mom, dad, jonny, lafe and aaron met the kids and i at the field near the creamery for some tailgating... we had bratwursts, hot dogs, a vegetable tray and my favorite--black cherry fresca. we played football, talked football, cleaned up after the kids spills and enjoyed good company. from the field we walked down to the stadium.
this was the first time for abby and bekah to attend a football game and they were pretty excited! i had all the kids for the weekend, so mom took ella home with aaron. i had them get baths and did their hair myself in preparation for the big day at lavell edwards stadium. they were on cloud nine on the way to the game and for the first 5-10 minutes. luckily dad required everyone at least enter the bathroom prior to the game. it paid off for the girls. all my kids made it to half-time with reasonable amounts of squirming and boredom intermixed with fun and great-grandpa frandsen doing the cat and dog for bekah...
we spent the whole halftime on the lower concourse. my kids would run from me to the other side of the walkway dodging people and then returning for another bite of popcorn and another drink of sprite. even after 20 minutes it didn't get old, but i persuaded them to head back in to watch the remaining two quarters.
having the kids there brought back so many memories of going to games with dad, friends, amy and michael. what a great place with many traditions and memories contained...
thanks for coming to the game girls (and michael.)
before the game, michael predicted a win by 3 points for BYU. nice work buddy.
our exploits can be seen here:
and if you missed the game you can see what we saw to music here:
michael and i went to the home opener with jonny and dad for his special day.
we met jonny, mom and aaron (after purchasing a portable grill from sears) for a tailgate party before the game. we grilled some bratwurst and played some football on the field near deseret towers. aaron and michael had an intense football game on the grass before the food was cooked.
in my heart of hearts i was expecting a loss from the cougs and was pleasantly surprised at their performance.
michael loves BYU football as much as ever. before the game he was mulling over the match-up and announced that the game would be the battle of the jakes (jake heaps and jake locker.) he cheered, watched the field, watched the jumbotron, used jonny's binoculars and generally was a joy to be with. after the game ended and we were walking out with jonny he says, 'dad, that was a huge win for us...'
we live near an amazing alpine canyon but it took me a year to get up there in a tent. luckily i had two great reasons to head up--my girls.
we have a tradition of 'special days' with the kids. a special day can be with mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, an aunt or uncle. a few years back i had an experience with michael in joshua tree that remains a highlight of my relationship with him. i figured it was time to get out one on one with the girls and get to know them a little better.
we loved it.
the trips were two weeks apart. abby went first. it was mid-week and the we almost had the canyon to ourselves. we started at walmart and wendys. she loved picking out the items we would eat on the trip and directing me to the different items. with drinks and food in hand we headed up the canyon. out first stop was the scout/church campground where we ate by the river to eat our food and she played on the slide. there were young men/ young women events planned for the evening so i figured life would be peaceful further up the canyon.
you can see abby here after her wendy's...
after that we headed up the road to one of my favorite spots in the canyon. the lookout point here makes me feel like i'm on a european alpine slope. as you can tell from my dancing abby, this is a spot she enjoyed as well.
after the look-out point we headed up to salamander flat, went hiking (which i mostly just have video of) and then set up our camp. my dad would have been proud of how interested abby was in helping set up the camp. i put our bags in the tent and went back to the car. when i returned, abby had unpacked our foam mattresses. when she heard me returning she announced that my shoes needed to stay out at the 'shoe spot'.
she loved the headlamp (as all my kids have so far.) one sweet moment of the trip was after we were ready for bed and turned out all the lights. we were about to lie down for the night and abby looked out the tent plastic and said, 'the stars!' i couldn't help but pull open the tent flap and lie under the stars with her. she was in awe. she looked and looked and even starting singing for a while. it was probably 45 minutes later before we went to sleep--45 minutes very well spent...
the next morning, my battery went dead, so i have no proof of our ramen noodle breakfast, our hiking expedition through the creek. both were lots of fun with my sweet abby.
after the trip i feel like our relationship is better. she is more verbal with me and i feel like we connect better when i speak with her. what a great time.
in the following weeks, bekah alluded often to her upcoming 'special day' in the mountains. it hadn't been officially planned that i would take them both camping separately, but with bekah referring to her coming camping trip i knew i'd better get it planned and done before snowfall (so i'm a cold wimp...)
