rain before.  No big deal.  Buuut, as we quickly discovered, biking in the rain, wind AND the cold (45 degrees) is a completely different experience.  The rain, did not in fact let up, but got worse.  It started pooling on the sides of the road and we were forced to ride in the middle of the lane to avoid battling through 2 inches of water on our skinny bike tires.  A couple of big trucks took offense to this and decided to "show us" by barreling down the opposite side of the road with their horns blaring all the while spraying us with muck and cold water. Nice people.  I should mention these were rural back roads with light traffic and plenty of room for bikes and cars. I'm so glad no one got hurt.

The rain started pounding down so hard it stung.  And still.. I biked along with a smile on my face.  I'm not sure why but I was still having a blast.  I think it was the adventure of it all.  As the miles wore on I noticed that I could no longer feel my feet and my hands were so cold and stiff I could no longer use them to shift.  I was praying I wouldn't encounter a situation that would require me to brake quickly because I knew there was no way I would be able to.  Things got cold.  Really cold.

As Dave and I pulled into the second aid station we started to laugh between our chattering teeth.  We. Were. DRENCHED.  As we tried to walk along on our icebox feet towards the build your own hoagie station it became apparent our ride was at an end. No one was continuing on. The race directors were shuttling bikers to the front runner station so they could hop a ride on the train to return to Salt Lake. We would find out later that only 27 out of the 1800 riders made it to the third and final aid station and turn around point.  Crazy!

Right next to the park that housed the second aid station was a fire station. The fire department took pity on all of us freezing bikers and opened up their bay to us.  Dave and I sloshed on over and crammed inside with another 200 or so bikers.

Even though the heat was cranked Dave and I were shaking violently.  I've never been so cold.  The firefighters were awesome.  Some bikers were in pretty bad shape and the firefighters were going above and beyond to help.  They had no obligation to do so.  One firefighter came over quite concerned that I was too cold and led me along trying to find me a blanket.  All the blankets were in use though.  One biker we passed actually gave me her blanket (although I argued against it). The blanket was soaked.  Ha!  It's the thought that counts and I was touched by her generous offering.  The firefighter was still quite concerned (I couldn't stop shaking) and offered me a warm shower.  As delightful as that sounded I declined ;).

They were only able to shuttle 4 bikers at a time to the front runner station so there was a long wait ahead of us.  Dave called our brother-in-law and begged him to come rescue us.  And he did.. he took us back to his house (where our kids were) and we were hooked up with a warm shower, dry clothes and a ride back to Salt Lake.  I've said it before and I'll say it again but Dave and I have so many amazing and kind people in our lives.  So blessed.

As unforgettable and as much fun as yesterdays ride was I will admit, I'm pretty bummed we were only able to get 45 miles in.  I was all geared up for another 100 mile ride.  I think I was looking for a little redemption after the painful century from last week. I've been looking around for another century event that we can do but have yet to find one that will fit into our crazy schedule. Not to mention I'm starting to feel like a neglectful parent for leaving my kiddos so much in the name of biking.

Training for my first half marathon starts tomorrow though! I'm excited for that.  

On finishing last and doing hard things.

Last Saturday Dave and I had our first century ride of the season. Friday night I dropped the chickens off at the grandparents house while Dave was at work and then came back home to get everything ready for our ride.  Our alarm went off dark and early at just past 4:00 in the morning.  Although the ride didn't start until 8:00 we had over an hour drive to get there and still needed to pick up our packets and sign a waiver.  Dave insisted we get there early because there would be "at least 200 people in line".  Imagine our surprise when we pulled into an empty parking lot around 6:30 to find they hadn't even started setting up yet.  I teased Dave (a lot), we had a good laugh and then headed to McDonalds to take advantage of their flush potties and grab a smoothie.  We headed back to the high school, signed in (only 2 people in line) and I lounged in the car eating while Dave did some last minute bike tuning.  I like to be helpful like that ;).

At the starting line I was feeling strong and confident.  I had trained hard and felt like I was in the best shape I've ever been in.  It was a sunny, gorgeous day and I had nothing but miles and miles of open road ahead and Dave beside me. It was going to be a fantastic day!  And it was... maybe not the perfect day I was expecting, but it did end up being an unforgettable day.

