You're MSing with the Wrong Person

Just in case you didn’t know if Steve and I were capable of riding our bikes 100 miles in one day…turns out we are!

Here’s how we did it...

Last year we tried and failed to ride the 100 miles. This time we took the challenge a lot more seriously. It started by riding a whole lot more than we did previously. We were able to ride all winter long thanks to the bike trainers we obtained. It was really nice to ride and watch TV. There is nothing like sweating it at 18 miles per hour while watching Tyra Banks put a crop full of girls through some serious torture. It was really very entertaining.

After it warmed up, we felt guilty for keeping our bikes inside, so we broke-em out and hit the pavement. Steve broke his out earlier than me and began riding outside, but I waited until it got really warm first. I hate to ride and be cold, so my first session outside was the Goldilocks all Women’s ride.

I didn’t actually participate and pay for this event, I just rode with my friend Angela for 25 or 30 miles on her first ever distance ride. It was a great way to start out. I even got to climb the hill up to Camp Williams which I have always wanted to do, but never have because I fear traffic.

The weeks following we did long rides together each Saturday. We also did the American Diabetes Association Tour-de-Cure on June 11th. It was a perfect training ride for this except for the fact that I wasn’t really sure I could go much farther than that. I squeaked 60 miles out that day, but I’m not sure I could have gone one more. I decided then that I would either do it or die trying.

I got some good advice from my favorite Iron Man, Skyler Wallace. I consulted him about nutrition and what I should be eating the week of the race. I wanted to know if there were any particular foods I should be eating that would give me a more competitive edge, or at least help sustain me forty miles longer than I thought I could go. He suggested eating complex carbs until the day before when I could go to the simple carbs like you know spaghetti and Twinkies (okay, he never specifically said Twinkies).

We also hydrated ourselves all week long, drinking more water than either of us care to drink. My friend Missy had a little mis-hap the Saturday before during the Huntsman 140 and ended up in the ER after the race due to dehydration. So, that was a good reminder of the importance of staying hydrated before, during, and after a ride.

So Friday the 24th came around and we packed the kids up, loaded the bikes and gear and set off. First stop Grandma Wardle’s where the kids would be staying for the next two nights. I know from previous experience that I am a really crappy mom after a long race, so I got them a temporary surrogate.

After the drop off of our most precious cargo, I picked Steve up downtown. We headed north toward Logan. We were both so hungry that we abandoned our plan to stop at the world’s best restaurant The Taco Maker and ate at our newest favorite and best restaurant La Puente. We’ve never tried the Layton location before, but turns out it’s our FAVORITE La Puente of them all.

After eating some simple carbs aka smothered burrito with rice and beans, we were on the road to the University Inn, the on-campus Utah State University student-run hotel. We’ve stayed there in the past and had a good experience. Our favorite part is that your stay comes with tokens to get a complimentary ice cream cone from Aggie Ice Cream.

We checked in to the hotel, Steve got the bikes all settled and all our equipment ready for the next morning.
I found my way to the restroom thanks to the three diet cokes I drank at dinner and found that bathroom to be striking similar to the restroom in our hotel from last year.

What is it with these Cache Valley hotel rooms and bathroom doors that graze the toilet? Is there no other way to lay out a bathroom. Am I the only one who doesn’t appreciate wrestling a door when I have an urgent need?

After getting all settled in the room, we took our ice cream tokens and made good with them. I had a delicious Raspberries and Cream cone and Steve got his favorite Cookie Fudge.

We went back to the room and hit the sack to get a good night’s sleep.
We woke up at about 5:30 the next morning, showered ate a little breakfast and headed down the start line with Missy.

We rushed around a little getting ourselves to the start line. Steve thoughtfully created a detailed schedule that, if we kept to it, we would finish the race with a few minutes to spare before the route closed. (Of course he did).
The schedule had us leaving the starting line in the first wave at 7:00 am sharp.


I noticed right before we headed to the start line that my little cyclometer wasn’t really functioning. It tells me how fast I am going, how many miles I’ve ridden, how long we’ve been at it, you know…all the stuff you would HAVE to know when riding 100 miles. The battery was weak, and it wasn’t working. PERFECT! Why would I want to know any of that info today. At that point I realized I would spend the entire day asking Steve… “How fast are we going?” “How many miles have we gone?” “How long have we been pedaling? What time is it?” I knew that wouldn’t get old.