when the day came bekah was excited. she was definitely anxious to prove she was a good hiker, climber and camper. we stopped by walmart, roxberry and little caesars for our pre-camping meal. we headed directly to the reservoir and headed out on a hike. unlike with abby, the leaves had turned and were colors everywhere. both my girls love to run along the trail (but that has been the case since the moment we took them out in public together--they like to run everywhere.)
bekah has several favorite colors--chief of which is orange. she was in heaven with the colorful leaves and much of our discussion revolved around that. i would point out mount timpanogos every time it came into view. several times after pointing out mount timp she would say, 'it's too bad she died.' apparently the story of princess timpanogos made an impression on her...
we found a log that crossed the creek en route to our hike. bekah loved it. she crossed it over and over. at one point she was instructing me how to start, how to walk across etc. our last trip across as the sun was setting she lost her balance and as she fell she took the initiative, jumped in feet first, landed on her bum and hopped back up and scampered up the rocks to safety. very proficient. she was tearful and shocked by the cold.
however, she loved hanging out near the fire in her blanket after the fact. we cooked on the new grill, ate oreos, warmed up and talked. bekah was in a silly mood and was glad to be on her special day.
i worked earlier in the day the next day and the gear was wet so we broke camp early and headed home to set it out in the sun.
overall, it was great times all around. i would love to make trips like this at least a yearly event with each kiddo. it means a lot to them and it means a lot to me.
Tonight during Michael's bedtime routine, he spontaneously said... "Mom I'm really glad I have Mrs. Adams for a teacher.
me: "Oh yeah? Why's that??"
him: "Well, because she is such a fun person. And a great teacher. And I think she's perfect for me because she has sooo many books in her class." (It is true... she has books EVERYwhere in her class, and does her own take-home-reading program in addition to the take-home-reading program the PTA does. !!!)
me: "It is true. She is a great teacher for you."
him: "I'm just really grateful for a teacher like her."
Moments later, part of his prayer went like this:
"I'm grateful to have such a good teacher for me. And please bless the teachers everywhere, who give up such big parts of their days to teach kids like me, and teach them important things, and make them feel good."
Yes... we are grateful for the sacrifices of teachers everywhere who give so very much and care so deeply for our kiddos. Thanks for teaching them such important things and making them feel good.
it is done. until a few hours ago it felt like the summer had not truly ended. i signed up for four cycling events this summer--perhaps out of naivete--and it has been exhilarating, taxing, humbling, fun and a summer to remember. from my intense training in the late spring (after passing my oral board exam) to the mid summer with an event every 2 weeks with training as able in between to the crowning event (as measured by miles and time in the saddle) yesterday. in retrospect, i may have overdone it this summer as i lay in bed while typing with aching knees and muscles deciding what to do next...
i have to say at this point that i had trained a lot over the summer, but not specifically for lotoja. i didn't know what to expect, and didn't really know what a good time would be. i didn't set a time goal, but basically committed to my riding mates that we would finish together. as i came to find, this type of commitment makes for a more congenial and relaxed experience, yet precludes a blistering pace... it is amazingly easy to become instantly separated from your companions and then spend time waiting or searching for them...
but enough musing. on to the race.
we arrived in logan with no reasonably priced motels with vacancy and stayed with kind cousins of my riding companion, brent. we met matt and angela (amy's brother and sister-in-law) for dinner the night before for pizza. matt kindly drove my car to brigham city for our return drive home. it was our last--possibly--dinner with matty before he heads to basic training and officer training. we will miss him greatly.
i slept very poorly the night before. there is certainly a mystique surrounding lotoja--from the length, to the race aspect, to the nutrition, to the weather and the sheer endurance. all of these aspects tumbled around in my mind the night before dis allowing me to sleep soundly. in the morning after two bowls of cereal and constant worrying about how many layers to wear we approached the start line.
and we were off... it was a stress relief just to start the race. at least we'd made it to the start line on time, we were feeling fine and the race was on. i'd chosen leg warmers, shoe covers, arm warmers, wind jacket, fleece and head warmer. this was beautiful for the first hour. however, we had our support vehicle skip the first feed zone and i wore those dastardly layers for 80 MILES!!!. no amount of unzipping could alleviate the heat build-up before arriving in montpelier...but i digress.