The first 60ish miles were quite hilly and we had a strong head wind battling against us.  My legs definitely felt the strain but I still felt strong. I kept cranking along with a big smile on my face reassuring myself that what goes up must come down (it was a loop route) and that we would have a tail wind on the way back. It was a smaller event (only about 250 riders vs. 2200 like other events with only about 1/3 of those doing the full century) and had a more intimate feel to it.  I was able to chat it up with several other riders as we biked and at the rest stops. The rest stops themselves were awesome.  There wasn't much to them- just a shade canopy, a few volunteers, some jugs of water and some buckets of gus and chomps but because it was a smaller event and there was only a handful of riders at each stop at any given moment we were able to chat with the volunteers. They were all so encouraging and helpful.  I sure appreciated them.  I'm sure it was a loooong day for most of them.

At about mile 65 I began to fade.  I usually struggle around mile 60 so I was expecting the fade.  I decided to try downing a gu or bag of chomps every 45 minutes from the very start of the ride to see if I could avoid the fade, but alas, I don't think it worked.  I started to get discouraged.  We were still climbing with no sign of downhill in sight.  And remember that tail wind I was counting on?  The wind shifted so we were still battling against it.  Dave said it was the most consistent head wind he has ever encountered.  By mile 70 I was hurting.  By mile 75 I was slurring my words, shaking like crazy and freezing cold even though it was full sun and 85 degrees outside.  By mile 80 I started crying over everything. And I do mean everything- like a banana for example.  I was breaking...

There was another couple and an older man (who reminded me a lot of my dad) we had been leap frogging with most of the ride.  As we all got tired we settled into a pace line and all plugged along together.  It took everything I had to hang on to that line.  The older man (I never learned his name) was in suffer-fest just like me.  Although we barely said 10 words to each other (much to tired to talk) I bonded with him.  Nothing like joint agony to bring two strangers together. Another long climb finally separated our little group and Dave and I were on our own again.  I don't think words can express how hard that last climb was.  To make matters worse it became apparent that we were becoming the stragglers of the ride.  I noticed the aid stations were beginning to clean up as we approached them and the sag wagons kept passing with bikes hooked on the back and riders in the front who just couldn't go any further.

At the top of the last climb there was an aid station.  I didn't think I would be able to get back on my bike if I got off so I stayed put.  Dave, being the stellar guy he is, headed to the table and brought me back a bruised, overly ripe banana.  I cried.  And then cried because I was crying over a banana.  That banana was the first piece of real food I had had since breakfast.  Most of the real food, aka anything other than quick packaged sugar like gus and chomps, was gone at the stations before we reached them.  That banana meant everything to me.  It makes me laugh and shake my head in utter embarrassment now.  The volunteers tut-tutted over the fact that we hadn't been offered lunch yet and reassured me that we only had about 13 miles left and most of it would be downhill... finally.  Dave took off and I struggled to clip back into my pedals to follow him.  It was the weirdest thing, for some reason I couldn't make my foot line up with the pedal.  We had one more short climb and then a fabulous, fast decent for several miles.  It. was. glorious.  I only wish the decent could have lasted longer ;).  The last 5 miles were flat.  Those last 5 miles, man, longest 5 miles of my life.  I would check my Garmin sure that we had at least gone a mile or two only to discover we had only gone .2 of a mile. Thank heavens for Dave.  He was so encouraging and supportive.  I kept my concentration on his back and didn't think about anything else but following him.  It worked and somehow or other we made it to the finish line.

As we approached the finishing shoot most everyone was gone and they had begun to pack up.  Yeah.. discouraging.  There was one little boy though, around 4 or 5 I'm guessing, that was standing at the finish line.  He saw us approaching, looked around to see if anyone else noticed and then started clapping like crazy.  As we got closer he raised his tiny hand and gave us the best high 5 I have ever had in my life.  You guessed it... more tears.

We didn't have a lot of time to linger because Dave and I both had to rush home, Dave was on call with the ambulance and I had a shoot that evening but were able to stay long enough to see the rest of our little group come across. I was so happy we all made it.

I ended the ride in a much different frame of mind than how I started it.  Instead of feeling strong I felt utterly wasted.  Instead of feeling confident I felt deeply discouraged. I felt like I had given it everything I had but I was still one of the last to finish.  That hurt.  Stupid pride.