Despite our aggressive effort to get to the front of the pack of around 3,000 riders, we didn’t quite make the first wave, so we took a few fun start line photos while we waited and ended up making the third wave and left the start line at 7:07 am.


It’s always so much fun to start this race. So much excitement and SO many riders. Since the race officials start the riders in waves, its not as intimidating to begin.
Riding in a pack of cyclists is scary since if one of them makes a little error, it can bring down a number of riders.

The pack breaks up after five or ten minutes and thins out into a long stream of riders.
It’s one of the coolest parts of participating in these large organized rides. There is nothing like seeing an endless stream of uniformed riders against lush fields of green. It’s really quite breathtaking.

It’s so breathtaking that I actually didn’t notice the problem I was having. I started to notice that my hands felt cold and that they were already buzzing from road vibration. This is not supposed to happen after only five miles. Usually my gloves keep my hands warm and comfy while I hold the grips of the bike. I looked down at my hands at mile five and realized there were no gloves on my hands! Great! No bike computer, no gloves! Perfect conditions for riding 100 miles.

My fear was that I had left the gloves in the car in the mad hurry to get to the start line. My hope was that I shoved the gloves into my back pockets of my bike jersey. I couldn’t even tell Steve that I didn’t have my gloves. I knew that without the gloves I probably couldn’t ride the full distance.

A few miles later, Steve asked how I was feeling to which I responded, “scared” then I confessed that I was gloveless. We pedaled to the first rest stop so I could check my pockets…To my compete joy, they were there! I had shoved them in my pockets!

I put the gloves on, the world seemed right again. I did a little stretching to prevent any future knee pain and we pedaled on.

It really is so much fun to do these rides. It was so fun to actually be out with Steve doing this together.
We have worked quite diligently together and apart to prepare for this day. To have it be so enjoyable (you know, not riddled with rain and tornados) was a real pleasantry. Cache Valley really is very beautiful except for the Dairy farms which are disgusting. At least disgusting smelling. Seriously, if I wasn’t so addicted to any and all dairy products, I’d be a vegan right now.

We pedaled into rest stop two in Trenton and were ready for a little sustenance. I had previously decided to drink two cups of Powerade at each stop. So I did that and ate a little bar of some kind. I sat on the grass to do a little more stretching and my Uncle Alan walked by.

This is my life-long cyclist Uncle.
Ever since I was a little girl Alyssa’s age, I knew that he was my uncle and that his passion was cycling. I’m not sure how that was demonstrated to me at an early age, I can’t really recall, but I always knew he was. It was a real honor to be participating in the same even as this man. Plus, I knew my Aunt Tammy (who might be the VocalSokol’s biggest fan) would be thrilled to see her husband on my blog.

As we were leaving the stop, I picked up my bike and headed into the street and I heard someone saying… “stop that lady in the sparkle skirt!” “What’s her name?” Steve who was more conscious of it called me back to talk to this lady.

This turned out to be Lisa. I don’t know her last name, she is a friend of my friend Angela and we actually rode together during the Goldilocks ride. She remembered my skirt from that ride (how could anyone forget) and knew we had a mutual friend. So there you go Angela…This one is for you. Next year you will be in this photo.

I love being noticed from my skirt. I can’t quite tell if it’s embarrassing or cool. I know it’s cool on Elise, because she is so inherently beautiful not to mention cool. When I wear it, I’m not sure it translates quite the same way. Either way I have a ton of fun wearing it, so if it is embarrassing, no one tell me because I love wearing it so much and I won’t stop. It’s just better if I don’t know.

And speaking of this green sparkle skirt (I also have a pink one) I got SOOOOOOOOOO many compliments it was ridiculous. Again, not sure if they were shocked by or really liked it. Were they laughing AT me or WITH me, not sure. Either way, it was fun to be noticed. I loved every time I rode by a window and saw my reflection sparkling by. If you can’t look like a parade float when you are riding a bike 100 miles, when CAN you look like a parade float? Anyone who knows me at all knows I live for parades and parade floats. I just love em. Everything should sparkle all the time. Why can we only have sparkle stuff on the Fourth of July. It just seems like a waste of resources not to.

