Rupert Ride

Dave is an awesome cyclist!


Warning: All these detail may be very boring to many of you!
In February I signed up and purchased a spot in the Little Red Riding Hood ride in Lewiston, Utah. I have some friends that talked me into riding 100 miles (a century ride). At the time I knew that was a lot, but it wasn't until I struggled in the Rupert Ride that I had my doubts about ever finishing 100 miles.
On Saturday May 14th, Dave and I drove to Rupert to participate in this ride. I really needed a longer ride to train me for my 100 miles. This ride was a 33 mile loop and I was planning on doing it twice, so 66 miles. The furthest I had gone at this point was 42 miles. I first have to explain that we have some really awesome riding friends. Many of them have participated in the Lotoja which is the Logan To Jackson Hole 207 mile ride! They thrive on competition and racing against their personal best times. At the starting line I told Dave to go ahead and ride with them and I will ride with the ladies. Come to find out my awesome, athletic friend, Kim Evans, also went with the men. I don't blame her. She can keep up and she is amazing. There was still two other ladies I came with and one of them was taking it slow because she was running a marathon the next week (Lisa Winans). My other friend, Cindy Jensen, is about 15 years older than me and was just getting into biking. Lisa said she was planning to stay with Cindy the whole ride. As I started out with them I realized that I could go faster and if I didn't then I would be riding for more hours than I wanted to. I decided to pull ahead and tackle it on my own. Almost immediately I started to doubt how I was going to do it alone. I called Dave on his phone to see if he would hold back and ride with me but he didn't answer. As I was cycling away I found a group of women who were going about my pace and I started drafting off of them. I stayed with them the whole 33 mile loop and we found other riders along the way that we hooked onto. I felt pretty good after that 33 mile loop. When I returned and readied myself for my next loop, I learned from Lisa that Cindy took a bad fall and was at the hospital. She was drafting off Lisa and somehow clipped her back tire and went down on her knee. It was very bad news. Lisa had only about 5 miles into the ride when it happened and so she wanted to go at least one loop. No one in my first group of riders was doing another 33 so Lisa and I ventured on our own. She was as fresh as the morning and I was hitting a wall. I had very little energy and she had to pull most of the way. I was really struggling. I finished my 66 miles in 4 hours. As I finished my 66 miles I told Kim and Dave there was no way I could do 100 at Little Red because I couldn't even bear the thought of going another 33 miles. I also decided that if it is torture it takes the fun out of biking and I want it to always be something I enjoy to do. I was quite discouraged with myself after that ride. Dave on the other hand did very well. He stayed up with our amazing cyclist friends on his first 33 mile loop. He even pulled the group for 3-4 miles. He tried to wait for me and find me before starting his second loop but we never hooked up and he ended up riding the 2nd loop on his own, still finishing about 30 minutes before me! Our friend Cindy is in bad shape. She ended up with a fractured tibia that needed 14 pins and 2 plates, she broke her thumb which also required a pin. She will be in a wheelchair/walker for 3 months followed by crutches for 3 months. Biking can be very dangerous and requires a lot of concentration and safety.
After this ride I continued to train by riding to Inkom and around the Tyhee Flats ( 64 miles, 4.5 hours) and American Falls (Seagull Bay) and back twice (79 miles, 5 hours). Each ride I felt stronger and recovery was not as long. Yesterday I did the LIttle Red ride...check back for an update on that :)