Little Red 2012

When we I decided that the kids and I were going to stay and extra 2 weeks in UT, my heart leapt when it made the connection that I would be in Utah for Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood is THE BEST 100 mile bicycle race ever! Heck, it's the best ride to do for any distance! It is such a well run, well supported race. We did it last year and had an absolute blast.

So, I got on line, and bought a registration from a lady who was selling hers. 100 miles, here I come! Best of all, I couldn't wait to be with my favorite bike riding ladies: Shellee, Lesa and Deanna.

Of course, we had to carbo load before the ride!

These ladies are the best riding friends a girl could ever have!

Awesome jewelry souvenir from the ride

We met up with Tara!

The day started off normal as any day as we pulled in around 7:30 for an 8am start time. We were so thankful to be able to stay at my aunt and uncle's home in Providence. It was so nice for all of us to have our own beds! Thanks, Aunt Sue and Uncle Curtis!!!

View of the sky as we drove in......clouds looking a bit ominous????

The race started off great. We were happy and feeling good. The four of us were taking turns pulling and we were enjoying ourselves. The road traffic and bike traffic seemed a little busier than last year, but all was well.

As we were riding at about mile 12, we were approached by a group of 3 ladies from Las Vegas. They wanted to ride with us. They complimented us on our pace line and wanted to get in on the goodness of a peloton. Who doesn't, right?  We let them join with us. They seemed very experienced; very knowledgeable and communicative. We liked it.

We pulled them in to the rest stop at mile 25. We at a snack, hit the honey bucket, and were ready to go. As we were getting on our bikes, we noticed a group of 4 girls were kind of hanging around us, trying to join in our group. One of the ladies from Las Vegas asked if they wanted to join with us, and she said, "Well, ya. If we can. We've been trying to keep up with you the last 10 or so miles." So, the lady said, "Sure! The more the merrier!" And that is how we felt, too. As we started out Lesa said, "Let these guys pull for a while. We've pulled the last 25 miles. Let's let them work for a bit and stay towards the back of the group." Sounded great to the 4 of us. So that is what we did. We pulled up the rear of an 11 lady peloton and it was going great......for 2 miles.

We were traveling at about 22 miles/hour on a busy road in Logan. Lots of cars and lost of bikes. But it was ok. Not too much of a shoulder, but the drivers were being courteous. At mile 27, and as we were riding, one of the "new" girls (number 6 in line) broke hard; with no signal or communication. When you're riding within 6 inches of the person in front of you, you can only guess what happened.


Major crash and pile up. 4 of the 11 riders down. 

Lesa and Deanna were the worst off.

Let's be honest: Lesa was the worst off.  Lesa was number 8 in line. She went down after 6 and 7 went down. She didn't have a chance to even think before it happened. Deanna was number 9 in line and she went over the top of Lesa. Shellee was number 10 and went to the right into the gravel and stayed up. I was number 11 and knew if I followed Shellee into the gravel, I'd take both of us down. In that split second I made the decision to dart out into the road to avoid the pile up in front of me. I felt that was my only choice. I didn't have a chance to look behind me to make sure there were no cars. I darted out as little as possible. 


No cars. I was ok.


Deanna was right up. Lesa was still down. 

Lesa was badly hurt. Road rash everywhere.

Not to mention her bike.

 Some pictures of the damage done. The pic in the bottom left corner shows a dentist who was out riding, saw the crash, and came to our aid. He is working on a very expensive rim that Jared put on Lesa's bike just for the race. We would later find out it was un-fixable!  Deanna also had a flat tire.

As we began to work on the bike, we changed the flat and put the tire back on. It didn't spin freely. We couldn't figure out what was going on, until we noticed she had 2 loose spokes. That was not good. The good dentist tried to fix it, but to no avail. A SAG vehicle approached us and could tell by the looks of things, the tire needed professional attention.

So he loaded Lesa and her bike up in the car and we agreed to meet her at the next stop. 

We got there and found Lesa. She was in tears. The mechanics told her that her tire wasn't fixable at this point. She would need to take it into a shop. She was loaded up in the car, ready to be taken back to our car, and send us on our way.

We were not going to finish that race without her.