Anyway…enough sparkle fettish…we pedaled on. Another rest stop in Richmond then onto our favorite portion of the ride last year, the foothills of Richmond, Smithfield and into Franklin Idaho. That’s right, I rode my bike from one state to another state and then back again all in the same day.

This is the most scenic and rural part of the ride. The views are also spectacular, although I don’t think I took any photos of the views this year. I did however take pictures of myself and Steve riding here. Don’t we look great? Yes.

We passed by a cute little house with the most beautiful vegetable garden I have ever seen (sorry dad). This cutest little 85 year old man was out standing in it. I really wanted to stop and tell him how very beautiful I thought his garden was, but I knew we were keeping a tight schedule and didn’t have time to stop and smell the roses or in this case, vegetables. Instead of stopping I shouted at the top of my lungs “Your garden is so beautiful!” as I rode by at 18 miles per hour. He did hear me shouting though and waved as if to say thanks for the compliment.

A little later we rode through a little flooding on the road way. I snapped a photo of it. This turned out to be a fantastic picture, I was actually riding when I shot this. I was surprised at how well it turned out.

I was a little worried with all the reports of flooding in and around Logan that we would have a lot of water to contend with, but there was nothing more severe than this. Even this flooding was limited to less than two or three locations. There was an obvious increase in the amount of water all over the landscape compared to what we witnessed last year.

After this lovely portion, we rode into another rest stop 10 minutes ahead of our schedule in Franklin Idaho. Many or all of the rest stops are sponsored by different businesses and or organizations. They had a little contest going where each rider would cast a vote for their favorite rest stop. The stop here was sponsored by the Utah Highway Patrol.

This was the most outstanding stop. It was a party! They had a DJ and everything! Steve and I felt like we were dancing on the edge of the Hollywood sign, it was that fun! I was glad we had an extra 10 minutes to hang and party with the wives and family members of the UHP who somehow got roped into working this stop and took their jobs very seriously.

They had kids walking around dressed as Bees misting cyclists with spray bottles. There was little grandma walking around with this stamper tattooing the back of each cyclists leg with a UHP lightning bolt and giving permission to speed as long as it was on a bike.
They had people walking around with trays of snacks and little wrapped Bit-O-Honey candies (of which I meant to partake and somehow missed the chance). They had UHP cruisers from like the last 5 decades on display. There was police tape and outlines of bodies spray painted all over the place. It was hilarious, fun and funny. We really enjoyed ourselves there. We really hated to leave, but we had a schedule to keep. Thanks to our lead coming into the stop, we were able to leave on time (almost).

From there, we rode on toward, I can’t remember, Weston maybe, but I know it was up a big gnarly hill that lasted for about 5 miles. See, I can ride, and I can ride fast, but I can’t ride up hills fast on account of my bum knee. If I muscle it and put a lot of strain on my knee than that’s it for the day. Knee pain, it’s over. So my approach this year, which worked, but was annoying was to ride up the hills in my granny gear. So while everyone around me was working hard and sweating it to get up the hill, I was cruising along at about 4 mph singing la-de-dah…I felt stupid, especially on the long hills, but it worked and my knees did NOT hurt during this race. It was funny because I was wearing my heart rate monitor and at every hill, my heart rate dropped. Weird.

Anyway…we got up big hill and stopped at the Bad Ass Coffee sponsored stop. We refreshed ourselves with a lovely blue-ish beverage and ran into this fellow.
It’s Kevin! He’s one of our neighbors. It so fun to run into people you know on these things.

So this was the fateful stop last time. There is a loop you take after this stop that goes out 15 miles or so and then comes back and you actually stop at this Bad Ass stop again. It was shortly after this stop last year that we realized we were way behind pace and wouldn’t finish before the 4:30 deadline. So we turned around and never made the loop. That’s how we ended up finishing last year with only 89 miles. We took a shortcut.

We were very excited to see what the loop was like since we had never been on it. I didn’t know this until we were there, but Steve had taken the little tiny map that they give you to carry on your bike and mounted it on his wall at work. He for a year has been visualizing himself in Dayton Idaho which is the farthest out point you get to on this course. So when he saw the “Now Entering” sign he was really excited to be here. He told me and I made him stop for a photo.

