Grab something to snack on---it's another novel!!

Yeah Jaime!!! I love to play soccer and now you love to play too???---well had some fun at least. I'm still trying to get the Roberts side of the family to accept it as a sport. They just like to see me puff up and turn red when they say soccer is a pansy game. I so want to come play. It's probably more fun to play co-ed than the all women league I played in in Saratoga. Those women were very competitive and some were down right mean and nasty. It's fun to play hard but not when the players swear at you and just take themselves way to serious. If you still need equipment I have shin guards, soccer socks and cleats you can use too.

I finished my ride on Saturday and I'm happy to report that a feeding frenzy did not follow this ride. My eating is under control and I even went running tonight (Tuesday). It felt great to get out and stretch the legs and run. I have discovered that even though I'm hooked on cycling if I had to choose to do only one it would be running. Running in the evening after the sun has gone down and it's starting to get quiet except for the occasional sound of summer--a sprinkler, a baseball game a couple of blocks away or kids trying to play a few moments longer outside in their pajamas--is just incredible. Your mind can drift in and out and you can just move in rhythm and fly---not that I fly very fast but it still feels like flying. I'd forgotten how good it feels since I've only been riding these last 5 weeks but I'm motivated again to run. I highly recomend running in the evening. It is a huge mental thing for me or I'm just mental myself but running in the morning compared to the evening is so different for me. The morning seems so hurry and get it done to get the day started where in the evening it is a relaxing wind down of the day. I had a great run so I'm running away with my words as well.

My Tour de Cure Report:

To read the readers digest version go to the last paragraph.

If you need a break from laundry and dishes, grab a chair and a drink--the long version might take a couple of minutes.

This ride turned out to be a long ride and not just because it literally was a long ride one. I don't know if I was still a little tired from last Saturday's century or if the culmination of the miles and happenings along the way just added up to make it mentally a long ride, but here's my report.
We got up at 5am to be in Brigham City by 7:00 and on the bike by 7:30. We started at 7:45 and we were feeling good and warm with all of our layers. We stopped at the first rest stop 15 miles in and a little thought popped into my head to say "what on earth were you thinking to do 100 miles after you just finished doing that last Saturday." I pushed that aside with another thought "just keep pedaling and think of all the food I can consume guilt free for a day or two." I kept going.
The weather was good except for a 30 minute shower which soaked us about 45 miles into the ride. That made for a chilly and tough ride for the next twenty miles. The rain hit us as we were coming down the one and only descent. Rain hurts as it hits your face while you're going down hill at 20-30 mph. It soaked us through and then we got cold and our legs started stiffening up because of the cold but also because we had just climbed a pretty good hill for a mile. I was the little engine that could--I so wanted to stop on the way up but I just kept repeating I won't stop and walk, I won't stop and walk and I was ecstatic when I came to the top but not for long. I wanted to cry when at the top I could see another incline that seperated me from a badly needed peanut butter sandwich. Did I get my pb&j you ask--I just laughed maybe a bit hysterical when I got to the rest stop and the pb&j's were the size of a quarter--not kidding ..... they had run out of bread and they broke up their last pieces to feed the masses and they were giving the evil eye if you tried to take more than one!!
Anway we left with our one 1" pb&j, then the rain hit us as we started our descent also to find that we were the only cyclists to be seen. It was like the twilight zone. Honestly a little freaky!! We came over the top of the hill to look down into the valley and not a soul in sight were 10 minutes ago we were surrounded by lots of other cyclists. We don't know if the mother ship had beamed them all up or there was a covered bus stop that we missed but we were alone out in the middle of nowhere. We figured support vehicles picked them up or cyclists turned around and went back to the previous stop up the road aways.
We did make it to the next rest stop shivering and stiff to find only two port a potties and a line (the cyclists had reappeared to use the potties) and I needed to take care of some feminine issues and well you all know how much room is in those things and I was trying not to drop my gloves in the hole because of course they would be gone forever but also trying to pull some needed equipment out of the back pocket of my jersey and it was taking some time and of course someone starts knocking on the door asking if someone is in there and people start making comments in the line--well I kept my composure, finished my business and held me head high as I exited the porta pottie and didn't even give any of them a bad word or a bad finger. I figured they would be paid in kind with their own experience in the porta pottie because someone had had a awful fight with their stomach and of course it is all left exposed for everyone to see. Nasty business those potties are!! I hope that I said all that lady like enough so that it was not distasteful or offensive to anyone but hopefully understandable.
Well the sun did start to shine after that and we did dry out and it was on to the last 40 miles. At this point you just want to be done. We were tired and hungry due to the low supplies at the rest stops and also the lack of a lunch stop. Usually a century ride has a lunch stop around mile 60 but some crazy committee member thought it would be more fun to have lunch at the end of the ride and they forgot to tell everyone so we didn't pack any extra snacks or energy supplies. I did get a little silly at the end--low levels of energy, not very much sleep the night before, rain and way too much time spent on a small hard uncomfortable seat in the last 7 days pushed me a little close to the edge--I had thoughts of getting off my bike and throwing it into a ditch and riding a cow home--did I mention we passed and smelled many many cows (Cache valley). We could still smell them in the car on the ride home.
Anyway we did cross the finish line under an arch of ballons. We had a cheering section just for us (some family members of our group) and we were looking forward to a great cafe rio style lunch after 6 hours and 30 minutes on the bike only to find that the party was over and the lunch was gone and cleaned up. Only some stragglers and the clean up crew were left. Apparently the bad weather had cut the ride short for many riders as well as volunteers and they all went home early----someone just forgot to tell us and the hundred riders, give or take a few, that we did find out on the road the last 40 miles. We packed up the bikes and drove home in a down pour (lucky us that that storm didn't hit us on the bikes) and we did get our cafe rio style lunch only that it was Bajio and we had to pay for it. Oh well. We were in bed at 9pm, Scott fell asleep by 9:05pm and Jack and I (in a comatose state) played til about midnight. A long day to say the least.

Well that is the long version of my ride.

The short version: we rode 96 miles, laughed, wanted to cry, got a little wet, ate lots of peanut butter on bananas, laughed with a little bit of hysteria some more, spent too much time in a porta pottie, got another t-shirt that's too big and went home to prepare for the next one on August 9th!!