our group of 48 riders in our specific heat were a bit twitchy to start the race and were pushing hard. about 10 miles in a rider several in front of me hit his brakes. my front wheel hit the back of brent's foot it was all i could do to stay up. i looked behind me after recovering to carnage. there was a 7 bike pileup with what looked like minimal injuries.
it sounds very 'urban utah' of me, but i wasn't expecting much in the way of scenery. i thought it might be pretty drab through much of the ride, but that wasn't the case. in the morning the sunrise was beautiful with mist rising off water throughout the valley. one shot seen here:
we pushed on and reached the first feed zone. for myself, feed zone mechanics are where the race is won or lost. our very strong group of riders was broken up at the first stop as riders waited in line to pee, fill up water etc.
i didn't fill water to try and stay with the lead group and barely made it to the neutral zone to replenish. no photos for the first 80 miles as we were on our own while amy and lyndi rode around bear lake, ate at IHOP and readied themselves for our transition in montpelier (feed zone 3). the profile as seen below.
no water at feed zone 1. second feed zone after 2400 feet of climbing and 60 miles. brent and i regrouped after this climb and headed down a descent and then 15 mile flat with crosswinds and many groups forming, breaking up and reforming as we tried to shield each other across the flat and push up the pace. one of my favorite aspects of a race like this is the pacelines. it takes trust to jump in with a group of guys you've never met (or perhaps it takes madness.) regardless, you jump in with this group and quickly find out what the others are made of. the guy in front is meant to pull hard at the front while those behind recover from the break in the wind and ready themselves for a pull in the front. however, if the guy in the front is pushing too hard, then some in the line-up are doing all they can to keep up without dropping off the back (despite the respite from the wind.) so you are always gauging when you drop off the front from a pull how far back to fall in the paceline as some guys are just holding on but not willing (or able) to pull. the ride into montpelier was full of that sort of jockeying. good times.
the feedzones are something else. a mass of support people and friends. all searching for their riders and a bit ancey as riders are racing and often ready to be off again. as you will see from the goofy and fun photos at the feed zones, part of this event for me was to be with my wife. i added 40-50 minutes to my time at the feedzones, but i was with my wife and it was worth it :)
after the montpelier stop we were off once again...
we would next see our wives at mile 125 in feed zone 5 with two climbs separating us from them. the first climb was shorter, but ended up pretty intense. i paired with a rider from a more advanced category who had flatted and he really pushed me. this was one of the few times during the race that i pushed into the 180 beats per minute heart rate. it felt good though. we descended and hit the rollers to arrive at the base of the next climb. i replenished with water and crackers and headed out for the king of the mountains climb.
king of the mountains went up over salt river pass. 3 miles of climbing and 900 vertical feet with grades of 6 to 8 percent. i summitted at 20 minutes with average mph of 10. the 17 miles to the next feed-zone was largely downhill. i did this descent alone and still averaged 30+ mph. on arriving at feed zone 5, i couldn't find my sweet wife. this was afton, wyoming and come to find out she was stuck in traffic. all told, i was in afton for 25 minutes, but it was well worth it as she brought my salted and buttered potatoes and a hug..:)
we met up for a final rendezvous at feed zone 6 before the final 40 miles into jackson hole...
brent and i pushed together from the final neutral feed zone with 25 miles to go. this was one of the more difficult parts of the day because we were riding at miles 180 to 206. both my knees were aching at this point and while my thighs had plenty of punch left in them, my knees kept asking me to hang it up. the beautiful tetons were a welcome sight at this point in the race. with a rockstar in my water bottle i rode at 85-90% of maximum for the final 10-15 miles. brent and i were our own paceline with occasional stragglers that would join us for a minute here or there. this was probably the most enjoyably part of the ride (aside from after crossing the finish line) as we pushed each other over and over as we took turns pacing each other.
my sweet wife took her job as support very seriously. but seriously, i could not have done this race without her. from the purchase of the bike, to the 6-10 hour weeks of training per week starting in late april she was with me every step of the way. thanks famous.
brent and i committed to get the other to the finish line and you can see our salute to each other as we arrived...
and one last sweet reunion with our significant others before heading home.
i've heard from others rough stories of how the body responds after you get off the bike. for me i felt lightheaded a few times while walking to the car, but largely i felt good.
