After fully recovering from the
misery that was the Diabetes Tour de Cure we attempted the MS 150, or in our case, the MS 100 this weekend.
The weather patterns throughout Utah were quite different this weekend than they were two weeks ago. Instead of ripping wind and pounding rain, angels ascended in the east bringing with it the sun with its gentle and warming rays.
The weather seriously could not have been more perfect. There aren’t many days that I am not cold when I begin cycling early in the morning, but this day was one of them. We were simply delighted to be taking part in this the best race in the state on the best day of the year weather wise. It almost didn’t happen though…
Sunny our beloved 2-year-old has an incredible knack of getting sick when we have trips or big events. We affectionately call her “The Spoiler.”
She has had a pretty serious case of the conjunctivitis, or more commonly, pink eye. We got her on the drops almost immediately and she got better, but then, on the last day of drops, it got worse, then much worse and then much much worse. She landed in the Insta-Care where the Docs are ALWAYS stellar.
We took her to the real doctor the next morning where we learned she had a more serious eye infection that the doc decided to treat aggressively with an antibiotic shot that day, one the next and one a day after that.
After learning that it was much more difficult for me to still want to go participate in the ride. But since my friend Amy is a pediatric nurse who works at Primary Children’s, we felt okay. Especially after her eye started to improve so quickly after the shot.
So we headed to Logan with bikes on the back of our car. We made a quick dinner stop at the best restaurant of all time, Taco Maker, and drove the rest the way to Logan where we found our lovely accommodations at the Quality Inn. They really should spell it Kwality Inn to make guests understand the type of “Kwality” they will get.
Really it wasn’t bad, but we’ve been pretty spoiled lately staying in some nice places, so this seemed a little seedier than what we were used to. My main complaint besides the extremely firm borderline granite bed was the door in relation to the toilet in the bathroom.
I’ll let this photo illustrate the problem. Every time we went potty we had to wrestle the door and the door always won.
Promptly after our check-in we made our way to the race village and saw nothing going on so we left and found out where everyone who should have been there was. Aggie Ice Cream. We went with our good friends the Lester's. I didn’t take any photos there, so I’ll illustrate the experience with one word. Super yummy!
Then back to the motel where we set up for the next day and hopped into bed. The alarm rang early, we showered and headed down to the fairground where the ride began.
We met up with good friend/sister Missy (the one responsible for getting me to do most of the crazy things I do) who was already at the Park and ready to ride. We made a few last second preparations, took a few pics and headed for the startline.
When our wave began we were off. It’s always a little nerve racking to ride with hundreds of people in close proximity, but we all managed to stay up. The crowd soon thinned out into a steady stream of colorful cyclists.
It really makes a pretty picture to see 5000 riders all in a row cutting a path through the Cache Valley which is already very pretty.
We passed some stinky dairy farms and lots of industrial warehouses on the way out of town and soon found ourselves in the beautiful countryside. With perfect weather, no traffic concerns and spectacular beauty all around us, we were on cloud nine for cyclists.
We really enjoyed our fast paced (for us) ride. We skipped the first rest stop and headed to the second where we stopped for a snack, a drink and a honey bucket. We ended up staying longer than we thought and learned a little lesson about pacing which will apply during our strategy for next year.
We headed from the rest stop in Trenton toward the Richmond foothills. We briefly stopped at the Richmond stop so Missy could have her seat looked at since it was bothering her a bit. They decided it was fine and we rode on. At this point I noticed my left knee hurting a bit. I know it has a tear in the cartilage which I intend to have surgically fixed in the Fall. It hurt a bit during tour de cure after about 40 miles, which is the same distance I noticed slight pain today. Bummer. We rode on though and I thought I’d be fine after popping 800 Ibuprofen at the next stop in Franklin.
Despite the manageable pain I felt I really enjoyed this part of the ride. It was incredibly scenic and the rolling hills made it so fun to cycle through. We stopped for a photo, which just doesn’t do justice to the beauty around us.
We stopped in Franklin ID where iced my knee and popped some pills.
We stayed here longer than I would have, but I wanted to see if the ice and ibuprofen would kick in and make a difference, which they did so after 30 minutes or so we rode on.
Before we left we had our photo taken at the Franklin, ID sign as evidence that we were there.
We rode across the valley to the 75/100 mile split.
We were all feeling pretty good, so we headed down the 100 mile route.
Here we had about 50 miles down. It got very hilly and then I noticed substantial pain when I put pressure on my knee joint riding up hills. I quickly noted that if I used my easier gears and spun faster, I could avoid most the pain. Missy started to get quick uncomfortable on the seat of her bike at this point too.
