Roosevelt-Vernal-Roosevelt

This morning at 7:00 a group of us met for a training ride to Vernal, riding on the back road. It was mostly a training ride for the Little Red Riding Hood which is in less than two weeks. I wanted to get a long ride in just for my own peace of mind. We actually have a lot of women from our little town who are going to ride this year, at last count there are at least 10. I think that's a pretty impressive number for this town. I had Doug also come along on this ride because he is such a good motivator and encourager (and tire changer if we needed it, which we didn't!). Another husband came along with his wife, and McArthur-an 18 year old guy, myself and three other women. We started off in pretty good spirits. A couple of the women were going to have their husbands meet them in Vernal at the 7-11 and were hoping to make it that far! The back road to Vernal has some tough hills, much tougher than the Little Red has, but we knew it would make us stronger.

Gary and Candi ended up turning back after about 10 miles or so, after Todd's Dugway. Candi was feeling like she was having mechanical troubles with her bike, but the rest of us pushed on. We stopped in LaPoint for a small break, then pushed on towards the hills.

Group photo with Doug's phone after one of the climbs: me, McArthur,Deannie, Shannon and Sonia. McArthur struggled with his ego riding with all these older women (by his own admission!)

Deannie and Sonia...

Shannon

Doug taking a shot of me over his shoulder!

Me and McArthur over Doug's shoulder

This was a really hard ride. We had a pretty strong headwind going to Vernal, and then a cross wind that was really blowing us around, and then the wind shifted and we had a huge head wind coming home. That wind was blowing a storm in! Sonia's husband met her in Vernal and Shannon's husband met her in the hills as we were riding back to LaPoint. Deannie stopped in LaPoint at the cemetary to met her family and decorate graves. So in the end it was just Doug, McArthur and I who rode the whole 70 miles, and it was brutal coming home. McArthur bonked on the long stretch from LaPoint, we had to tank him up with gel and crackers. He came pretty unprepared for such a long ride.

So, we did it. I feel pretty confident now for the Little Red. I know I can at least do 80 miles, but I'll try for 100 again.

Our bodies are so amazing. There were a few times when I felt like there was no way I could keep climbing and I needed to walk, and then something inside of me would say,"Just try a little more" and I would and I'd make it. Or when we were pushing against that brutal headwind coming home I wondered how on earth I was going to be able to make and I thought, "Just keep moving. It doesn't have to be fast. Just keep moving" and I'd think of my wonderful handcart pioneer ancestors in the Martin company and I'd just keep moving. We don't give ourselves enough credit, I think, for what we are capable of doing. In this era of fast and easy we have sometimes forgotten how to dig way deep inside ourselves for strength.

Doug has taught me a vital lesson about cycling which I use in life: You can "granny" up any hill. To use the granny gears is to go into the easiest gears you have, so easy a granny can do it! Well, there is no shame in using the granny gears, they get you up the big hills! There have been many times in life when I've been faced with huge challenges and sorrows and the mountain before me seems impossible to climb, and I remind myself, "You can granny up any hill". So I gear up and start climbing. I'm not going fast and it sometimes takes a really long time, but I'm climbing. Once I make it to the top of that emotional mountain I see life with a completely different perspective. I'm never the same person once I reach the top of my mountains-physical or emotional mountains. I'm always so much stronger and I'm always so glad I finished the climb.

I love my bike. I love to be out on the road. I love the stream of consciousness thought I have when I'm riding. I love the life-lessons I'm taught when I'm on the road. I love finishing a really hard ride and feeling that supreme fatigue and knowing that I did it, I finished.

(Please note that even as I write the above, I can hardly move!!)