Wildflower Pedalfest! My friend convinced me a few months back to do this 75 (77 actual, but who is counting, right?) ride with her. Promises of handmade breads and chocolates and a dessert bar swayed me into the ride. This was my longest ride yet! We got there super early and so my friend helped me be cute by putting fingernail sticker things that were flowers on my nails. How fun, right? Doing nails in the car at 6AM :) At least we didn't have to catch a bus!! We got everything ready and headed off. The first problem came at mile .5 - yup, only half a mile in Steph asked me if she had a flat tire. Sure enough she did! We changed her tire and thankfully a guy pulled over to give his wife her sunglasses and had a pump and some hand muscles to help with the tire. We found the little rock as we were inflating, got it out and we were finally on our way at 7:30...instead of 7:00! The first stop was at only 13.5 miles. I didn't really need a stop, but since I'd signed up for all the food...well, we stopped :) Yummy breads and I pilfered a few gus, chomps, trader joe fig bars. Then, we were off again. This section had a nice climb up to the dam at East Canyon Reservoir. I really only remember about the last mile getting to me and being done. It wasn't hard, but I knew I had a tough hill climb coming still and it made me wonder. We then stopped at East Canyon and indulged in watermelon and chocolate bananabread pb sandwiches...YUM! Only mile 28. I think I was eating more than I was burning. Finally all that was left was the timed hill climb of 5.5 miles up the back side of Big Mountain. I had no idea what I was in for! NONE! So, I started off conservatively. A low gear and a cadence I could handle. Well, it worked out. I passed Steph who had taken off at the start and no one passed me. Lots of women were walking their bikes! They had signs every half mile up the road. Finally with about 1.5 miles to go I could see the downhill people pedaling. YEEE HAWW! I knew I had a break coming. It was a very nice one at that. A little downhill and flat to recover the heart rate and recommit to continuing strong. My official finish time was 43:47 - this was 59th overall/244 and 10th in my AG/41. So, top quarter...not too shabby for a girl that can't climb hills! The way down?!? VERY delightful. 45+mph avg topping at 51.3...gotta love it baby!! Then we just had the trek back to East Canyon, then down the dam road and a last stop just 8ish miles from the finish. I was done. It was hot. I was tired. My neck hurt. I was getting a stomach ache and a head ache. I was done talking. I was just done. But, we stopped, because I really wanted to just stretch OFF the bike. Coming into the finish was a little anti-climatic. No one to cheer at the finish line. No one even taking pictures. Kind of stunk to be honest. I guess a finish line of a bike ride is MUCH different than a finish line of a running race. We got some yummy eats (again!) - wraps from Roosters in Ogden and chocolate milk and more watermelon. Steph and I ate and then hit the desserts and were somewhat disappointed. I don't know if it was just that my gut couldn't really eat or if they really just weren't that good, but we really didn't eat all that much :/ No raffle prizes either, stink. Not even the toss outs. We did get a bondi band headband for making it to the top of Big Mountain, but that was all. We had a great ride home and it was a wonderful day with an incredible friend. I'm glad I had her there. I would've been a long, lonely, miserable 77 miles without Steph! Best non-running day in quite some time. I'll have to post pics later....
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