we planned on heading directly to idaho falls where we had a hotel room, but a car pulled in front of brent while he was driving. the other driver was sited for his illegal turn and four hours after the accident, a spare tire change later we finally made it to a hot bath (at 2 in the morning.)
so, the summer is over. 4 events later i get to reflect on the summer and whether i would try it again. i enjoyed each event for different reasons.
death ride for it's relentless climbing and the experience with joseph.
saint to sinners for the camaraderie.
ultimate challenge for it's relation to the tour of utah.
and lotoja for its reputation.
which did i enjoy most? lotoja was probably not my favorite of the summer, but it's hard to say how i would have felt about it if it had been the first event of the summer.
my time? complicated. my gps said 10 hrs 8 min moving time. i was clocked at 11 hrs 28 min at the finish line. so between regrouping with my riding mates and transition points i added 1 hour and 20 min. definitely room for improvement there eh?
will i do it again? probably. it would depend on potential riding partners and their interest. all in all it was a great time and an accomplishment to appreciate for a lifetime. 206 miles on a bike. 10 hours in the saddle. 15,000 calories burned.
over the weekend was the frandsen family reunion in honor of grandma frandsen's 90th birthday...wow!
we loved seeing everyone. bekah has asked several times when we get to go to 'that place' again.
we took our camera, but only brought it out twice :(
so instead of a chronicle of the whole experience in photos, i thought i'd break out some video that is emblematic of all our gunnison reunions. this video could have been shot 10 years ago and we'd be doing the same things--but on a smaller scale.
so, this blog has been overtaken by biking. sorry.
in case you haven't heard...we have some world-class talent competing here in utah right now. most notably are levi leipheimer and george hincapie who've raced in the tour de france many, many times. so, the last two days we've made it a point to get out and see some of the tour (in large part because the rest of the week i'm either working or at a family reunion...)
amy and i celebrated our 10th anniversary this week!!!
she was kind and patient enough to allow me 30 minutes at the tour of utah during our anniversary date (not that she didn't enjoy it herself :)
we had some photos with us next to riders, but we looked super-imposed on the image and a bit silly. here are a few (sans us.)
i also have video of us there--proving that i didn't just pull these off the internet :) (warning, this video is a bit silly and may only be interesting to biking fans...)
the prologue was cool to watch with all the amazing bikes guys flying off capitol hill...
today, i took the kids to see the riders come into research park. it's a cool stage where they start in ogden and climb near snowbasin and then up big mountain before descending into SLC... we picked up wendy's on the way and ate our food in the sun for about 10 minutes before the riders arrived. kind race and team staff gave the kids swag. we therefore ended up with noise-makers and cow-bells to cheer the racers on. the kids loved it.
afterwards we looked all over for george and levi so michael could get his yellow jersey signed (when michael was 2-3 yrs old we bought him a yellow US postal jersey. since he was born, he and i have watched the tour de france every july together. george has ridden in every one of those races. michael was excited (and a little nervous to meet him.)
neither rider was in the parking lot after the stage, but i saw an official with BMC (mr. sweide) who was super-cool and told us to meet him at the marriott at 5:45pm for an autograph. true to his word we were able to meet brent bookwalter and george hincapie as they left for dinner. i asked michael before what he would say to george. he said he would say 'good luck on stage 2 tomorrow'. however, as george came out and shook michael's hand he was very quiet. i prompted michael if there was anything he wanted to say to george. he said, "you're lookin' good." george liked that. we took pictures and came home.
good times in utah.
below is a video that will probably only be interesting to those whose kids were there with me. it's 3 minutes of super-cute kids watching a bike race...
the summer is coming to a close and so too should my biking season...but it's not. saturday was my 3rd of 4 events on the summer, but it was no cakewalk.
the ultimate challenge was formerly named the '300 warriors'. then the '1000 warriors'. however, last year there was a tragic accident and the race was revamped and the name changed. there was no official timing this year and starts were staggered to avoid a mass descent in AF canyon.
the course follows the same roads to be ridden by leipheimer, hincapie and bookwalter (among others pros) in next weeks Tour of Utah. it's a fun promotion for the tour and for us wannabe's we get to project ourselves into the queen stage next sunday...
michael and amy were able to shuttle us to park city at 5:45 am because amy's brother paul unexpectedly came into town and watched the girls while they drove.