On the drive home I began reflecting on the ride.  Was I glad I had done it?  Yes.  Even though it was one of the most discouraging and painful experiences of my life I am so glad I did it.  It showed me that I'm stronger than I think.  It showed me that I can keep going even when I have nothing left.  It reminded me that I am the luckiest girl in the world to have such an encouraging and positive husband by my side. It showed me that coming in last isn't the end of the world. After all...

Dave and I have another century lined up for tomorrow and I'm resolved to relax, enjoy the child-free time with my hot honey and not worry about a finishing time or how I am doing compared to other riders.  I will simply be proud of finishing and thankful that I have a healthy and strong body. 100 miles and 7+ hours of biking is no small feat. Tomorrow I will enjoy the journey.  After all, that is why I bike, because it's supposed to be fun...  and so I can stuff myself with things like Trader Joe's chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels all in the name of carb loading ;).

I'm just hoping it doesn't rain too much.  Stupid "expect rain and wind all day" forecast.

9 years and counting

Because our anniversary is only a few days after Christmas (squeezed a marriage in in between semesters, apparently that happens quite a bit around here) we rarely do anniversary gifts for each other.  Instead, we write each other letters.  This year, I, errr, kind of forgot. So in honor of our 9th anniversary and to make up for the oversight I'm going to bore delight you with 9 things I love about Dave.

1.  He always out does me. Several Christmases ago when we were dirt poor we decided to make each other gifts.  I spent hours crocheting a large, lovely afghan in his favorite colors sure that my gift would beat his gift (I get a little competitive with Dave and gifts, don't ask).  Christmas morning came and I proudly presented the afghan.  He took me downstairs to his shop and presented me with...a freaking log bed.  The most gorgeous log bed I've ever laid eyes.  He even collected sticks from our hikes that year and incorporated them into the headboard. Yup, totally bested by the hubs.  This year I lined up a babysitter (thanks, Jess) and planned a movie and dinner for our anniversary. Unbeknownst to me he planned a three day getaway to Jackson hole that included, shopping, cross-country skiing, swimming and lots of BBQ eating.  Bested again. It happens quite often.

2. His laugh.

3. His drive. When Dave wants something or puts his mind to something he makes it happen, whether it be a marathon, a triathlon, a 206 mile bike ride or a new house. Not going to lie, as great as this specific attribute is it has given me several ulcers over the course of our marriage ;).

4. The fact that he always puts the toilet seat down and really tries to shut the cupboards after he opens them.  He knows they both drive me crazy.

5. His compassion.  Did you know Dave and I met in a nursing home?  Yup. After we started dating, his mom (who was in charge of the schedule), made sure we ended up working as many shifts as possible together. One of the main things that drew me to Dave was how hard of a worker he was and the compassion he had for the residents. To this day Dave goes out of his way to help others in any way possible. 

6. His love for fresh air and the great outdoors. 

7. His sleepy eyes

8. His ability to stay calm and think rationally in any situation. Believe you me, it's a good thing I married a man like that.

9. Last but not least, the fact that 9 years later he still makes me feel like I am his whole world.

LOTOJA

Well he did it...again.  Three states, 206 miles, killer climbs, one day...all on the bike. Little Canyon man, Dave's dad and I made up Dave and his friend, Darrin's, support crew and spent the day driving to different meet up spots to load the boys up with food and water.  It was a looooong day and I am quite looking forward to leaving all the little monkeys with the grandparents and spending a relaxing day driving around and lounging in the sun with a book by myself the next time Dave decides to embark on this grand adventure.  I have to say, Dave was amazing this year!

Last time he did LOTOJA there were a few stops were he was really sick and really hurting and it killed me a little to see him like that and then have to push him back out on the bike. There was only one stop he was struggling at this year and it's nothing a little time off the bike and water didn't cure. My favorite part of the whole day was watching the guys cross the finish line.  It amazes me what Dave can do when he puts his mind to it. He can indeed, do hard things. And I love him for it.

Back me up!

Dave and I are having a little disagreement.  You can read all about on the photog blog.  I was going to post it here too but, well, I'm quite lazy. 

Home Grown

Dave has decided there are not enough trees on our mountain.

Not the lush, piney green ones that is.  So, he did what any one would do and ordered 160 varying pine tree seeds off of ebay. 

Because where else would one buy seeds but off of ebay, right? 

He's been studying up and is all set to grow us our own little forest.