Thanks to Brett's brother, Jeff, we got the number of a local bike shop in Logan. We told them the situation and they said they'd have a new tire ready and waiting for her as soon as we could get there. If any one reading this lives in the Cache Valley area, we whole-heartedly recommend Joyride Bike Shop. They were awesome.

We got a new tire, and we all finished the race together.

It was a hard, fought-for finish, but we did it. 

We endured some pretty crazy conditions:

2 flat tires

1 busted wheel

85* heat

20 mph wind

1 thunderstorm

Lots of scary lightening

8 1/2 hours out on the course

5 1/2 hours to actually ride the 100 miles

Thunderstorm rolling in.......

This race taught me a lot about attitude, perseverance, never giving up, and sticking together. I couldn't have done this race without my dear sweet friends. At about  mile 78, I was pretty much done. I was tired, hot, thirsty and sore. My head was in a bad place and I just wanted to quit. Of all people, Lesa picked me up by my bootstraps and talked me through my bad attitude and helped me get up again. I couldn't believe that after her horrific experience, she had enough mental strength to help me get past my "bonk" and helped me to finish. I love that girl!

We are forever bonded through this experience!!!

Scary looking clouds

The most important thing was that we finished and we finished together.

The Trip {2}

Check out this view from the top of our old neighborhood. It's not the best day to take a picture; it was rainy and windy this day, but I had to go up to the top of the neighborhood and set my eyes on this view again. Isn't it beautiful? I used to come up here all the time. The twins and I frequented this spot many a time when they would fit in the double stroller. I just love the view. Nothing beats it.

Interestingly enough, this is also the area that burned a few weeks after we had come back home to TX. The whole neighborhood was evacuated and it was pretty scary for a while. But thanks to the excellent and tireless work of the fire fighters our neighborhood and the homes up this way were saved.

One of the first things we had to do was go to the new park built in Saratoga Springs called Neptune Park. The kids were THRILLED with the idea of taking some friends, so that is what we did.

Here is Connor with his best friend Asher

The twins with the Wilcox kids: Owen and Olivia. We LOVE these guys! Thanks for the sweatshirts!

McKay and Owen. These two are like 2 peas in a pod. They get along so well! McKay is still waiting to find his "Owen" here in Texas.

McKay at the top of the HUGE jungle gym structure. The kids loved this!

Of course, there were more miles to go on the bike before our big 100 miler. These are shots from a 75 mile ride we did . The sky was gorgeous.

I absolutely love these ladies. They are some of the best ladies I know. 

One night we went out to see one of Jaxson's t-ball games. It was a hoot!! And here is Wyatt. We all just love this little boy who is so full of life and personality!

We had to spend some time with this cute little man, Tyler, and all his big sisters. So much fun to be with the cousins!!!

These two people are some of the best in the world: my grandparents. I am so proud to call them my family. They are such a big part of my life and now my kids' life. We have many, many wonderful memories with these two.

The kids took grandpa and I on a little walk to the "ditch". As a child, we would drag grandpa grandpa would take us here all the time. The ditch was a little irrigation stream about 100 yards from his house. This place was so cool: a stream, lots of bugs, sticks and a HUGE tree with leftovers of a tree house from the 70's. We loved that place. Sometimes I would walk with grandpa by myself, but most the time it was with grandpa and a whole bunch of cousins! We never tired of the ditch. I'm sure grandpa got tired of it, but he never let us know and he was always willing to take us to the ditch every time we asked!! 

Now it's a tradition with my kids...and Grandpa still goes!!! 

I love my Grandpa Harmon

The Trip {1}

Here we are at the San Antonio airport, getting ready to check in. At this point the kids are SO EXCITED they can hardly stand it! 

1)- We were going back to Utah to be with friends and family!

2)- This was the first time for them to FLY!!

Luggage is all checked in and now just waiting to board!

We made it to Denver!

After we made it to Salt Lake City we waited and waited and waited for our luggage to come through. It never came. We went to the customer service desk and they did know something about our luggage.

They knew that it was still in Denver.

Great.

They said they'd have it delivered to our doorstep in American Fork (Brett's parents) around midnight.

Well, it did come at about midnight. Everything was in one piece. Thank goodness!