We let off a little on our pace and we noticed because we saw all the advanced riders coming back off the 100 mile loop. We knew we were behind most of the riders at this point and if we didn’t pick up our pace a lot would probably not finish before the route closed at 4:30. We made an executive decision to take a short cut and shave 11 miles off our route.
We rode by Weston, ID City Hall
We felt a little loser-ish for doing it, but didn’t want to be left alone on the course. (That’s no fun we learned during the Tour de Cure.) Half the fun is the camaraderie with all the other riders.
Here we are returning to our home state:
Here's Steve riding under a canal that is channeled over the top of the road.
I've never seen anything like that before.
We also saw a few little farm kids who had come out to cheer on all the cyclists riding past their farm.
It is amazing how much that actually did pick us up. We were hurting a little and their cheers made it better for a little while.
We caught up with the bulk of the cyclists and headed toward the lunch stop. We zig-zagged our way across the Cache Valley several times and found ourselves in Lewiston where we were served a boxed lunch from Quizno’s. Unfortunately, the stop was right next to a hayfield, freshly cut I might add. I am severely allergic to hay. It’s like my Kryptonite. I spent most of the break sneezing and trying to dig out my itchy eyes along with icing my already slightly swollen knee.
We hooked up with Scott (Missy’s husband) here and debated about whether Missy should let him take her back. She was in quite a bit of pain caused by her seat (not the most ergonomic design) She let our friend Curt from Bingham Cyclery adjust her seat and decided to ride on against my advice. She was in a lot of pain.
Here's Curt and his crew from Bingham Cyclery. They always help us out on these rides. We highly recommend their shop--as you can see they are hard workers.
Lucky Steve found a special sports beverage at the lunch stop.
They say that even though this drink has no calories, that it gives you increased stamina and strength. Through magic I guess.
We headed on most expeditiously since we knew were among the last to leave the lunch stop. Missy rode another 10 miles with us but was forced to stop due to the equipment failure related to her seat. We stopped momentarily to fill water bottles at the remaining two stops and rode our fasted average pace toward the outskirts of Logan.
I was in significant pain by the time we reached the outskirts of Logan. I knew I should probably call it off, but I knew there was only six or seven miles left and who calls the sag wagon at that point so I pedaled on each pedal crank wincing a little.
When we arrived in the metropolis that is Logan we were at one of the few stop lights on the route. The light was red so we stopped. When the light turned and we started up, I turned my crank and experienced some pretty good agony and I knew I couldn’t use that joint anymore. There was only 1.5 miles left and it was all flat or slightly down hill so I pedaled with on foot and let the other leg just hang there. It actually worked very well, but I am glad I didn’t have to do it any longer than I did.
We finished and we finished strong especially considering the circumstances. We even finished 30 minutes before the course closed.
At the finish line I promptly imploded as I always do. Steve as he always does took compassion on me and finished out all the details. He walked both bikes back and racked them up onto the car and allowed me to sit in the car and take pictures of my dirty legs. (My apologies for the most unflattering series of pics posted below.)
Why are my legs always so dirty when I finish my rides? No one else seems to get this dirty? Am I that absent minded? Answer. Yes.
So we finished with 89.25 miles on the odometers. Not the 100 we were hoping for, but still we’re pretty proud.
After the race we headed back to the Kwality Inn where I immediately started icing and Icy Hotting my bum knee. I elevated it for quite a while and watched the Cache Valley Channel for as long as I could stand. Apparently, Rulon Gardner has recently opened an elite personal training gym in case you are wondering whatsup in Cache Valley. They interviewed one of the trainers, but the funny thing was they guy who was interviewing the trainer had a belly like Chris Farley. I was like really? Really?!?
Anyway, after I couldn’t take anymore info about Rulons new gym I found solace on the Bravo channel watching the Khloe Kardashian wedding. I have heard about the Kardashians on all Access Hollywood, but never seen an episode. For a reality show, it is so fake, but very entertaining. I invested at least an hour and a half of my life watching Khloe's engagement, but had to leave before the actual wedding happened. Big time bummer. I guess I'll never know what the nuptuals were like.
We left to go the world’s best restaurant in Steve’s view, Maddox Steakhouse. A Brigham City landmark. Melissa and Scott came with us and were first timers at the restaurant. I think they were quite impressed and who wouldn’t be with their unbelievable hot rolls with fresh milled flour served with raspberry butter. Oh my goodness.
Steve and I shared this 32 oz Porterhouse. I never thought I would eat a Porterhouse in my life, but since we had just cycled for 9 hours and the porterhouse is my two favorite cuts the Fillet and the New York Strip in one, we decided to go for it. We didn’t regret it. Delicious.