originally, i'd planned to ride with two docs from work--jorgensen and oliver. jorgensen invited a friend along--shaun--and guenter volunteered as medical support (which really means swag, a free ride for the price of wearing a red fanny pack:) gratefully there were no serious incidents requiring his services!
here we are shivering at 45 degrees waiting for michael and shaun to arrive.
the ride took us out to kamas with a deceptive amount of small, steep pitches. we would stop briefly at each support station to replenish water and food. one of the joys when there's no official time (my garmin gps timer stopped when we stopped:) we dropped down past jordanelle into midway, wended our way across the valley, dropped off jackets and downed a PBJ before heading out past deer creek. i enjoyed talking with guys in the paceline i'd not met before and catching up with the guys from the group whom i usually only see in passing during a busy ER shift.
the descent into provo canyon began with construction and tight lanes, but widened just before the ascent into sundance canyon.
at the start of the sundance canyon i laid down a bit of a tempo increase which left our group at 4 for the rest of the ride. towards the top of the climb shaun put in a huge acceleration where brian and i followed him. unbeknownst to us he was climbing to talk with a friend he'd seen up ahead. he is a strong racer (finished 4th in his division at tour of park city) and the accelerations took a bit too much glycogen from my muscles' stores. brian and i reached the top together and ate at the top before regrouping with michael and shaun for the descent. in retrospect, this acceleration was one that took more out of my legs than i would have liked and made the climb to snowbird the brutal event that it became.
the canyon road had been swept with very few rocks but lots of cars parked near camping sites. it was a fast, safe, fun descent. we entered alpine near mile 73 where a surprise group was sitting with signs and cheering at the round about.
amy, paul (her brother) and the kids rode from here along the rest of the route cheering us on at different intervals. they were such good sports and it was a lot of fun to have them along. bekah was usually nearest the window as they would drive by her face would light up as she would wave and cheer from her car seat. ella probably enjoyed the process least as we found on arriving home that she had a fever. poor girl.
climbing out a draper there are some very steep descents and i thought i lost the guys ahead of me (that's why the pros use radios?) i guess just brian was ahead of me and shaun and michael were behind me. regardless, when i reached the final support station at the base of little cottonwood i didn't see the guys at the tent and decided to go on without stopping. this was a mistake. i only had two half water bottles left in 95 degree weather. i thought, 'it's only 6 miles, how hard could it be?' i've ridden little cottonwood before at good tempo with a high cadence. that was my vision of how i would finish this race. however, the climb starts at mile 94 and rarely drops below 8-11% grade. my cadence fell as my muscles cried and burned. at mile 97 i was out of water and downed my last two hammer goo packets. amy had been leap frogging me as i climbed and i figured i couldn't stop with the kids watching! i stopped at the car and paul thankfully filled my water bottle. she had purchased cafe rio so i wolfed down several bites.
you can see me making my wobbly way to the car here...
i was wolfing down pork barbacoa burrito when michael, shaun and brian came up from behind me. i then realized they had stopped at the final support tent and had been behind me.
i hopped back on my bike for the final 3 miles. the food seemed to have lifted my reserve as my garmin says i lifted a full 1 mph thereafter.
regardless, it felt good to reach the top. i'd hung with the guys from work and had enjoyed a great day with them in the saddle.
good times.
i worked 9p-3a that night (a shift i picked up last minute in trade for gma's birthday next week.) as i waited for a VQ scan to finalize disposition last night and the hour drew near 5 am i realized i'd been up 24 hours. i couldn't decide if the aching in my muscles was myalgias from a virus contracted from ella or from the ride. regardless i was glad to collapse into bed this morning...
and last but not least (can you tell we just purchased a macbook with imovie?) in video format..:
this past weekend we rode in the inaugural saints to sinners bike relay. it was a riot. over the past many months as i organized and cajoled to get a team together i've gone back and forth with excitement and concern for whether my teammates would enjoy the experience. we went from a team of 12 at one point to a team of 3 men at the beginning of july. jonny, ryan and myself. jonny and ryan were with us from the start and when we thought we might not get a team together they were still with us. luckily, two friends from high school with whom i've biked for years came through to round out the team--jared and brent.
my uncertainty stemmed mainly from the safety of the roads and whether the race would be engaging enough in-between legs. we had 5 riders so it meant a greater challenge and longer miles. i knew this would be a cool aspect of the ride. i was worried enough that i went to great lengths to get a good mix of movies and TV shows that we could play in the car while others were biking. 'pacific', 'generation kill', 'karate kid' and 'green zone' among others. however, even with all that good entertainment at our fingertips, we didn't crack a dvd case once...