You made it. Congratulations. Now we just have to get back.

This was by far the driest and most deserty part of the course. If you were going to skip part of it, this is the part to skip.

Once we rounded out the loop and started back, it got better.

I heard people were dying to get in there.

What? It never gets old. People always think it’s funny.

We were on this long stretch of highway for a long time. We were watching from a distance this plane flying really low to the ground. We were wondering why and what he was doing. After a while we were right up close to where he was flying and found the plane to be crop dusting. Look at that cloud of delicious pesticides. Mmm.


Think about then next time you’re not sure if your’re going to wash your vegetables very well. I never fully appreciated why it was SO important to wash your fruits and vegetables. I guess I’d rather not eat this cloud of chemicals if I could help it. Also the organic section at Smith’s is looking a little more tempting.

We also passed this beautiful dilapidated barn. I took this photo while riding too. I had no idea it would turn out so nice. It’s amazing how much of the world you miss riding in a car. You just don’t see the detail in the world around you. Cars are too fast, walking is too slow. Biking as Goldilocks would say, just right.

We hit the Bad Ass stop again and then pedaled our way toward the highly anticipated lunch stop. I’ll be honest, the ride was a little on the painful side at this point.



We all know where Weston is right? Why, it's west of Preston of course! We passed right by this freight train. It was very noisy once we got right up to it. Although, when the train blew its whistle I peed my pants a little and we almost fell off our bikes. It was very alarming. Was not expecting that.



We were at around 65 miles and everything was starting to wear out, including my good attitude. I just kept pedaling, knowing that lunch and a long 40 minute break was only 9 miles ahead then 7, then 5, then 2, then up in the distance I saw a steeple and I knew the lunch stop at the Lewiston church was within sight. I was hurting and hungry and wanted to stop. I knew I could make it to the steeple where I knew the stop would be. As we got closer, my excitement increased. As we got extremely close I started to worry. Where was everyone. There was nothing here. Nothing but an empty church house. What the??? Then I remembered that this same thing happened last year! We got punked by this steeple. The real lunch stop is next to another church 2 more miles down the road. They were the two angriest miles of the whole trip.


But then, the world suddenly got a whole lot better…enter, sandwich.


It may not look like much, but this was the most delicious sandwich I have ever had. A lady, right before they served it to me put a big handful of shredded iceberg lettuce on it. Nothing ever looked and tasted more delicious than a big gloved handful of shredded wet (old) lettuce. It’s funny how extreme fatigue and hunger make anything edible seem like the most desirable thing in the whole world.
Oh we ate the lunch and enjoyed it. I came with a cookie, which somehow…did not seem appealing and I did not eat it. Have I ever turned down a delicious cookie? No. I don’t think I have.


Getting back on the bike was like torture after that. 74 miles on a bike is too long in one day. Somehow we managed. We were close now and just wanted to be done. We rode though familiar territory. We’d been here last year. We rode as fast as we could, which wasn’t all that fast. Probably around 14 and 15 instead of the 18 and 19 we were doing before. We took turns leading and drafting off of each other which helped.

I saw this monstrous tractor coming down the road, so I whipped out my camera and dared Steve to ride underneath it. He totally did it! He’s such a dare-devil. What a maniac.

Unfortunately, it happened so fast that I didn’t get a photo of him under the moving large tractor. So there is no way for me to PROVE to you that it actually happened, you’ll just have to take my word for it that Steve rode his bike under a giant moving tractor while it was driving down the street. Yah, it happened. Just like that.

Anyway…this is getting long…pedal, pedal, pedal, then we were almost done. We actually enjoyed the last 7 miles a lot. Everything that was previously painful and hurting was totally numb and we could no longer feel them, so it wasn’t a problem. With four miles to go I looked down and saw that my right thigh was looking a little pink. I knew I had forgotten to hit that spot when I reapplied my sunscreen at 12:30. I knew I would have a gnarly sunburn there and it was too late to really address it, so we rode on.

We pulled in the last mile with big smiles on our accomplished faces. We rode across the finish line together! We were three minutes ahead of the time Steve had planned for us to arrive. He planned it for 4:23 and we arrived at 4:20!