We had a fabulous waiter who brought us a big piece of fresh Strawberry Cream Pie after we told him we couldn’t eat another bite. I think he just wanted to prove us wrong. He was right, We all shared it, but still couldn’t finish the singular piece of pie between the four of us. Maddox really is fantastic--although as Scott noticed, their seafood cocktail is made from artificial Krab.
We headed back to the motel and after more ice and icy hot, we called it a night and slept like a rock.
With a whole lot of ice, ibuprofen and Icy Hot, my knee is 95 percent better too. I was a little afraid I had a trip to the ER in my future, but I think it was all related to my meniscus tear which I already had before I started and a whole lot of overuse.
Although I swore I’d never ride again when we finished, I am already planning what we’ll do different next year to make our 100 miles and get the Century Patch I so desperately want.
Next year we’ll: First, train a little more diligently for the weeks and months before the race. In our defense, the rain and cold weather made many our long preparation rides nearly impossible.
Second, we’ll leave about 30 minutes before the race actually begins so we can get a little head start.
Third, schedule and time our stops a lot more carefully. We actually rode fast enough to do it, but thanks the extended stops icing my knee and generally enjoying ourselves, we lost a lot of ground which we needed at the end.
Last, We won’t have any gimpy body parts or equipment malfunctions.
Those things together should result in our ultimate victory in bagging 100 miles before the route closes.
Steve's Equal Opportunity Message:
I really enjoyed this event. It was satisfying on so many levels. My two favorite parts were riding through the foothills between Richmond, UT and Franklin, ID and miles 79-87 (right up until the stop light where Kristin's knee started to hurt so badly). Kristin and I rode this part the fastest and kept changing lead position. With her hurt knee, I was (almost) able to keep up and that was really fun. I also really enjoyed being outside all day and in no real hurry to get back to kids, work, or any other committment. It was the fun day of bike riding I had been looking forward to for over a year. For me, the goal never really was to ride 100 miles. It was to participate in the event, ride my bike all day, and to keep up with Kristin. I was also very thankful to have been able to help raise money for these two important causes. More on that below. I'd recommend this event to anyone who would even consider it. If I can do it anyone can. I look back on where I began training just a few month ago and I can hardly believe this is me. So there you have it, Kwality Inn, Krab cocktail, Khloe Kardashian, and Kristin all made for a great trip.
Post Note of Thanks and Appreciation:
We raised $1,755 for the National MS Society and the American Diabetes Association. Thank you so much to our donors. For the record, Kristin is the apprentice, bringing in more than double Steve's total. Of course, we blew away our original goal to raise a total of $800.
We are very proud to be part of this fundraising effort. Diabetes is Utah's costliest disease--by a lot. It is becoming very common--a modern day plague. MS is a terrifying disease that strikes without warning. During both bike events, we saw people with jerseys riding with MS and Diabetes. It was especially impressive to see some of the MS riders. I saw one who was only a teenager--but he was riding anyway.
Thank you to our team sponsors, SelectHealth and Fidelity. Our teams raised over $80 thousand for diabetes and $16 thousand for MS.
Thank you so much to the following people who donated to these causes. If we all were so generous with our money, the government would not have to be so involved in healthcare research and healthcare delivery! So without further delay, here is our long list of contributors:
Kristin’s friends:
Amy Muir
Stacey Muir
Julene Sorenson
Mindy Shipley
Sam Egbert
Mari Goodman
Angela Davies
Marcela from Weight Watchers
Ashley McCulloch
Jennifer Emery
Shar Madsen Cardona
Summer Miller
Heather Waegner/Aya Photography
Sinika Swalberg
Brandon Tucker
Emilee Eyre
LeBaron Family
Steve’s Friends:
Felicia Hall Trembath
Cameron Nelson
Bryan Hansen
Kristin’s colleagues from South Jordan City:
Don Tingey
John Geilmann
Aleta Taylor
Kathie Johnson
Steve's Colleagues from Ernst & Young:
Brian Elliott
Katie Beck
Lisa Shen
Rachel Rogers Reginato
Kristin’s family:
Bob Wardle
Scott Wardle
Ryan Wardle
Randy & Leslie Wardle
Tammy Wardle
Darla Wardle
Steve's family:
Aunt Joia and Uncle Brian Thompson
Aunt Carol and Uncle Don Welty
Bob & Hana Sokol
Cousin Brian and Hillary Thompson
Cousin Megan Thompson
Cousin Jennifer and JJ Phillips
Special thanks to our largest donor:
The generous employees of Merrick Bank, coordinated by Scott Wardle