as a warning. before i launch into my thoughts and the play-by-play of the race. you may want to just skip to the 10 minute video at the end of the post that contains all the photos and video we took while out on the course. your call.
i worked till 1 am the night before and was up at 5:45 am the morning of the race friday, july 30th. four of us converged on the public park in south jordan where the race would start. the day before i painted the car windows and put on jared's hitch rack.
on arrival we signed wavers, ate pancakes and cheered brent as he began the race for us. from the moment brent began the race there was this ever-present tug on my mind. an inexorable march towards vegas that pulled us forward. at any point we could not stay for too long or we would miss our compatriot at the next transition point. it was this tug and excitement regarding the next leg of the race that led to constant attention and enjoyment.
we raced past brent in the car overlooking the gorgeous sunrise from the west side of utah lake. in retrospect we are really glad we started at 7am. it would be nice to start even earlier next year. as we headed south i began to feel excitement and anxious about my first leg of the race. this was the constant enjoyment of the event. that you had your part to do and you didn't want to let the team down. that constant concern for doing your part led to a variety of interesting emotions.
my leg started in goshen. brent paced with a team from vegas 'chupacabra' during his leg and this definitely helped the two teams time! the goshen post office graciously lent its bathroom to participants and was rewarded by the loss of all its toilet paper.
my mom, amy and our kids arrived in goshen to cheer me on just before i started. they made some great signs and it was a great send-off.
my climb up through goshen canyon was beautiful but with a headwind. i'd hoped to pace with another team, but left him behind with concern that i would get caught out in the wind and neither of us would move that quickly along the route. that concern was unfounded.
i passed through nephi quickly where i waved fleetingly to my kids who'd come south to one more transition to wave and cheer.
beyond nephi was the busiest section of the road. a road i've traveled for years en-route to grandma and grandpa's. a few semi-trucks passed and with them the wind at your back or face, but i didn't feel as nervous on the road as i thought i might. however, i wouldn't complain if the race started earlier next year and we could fly over that road in the dark with less cars to the prettier areas of the race.
after 40 miles, ryan spelled me and headed south towards salina. ryan kept up a very quick tempo as our team was averaging over 20mph on each leg to this point.
south of salina jonny and i rode together. it was fun to pace with jonny. the winning team of ten ('we abuse crack') paced each other throughout the race (each rider rode double the legs.) we did this to a degree as a 5-man team and it definitely helped.. brent, ryan and i each found other legs to double up on so that we could increase our overall speed. over 500 miles, 1 mph will decrease your overall time by nearly an hour... the winning 10-man team averaged 20.1 mph and we averaged 19.3 mph as the winning 5-man team.
our first mishap came in richfield when i was hit by a car. some middle aged woman pulled past jonny and me and then made a sharp right hand turn immediately in front of me. i bruised my shin on her bumper and landed on my left backside. i held the bike up and sustained one small scratch on the quick release and an almost imperceptible brushing on the paint of the top-tube. i was furious and looked my bike over for a few minutes while jonny talked with the woman who'd hit me. we hopped back on the bikes and minus the pain in my leg we were as good as new. we finished our 40 mile leg on an uphill to big-rock candy mountain. who knew there was a big-rock candy mountain south of salina? the whole river and canyon area around big rock candy mountain was beautiful.
our second mishap came with jared's first of two punctures. luckily we weren't too far ahead and as soon as his pacing partner came by without him we raced back to help him. we had the tire changed and him back on the road within 8 minutes. ryan jumped from his seat and offered to pace jared back into the race. this was good of ryan as he and jared had the longest combined solo mileage.
in panguitch we saw quite a few teams as this was the second major transition after gunnison. in gunnison, we'd seen kelly, kathy and kayli. it was fun to talk with them before we headed south. in panguitch we saw the 'death star' team. amy and mel were at this transition as they had been at gunnison. it was fun to follow them down the course. what a sacrifice for them to volunteer those 24 hours with very little sleep. thank you!! luckily they claim that volunteering was a lot of fun...