The first thing I did the day after we made it was pick up a bike!

Lesa, Shelle, Deanna and I had too keep up on our training. We were to ride Little Red Riding Hood- a 100 mile race in a short 3 weeks!

Our first ride out!!! Look at those mountains!!

Just beautiful! Coming from Texas, this was the sight I was most looking forward to seeing!!

Another shot on another ride

Beautiful sight!

Another beautiful sight to see! Timpanogos Temple

After we arrived in Utah, Brett's brother Jeff, so kindly offered to let us use their extra car for our time in Utah. It was SO NICE to have a vehicle of our "own" so we could zip back and forth between friends and family and play dates and lunch dates. It was wonderful and so thoughtful.

Connor found these in Jeff's car

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Some of the most wonderful ladies I know. I am so lucky to call them family!

One night while we were in Utah, Michael had a dance concert at his school. We decided to make the trip up to watch it. I think almost all the whole family was there to watch him. We took up half the auditorium!! It was so fun to watch him and whoop and holler for him. The kids loved seeing him and cheering for him! Thanks for the fun night, Michael!

All the cousins!!! (Sorry for the alien eyes-- the pic was taken with my phone, dang it!)

After the dance, we couldn't just get in our cars and leave, we stood by our cars and talked for almost an hour. Makenna wanted Michael to teach her a few dance moves and he did. It was such a fun night.

The Big, Bad Wolf didn't Catch Us!

A few months ago, my good friends Lesa and Shellee and I decided to do our first 100 mile bike race. And we heard that "Little Red" was the race to do if we wanted to ride 100 miles. We felt lucky to get in because this race of 3,000 women, filled up in less than 24 hours-- the fastest it's ever filled up!

Here we are with a few of our riding friends. The lady in the red (right next to me), and the lady in the brown t-shirt with the blonde hair (3 down from me) and insanely fast! We like to ride with them, but they smoke us!

This year's race had a 50's theme. We loved all the decor at the race start and finish line

Here we are in the chilling morning hours before the race started.

Here is Lesa debating on how much food to take. She seriously had al this food crammed into the pockets in the back of her jersey. It's just so hard to know what you'll need to ride 100 miles! She ended up putting a lot if it back in the car. I have no room to talk, because I had the same amount in my pockets too. We didn't need any of it, though. Little Red fed us like queens!

Here we are: me, Shellee and Lesa and then 2 of our  new friends in the back

The weather was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was a little chilly in the morning, but we warmed up nicely and quickly. We rode alone (the 3 of us) for only about 10 miles, and then we were asked by a group of 2 if they could ride (draft) with us. Our thoughts about that were: "The more, the merrier!" We told the 2 ladies we were taking turns leading and it worked out nicely.

About 20 miles into it, we were approached by 2 more ladies who asked if they join our group of, now 5 women. We said, "Sure!"

Some of the beautiful scenery in the northern Utah and Idaho area

So now were were up to 7 women. This was a great advantage to all of us. We all took turns pulling so drafting really helped our legs stay fresh and helped us to not tire out easily.

At about 40 miles, we were approached by a group of 4 sponsored women. This means they were in professional outfits and implies that they knew what they were doing. The leader came up to me and said, "Man! You guys are burning rubber!! Can we join you?" We said, "Of course!" Now, our pelaton was 11 strong. We took turns pulling for 2 minutes and kept the speed between 20-21 mph. Pulling felt so good, but being in the line felt effortless. It was AMAZING! I learned a lot of great things about being in a line and it was the highlight of the race!

Here we are at lunch! Look at all those women! We were fed Subway sandwiches with all the chips, fruit and desserts you can think of! Tons of ice cold water and electrolyte replacement, too! We couldn't have asked for a better supported race.

Here we are at the finish line with our fabulous pelaton ladies! Thanks for making it such a great ride!

Lesa, Shellee and Me at the finish line. Brett was so sweet and came to see us at the finish line and brought us ice, cold chocolate milk!

Love these ladies! Thanks for a wonderful ride and for some really great months of training together! The only person we're missing is my dad! He trained with us every ride and changed all our flats!

Thanks for coming to support me, babe! Love you!