Oh Yes...Yes She Di-id!!!
What might you ask am I holding up my hand in victory for? Well only for the completion of team, "Ride Red or Die" finishing their first
CENTURY RIDE!!! Ohh really...not sure what exactly that is, are you? Well - let me blog all about it! BLOG ON...
Early in the am - 6am to be exact (I swore I'd never wake up that early again when I got home from my mission!) Team "Ride Red or Die" got all geared up and ready to go!
Baby supported me as we revved up with all our carbs ...via the Banana
All of us racers starting out together...but we didn't stay that way for long. (not even like 10 seconds!!!) Ohh - and later I found out that Johnny-boy Moffit did the ride too and initially thought himself pretty cool for doing it. That was until he heard Lindsey and I did it too and we didn't even train. He said that kinda took the ummph out of it for him. HA! How funny is that!
Pit stop #1 (mile 18? I think...and it was practically ALL uphill!) ...by this point I had already striped down to nastiness (hence my lovely shorts) and my back and shoulders were dying! (My neck...my back...my neck and my back!) We helped those volunteers volunteer in more ways than they had anticipated!
Pit stop #6...the last one at 91.5 miles. I was a mess...a tired, hot, wanting to vomit up all my peanut M&M's and water, mess! Lindsey was still eating the M&M's!
Never again in this Century...
So how in the world I volunteered to do this race is beyond me! Lindsey and I have some sort of innate desire to prove ourselves...to ourselves - time and time again. If we think of it, we assume we can do it. And we are all into planning the next adventure that we can share stories about. There really are very few exceptions to this rule.
One exception might be if it has anything to do with loosing weight. Uh-Oh. That's not our forte...to my mother's dismay. Also, apparetnly the Amazing Race is in that category of lacking success as well. Which... is way LAME because we did get ourselves to the very last cut, however our journey ended there. I guess they've already had "mormon sisters" - which I totally disagree -cause those girls they're referring to weren't even active and they have nothin' on the two of us! All I know is we really could have sky rocketed their ratings. Don't believe me?...then you should just watch our audition tape. Straight off the cuff and freaking hillarious (even if you don't know the two of us!) Ahh well...just waiting to see what else is in store for us instead cause I was just sure we were headed for a season of "Amazing Race."
Anyways - so the two of us are all about doing whatever sounds fun and exciting and that which would either impress our mom or totally embarass her. Well, Micah (Lindsey's husband) is all hardcore into everything physical etc etc. Now he loves it when Lindsey accompanies him on these endeavors. Lindsey loves it when I then accompany her. You see the two of us are pretty comparable as far as athletic ability is concerned. She sort of thinks she's better...like when she use to "coach" me in the hurdles...yeah...the one race I actually didn't hide from racing in, I fell...TWICE. So basically she sucks as much as I do.
Well having no training under my belt as far as road biking is concerned I told her I'd do this 100 mile ride with her. She told me people would think it was cool if I infact did it. That sold it for me! If I can increase my cool factor in any way...I'm sooo in!
I've had a pretty messed up back for the past few years. And the last month plus it's been acting up while we've moved out of the house we all grew up in for the last 18 years. (hence the lack of blogging updates...believe me there's not too much humor to write about concerning all that crap. Well I guess I could've written about my new title of "official hoarder" in the Ure family. Everyone's trash is my treasure! - But I think only Lindsey finds that entertaining, so I refrained.) So with the bad back -I was a little hesitant of the up and coming ride in Palm Springs.
But my mind was made up and Lindsey was counting on me as her official teamate. So I came prepared! I mixed up only a few (cause mostly her taste in music BITES! - she would have loved it if I had thrown a little Dr. Laura Schlessinger down to a sweet beat acting as her personal D.J.) of her fav. songs and a whole lotta mine. Let me tell you -that was the playlist of all playlists.
From Prince, Wham (my pf!), and Depeche Mode, all the way to Lil' Kim, Snoop, and a little "Heartbreaker" from Mariah (cause she's on fiah'). In addition to that, I had every sweet cover song you can think of to get me through the long day. If I were to choose the MVP of the playist it would definetely have been awarded to:
Ice Cube and DMX's remix of "We Be Clubbin' - Eye of the Tiger!"
The last big hill before the first pit stop was about to be the death of me....untill I heard that familiar beat. It was like Rocky Balboa was on one side of me chanting with one fist high in the air' "Tristen ...Tristen" - and Ice Cube was on the other side lyrisizing, "We Be Clubbin' (or in my case.. Ridin' ) ...and... You Can Do it put your rear into it!" A shot of pure adrenaline ran through me from head to toe and I conquered that mountain! The beauty spewing forth out of my ghetto blaster rigged onto the front of my bike got me through it all. It was genius...pure genius! And all those riding past me (and there were a lot - believe me. 10,000+ registered in the ride!) thought it was brilliant as well. Rocky helped me and Rocky helped them. You see that's what we do as fellow riders on the road - we look out for each other.
I was told that this century course was the easiest of them all and a totally flat course. Now I've realized those informants were speaking comparitively. There was nothing flat or easy about that course in the least bit! At mile 10 I was huffin' and puffin' just to stay alive. Not to mention that these huge packs of riders would swoosh past me and I'd be white knuckled holding on for dear life praying I didn't fall and get run over by them all. And then with traffic on the other side of me...whoa - it was all too much. Now generally fellow riders are pretty nice - but I was able to share the road with a few fiesty ones.
They'd try to holler their advice/orders to me as they coasted by, "I said on your right...I'm on your right! (oopps - my sense of direction was a little foggy at some points. Believe me this was not funny! - nobody takes me accidently cutting them off as cute or innocent!)" or "Don't just stop in the middle of the road!!! (Well where the crap do you want me to stop if I can't help it and can't peddle another second to get to the side?!) or my personal favorite was when I would hear the faint noise of a snooty giggle as they passed swiftly by me shaking their head. Honestly I didn't care really if they were all faster than me...except when the really big, big, BIG, ladies would leave me in their dust - well it was easier to feel a little dumb and lazy at that point.
Also all before the first pit stop I had to stop like 5 times. We were told it'd be freazing in the early morning - but I was feeling like I was in Mexico in the dead of summer within the first 10 minutes. So first I took off my tank top. Then I had to stop and take off my pants (hence the lovely showing of my legs). And then I had to stop and take off the shorts under my shorts...cause let me tell you it is not fun to ride with a seam smack dab in the middle of your shorts. That could dang well newter a young lady!
Lindsey and I would get so excited at the sight of an up and coming pit stop along the ride. To think they had cups and cups full of free peanut M&M's - yeah we loaded up. I had to get a few rub downs each time cause my back was beggin' for some mercy. I think people thought we were quite the sight - they even asked to take a few pictures of us. (I really hope I don't find a picture of us on FUGLY.COM -that would suck!)
At mile 85 I was ready to vomit up all my water and chocolate I had consumed. But on we pressed...and on we conquered! I gotta say I think it's pretty unbelievable we did it! Now I actually don't care if anyone else thinks it's cool...cause I freaking know it is! Just think - I was on a bike riding for pretty much 10 hours straight. (yep - speed was not my goal!) Now that is one gnarley... Oh Yes She Di-id!!!
Briti always tells J I'm going to make his toes bleed when I take care of his feet. But he knows better than to believe her. We have a trust thing going real strong....