in panguitch, brent started the climb up cedar breaks. the climb up cedar breaks is about 32 miles and we ascended from 6632 to 10,581 feet above sea level. brent took half the mileage and 1500 vertical feet on his climb and i took the rest. his climb began with some very steep grades early on as a warm-up.
i've never climbed to an elevation on the road above 8700 feet (little cottonwood.) the two things that stuck out was that we climbed from 80+ degree weather in panguitch to 55 degrees at the top. i also noticed that if i took too long drinking from my water bottle (breath holding) that i would become nauseated and air hungry.
the views at the top were gorgeous. it was one of the best parts of the course. the views were idyllic as we rode past farmland, lush meadows, a breezy lake and stunning views of the redrock at sunset.
ryan descended into cedar city at impressive speeds and while we were all worried for him on the way down, he was careful and said the descent was a lot of fun. other teams i spoke with said the ride down the canyon was a riot even though it was in the dark. we took a 30 minute nap in cedar city and headed out west of cedar en-route to saint george. jonny rode solo past amy and melinda's next volunteer transition point.
then jared and brent took us down another big descent and up another big climb through saint george and just shy of mesquite.
another great aspect of the ride was all the other riders and teams. we rode most of the course in tandem with 'the wookies', 'one for the money', 'chupacabra' and 'we abuse crack'. each had different vehicles ranging from RV's to mini-vans. the other teams varied in biking experience and life experience. along with meeting the volunteers along the route, riding with and getting to know the other teams was one of the very cool aspects of the event. you bond with people when you're all pushing as hard as you can to achieve a goal. there was always friendly competition, but also camaraderie as it was common to have other teams drive by and cheer you on and we would do the same for their riders.
another impressive aspect of the race were steven and jill (the race organizers.) with very little sleep they were always smiling and calm. steven was unflappable as the teams barreled down the state of utah with (and sometimes without) the volunteer stations being assembled just in time to catch them. he was impressive in his calm as two volunteer teams dropped out the week before the race. there were also teams much slower than their projected times making the logistics delightful. they were calm in the midst of a good time...
the worst part of the event for me was the hours surrounding my 5 am ride. i'd slept 3 1/2 hours the night before the event and only 30 minutes during the event. i was physically spent and definitely felt more like hopping into bed than hopping on a bike. the ride through mesquite was not sexy with black dirty rain covering my bike and me and these rollers on the road that required climb after climb with seemingly no end in sight. for a moment at the start of this leg i thought i'd be able to pace the leg with stu segura (a friend from highland--whom i met at loma linda during his pediatric dentristry fellowship.) however, it was not to be as his compatriot was 10-15 minutes behind ours and so i soldiered on alone.
ryan and brent then conquered 18 miles of I-15. they said it was surprisingly smooth and they flew in their paceline of two.
jonny and i rode his next leg together. the terrain of this ride was something i'd never seen. pure rocky desert bordering lake mead. there were strong headwinds and climb after climb. it was great to ride that section with jonny. we neared the end of that leg and could see the tent at the end of a distant climb. jonny turned and said, 'i've always wanted to race in a mountaintop finish.' we pushed hard to the top of the climb and we both felt like we'd given our all to the team as jared began the final leg. nick and kelly (sp?) were at this transition point and nick cheered us up in our BYU kits. hopefully we did the school proud?
due to some problems with tent/support placement, the final leg was 5 miles longer than we'd bargained for. jared got beat down by the extra five miles and the heat. he soldiered on with great strength as he had another tire puncture and was forced to ride brent's bike with the wrong clips for the pedals. he held it together as we switched out water bottles for him and poured water over his back. he rode brent's bike for at least a mile by the time we brought him the other bike with the repaired tire. brent and ryan both paced for a period during this final leg.
reaching the finish was a definite relief. we enjoyed some post-ride food. and headed to the golden spike for swimming and a nap before the awards ceremony. i haven't felt that good in a swimming pool for a long time.
that night we went to the wold buffet at the rio and ate as many calories as we could possibly stuff down. what a great place. we collapsed in the hotel and slept for 12 hours after dinner. 12 hours of sleep was heavenly after what we'd been through.
we were excited to win the 5-man division at the awards ceremony and to get jerseys! we did not enter to win the race but to do our best and have fun. i'm sure we'll have trouble defending our division title with many more participants next year, but either way there will be a ton of fun waiting for us at next year's event...
good clean fun over the weekend. 