It was all so very exciting. We sat down after celebrating our victory and almost immediately we just both got super stupid. Had a hard time finishing sentences, couldn’t really make any decisions. Some guy came up to us, who was a former employee of Fidelity and he had a lot of specific comments and questions about the firm. We couldn’t even explain to him that we don’t work there, Missy does and we are just on their team. I’m sure he has already closed his account based on our apparent idiocy. All I really remember was that I was so very hot just sitting in the park. It wasn’t so hot on a bike riding, but sitting still was so uncomfortable. Also, major allergy attack at that park. If I had a spoon then, I am sure I would have removed my own eyes, that’s how itchy and dry they got all of a sudden.

We met this older, heavier couple at lunch. They were also riding the 100 mile course. And we saw them come in to the finish only about 5 minutes after us. Seriously. You never can tell.

We in a very dazed and confused manor got ourselves to the van, loaded the bikes in and drove back to the hotel where I didn’t waste a second getting into the shower. Steve was kind enough to get me some ice where after my shower I iced what would be my fanciest sunburn ever. Very pink.



I watched Pretty Woman which I am pretty sure is always playing on cable television. We don’t have cable, but when we go on vacation, it seems like it’s always on TV. Afterwards, we saw some of Airplane! Another cable classic.
After Steve’s shower and some serious laying around, we both got extremely hungry and just had to eat something, anything. We had planned to have a lovely and gluttonous dinner, but ended up at…Carl’s Junior out of stupidity and extreme hungriness. At least we had the sense to treat ourselves to the fancy Six Dollar burgers they have on the menu, you know for when you’re having a special occasion. The burger was really good though. I’m glad I ate it.

Then we went to Smith’s so I could get some eye drops for my incredibly dry eyes. I wouldn’t even mention this part on the blog except that something amazing happened while we were there. We saw this super cute 80-year-old couple. I am sorry I only got a pic of their backs. She had this awesome ginormous red bow in her little old lady hair. They were both decked out for the Fourth of July. The best part is that they arrived in this car.


This little old couple pulled up in this Yaris. It’s like the ultimate compact college mobile, but no it belonged to this 80 year old couple. I love, love, love they had taped a flag to the back antenna. I just sincerely hope I am this cool when I am their age. I hope people notice me and take pictures of how cool I am when I am this age.

Here we are leaving our hotel:


And here we are packing our bikes back home:


So, that’s it. That’s the ride. 100.11 miles, 6 hours 50 minutes pedal time. 9 hour 10 minutes time total start to finish. According to my heart rate monitor I burned a total 3231 calories. I was surprised, I thought it would be more.

As we rode, we saw a lot of people with jerseys that said “Riding with MS.” It really was inspiring to be part of this great cause. When I was a home health aide in college, I used to help patients with MS, and it is a terrible disease. There are several potential cures and the money raised by this ride (over $1.4 million this year) will help the 1 in 300 Utahns that will face MS. Really, 1 in 300. That means at least one of your facebook friends will be helped by this great cause.
The Salt Lake Tribune had a great article with photos and inspirational stories. You should check it out here.

We are very grateful to our many, many generous donors who made this ride possible for us. With all their help, we were able to raise $385 for Diabetes and $545 for MS. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Here they are in random order.
Cousin Amber
Evan Koo
Diane and Blaine Anderson
Bryan Hansen
Brittany and Clay Jorgensen
Jason Wardle
Amy Muir
Megan Brown (the Sweet Tooth Fairy)
Tamara Thomas
Dan Wetsel
Mari Norman or whatever
Cindy Call
Shar Cardona
Kathie Bradshaw
Debby Miller
Krystle Hawks
Wilford flipping Brimley (aka Angela Davies)
Judith White
Emilee Eyre
Darla Wardle (my mom)
Mari Goodman
Andrea Binns
Maryanne Riley
Julene Sorenson
Elise Wallace
Rose McPhail
Ally Yeats
Corey Marini
Jen Conley
Mark Bigelow
Bob Sokol
Jeff Sokol
Tim Bahr
Tammy Wardle
Brian Brand (recognizing Mary Brand)
Ryan Wardle
Brian and Phaly Elliott
Seymour Butts/Cameron Nelson
Trevor Jones
Aunt Tammy
Grandpa Olson
Theresa Chappell