The first step involves baggies of wet dirt in my fridge for over a month. Splendid.

Considering it takes a good 2 years for the seeds to grow into a  foot tall tree I'd say our forest should be ready in a good 30 years or so.

Emma told us she would take care of the trees if we die before then.

She's so kind.

iphoto fun

I currently have 486 pictures on my phone.  That's right...FOUR HUNDRED and eighty six!  And I add more to it daily.  I figured I might as well start sharing some of them.  Today's iphoto fun is one of my favorites.  And one I use against Dave often...

Yup, that's Dave snoozing away mere hours before Canyon was born.  Did I mention I was in hard labor and hadn't had my epidural yet?

Haha, to be fair he had just gotten off of a long, sleepless 24 hour shift when I told him it was time to head to the hospital...and we had been at the said hospital already for hours. 

But still...;)

Wilson Family Mine and Other Adventures

You know, it's kind of funny, when Emma finished up school and speech for the summer I gave a huge sigh of relief thinking that lazier days were on the way. Ha! I forgot how crazy busy summer can be. I'm not sure how. Anyway, this week has been filled with adventures, fun and a heck of a lot of work. I had three shoots this week PLUS a wedding (I've cut back to only two sessions a week so I'm not sure how this happened ;)). And Dave, lets just say he will have about 150 hrs. on his next paycheck. Yikes! And then once you add in a late night at the drive-in with family and friends, an AMAZING albeit short camping trip, a 22 mile night biking event under the full moon (with plenty of hills, friends and a fierce headwind) and putting together and hosting a baby shower for my gorgeous sister-in-law (due 2 1/2 weeks before me) you will understand why we are all completely exhausted. Ex-hausted! The last 4 nights we haven't gone to bed until after 2:00 a.m but have still woken up between 5:30 and 7:00 am. No joke. Did I mention my body hurts? And I'm tired? Oh yeah.

But you know what? The aching body and exhaustion are totally worth it. A lot of memories were made. Take our camping trip for proof. We went with Dave's uncle and soon to be cousin-in-law to a family mine out in the west desert. I haven't roughed it like that camping in years. When I say roughing it I mean spending 2 1/2 hours on bumpy, rough back roads (one way), being 50 miles from the nearest port-a-potty and water source and simply throwing the sleeping bags on the tent floor kind of roughing it. Once again, totally worth it. The mine was amazing! The monkeys were a little nervous to head down into it. Heck I was REALLY nervous to head down into it. Imagine a very narrow, very dark hole in the ground with a questionably narrow looking ladder heading down 100 ft.

A hug for good luck. They get really sweet and sentimental when they think they are going to die.

Dave took Ali down first and even though she was gung-ho about hopping on the ladder and heading down first she keep repeating, "don't let me die" until they reached the bottom. Poor Emma was in tears and hysterics while waiting for her turn to head down. It wasn't until I told her I was kind of scared too that she braved up. After my confession she turned into the brave-we can do this-don't you worry leader. And then after Dave and I told her it was going to be a paleontologist adventure well, she was allll over it. Her endless chatter down the ladder was the only thing that gave away her nervousness. She's like me, likes to talk in nerve-racking situations.

Once down in the mine there was a lot of crawling, squirming, squishing, climbing of narrow 100 yr. old ladders and exploring.


This girl was in heaven!

She found so many treasures including many sparkly rocks, a decaying rattle snake body and a bone that she is positive is a baby long-neck dinosaur's neck bone. At one point she declared, "This is the best day of my whoooole life". Priceless.

And Ali?

Well her bravado wore off once she got to the bottom of the main ladder and she stayed quite nervous while we were down there. Especially after we ran into a human skeleton. It was just a little gag Dave's uncle had left down there but Ali kept telling us it was her brother that had died. She was sure of it. Nut!

While down in the mine our awesome tour guide and soon to be cousin-in-law, (no idea if that is the correct title, but you get the picture) Steve, broke out some mining tools.

We were able to see some silver and gold. Pretty cool.

The monkeys had a blast

Yes, even nervous little Ali relaxed for a bit to pound out some rocks. Because really, what is more fun than that?

I'm pretty sure we will be heading back out to the mine someday for more fun.

One last picture from the trip....

Dave must have snapped this one. Let's just say when I saw it my mommy heart shed some tears. Love it! To pieces!

Why we like him...

Emma, "I like daddy because he bes so nice to me. Ummm I like to go to parks with daddy and well daddy always gives me food."

Ali, "Daddy take me to zoo!!! Doggy (Ali referring to herself) likes daddy's motorcycle."

As for me I like him because on the mornings he has off he turns the country tunes up really loud, does some funky weird dance moves with the monkeys throughout the living room that involves plenty of sporadic leg and hiney shaking and then he always cooks us a yummy breakfast. He also works like crazy to provide for our little family and doesn't grumble about spending all of his free time with us. What a guy. What a great dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Swim...Bike...Run...

Let's hear it for the boy (fabulous song by the way)! He swam 1 whole mile...

(Go ahead and whistle at that hiney in a wet suit...I did)

and then biked 24.8 miles...


and then finished by running a 10K.



That's right, Dave added a Triathlon to his many achievements. Seriously, I'm so amazed by this guy. In the last 5 years he has ran a marathon, biked Lotoja (which fun fact, is more miles than Lance Armstrong has biked in a single day), biked over half-a-dozen centuries and now finished a triathlon. It's very important to me that our girls grow up with the desire to be active. So I love that I can point to their daddy as an example. I just wish he would train a bit more sometimes. I tell you, his "hmm not really ready for this but let's give it a shot" attitude sure makes me nervous sometimes. Did you hear that Dave? Nervous! Anyway, Dave's sister also did the Olympic length Tri. and his brother-in-law did the sprint Tri.

Pretty cool, eh? But wait it gets even better...his baby sister ran a marathon the same day. Can you say, one awesome family?!

And umm about the photography or lack of...it turned out to be quite difficult manning the camera one handed while bouncing back and forth holding a sleepy two-year-old over my GI-NORMOUS belly all the while trying to keep tabs on my curious 5 yr old who kept wandering off to visit a horse. Who would have known it could be such hard work being a spectator ;). Thank goodness for Zazoosh.

Thankful for...

This handsome guy who, luckily, has had a couple of days off and has spent those days working on projects around and mostly outside of the house with the two, cute little trouble-makers helpers in tow giving me plenty of time to sleep...and sleep...and yup, sleep.


Usually not a huge fan, but can I just say sweet, sweet heaven on a sore, raw throat?!

Best movie ever. Not only has it finally given Emma a clear career path, (she was on the fence between being a vet or a farmer but now is 100% sure she wants to be a paleontologist and travel the world digging up dinosaur bones, hopefully T-Rex ones) provided Emma with ample, random dinosaur facts she likes to spout off at the most random times and terrorized Ali into making her "so scared" face, it has also kept the monkeys entertained for hours on end the few times Dave has snuck out for a bike ride, providing me with yet more time to sleep.

Speaking of sleep....

Love Notes

Some use a scrap of paper and a pen. Others fancy facebook or email. Heck, I've even heard of markers or lipstick on mirrors. Not Dave. Nope, he's much more creative.

Don't the wee ones' foam bath letters carefully construed onto the bathtub wall scream love, even more so then the message itself? What a character.

I love you too, babe.

My Idea of the Perfect Date

I decided I'm not really your dinner and movie date kind of gal. Give me two hours alone with my man

secluded mountain roads

a beat up old four-wheeler

and a little bit of rain and mud for good measure any day. Thanks babe, for some much needed US time.

And don't ya worry, Dave didn't forget the other women in his life. When we got back he took them on a roll down to the old country store for some penny candies.

I wasn't even a wee bit jealous because they shared their spoils when they got back.

Fast Asleep

Today I had to go visiting teaching and was getting ready to to head out the door with the girls. Dave, being the great guy he is, insisted I leave the wee ones at home with him because he missed them. Nevermind the fact that he had worked all night and was in the middle of a 106 hr. work week. He promised they would be fine. I came home to find this...

Yup, Dave and Ali were out cold on the couch and Emma was crying out the window because she had no one to play with. It was all rather cute. I'm just glad it was Ali who fell asleep instead of Emma. Who knows what the house would have looked like if Ali had been left unsupervised ;).

My Man

I took this picture of Dave for the latest mission 24 challenge and I couldn't resist posting it here too. I LOVE this picture of Dave. It just captures him...the man I love, in all his rugged glory. I'm one lucky girl.