Today was the "Tour de Saint George." Ben signed up for the century ride, and i considered doing the 65 miler, but felt unsure that I could perform for that long without killing my upper body, having never spent that much time on my bike before. It seemed like paying someone to let me ride 30 miles was silly, so my friend Katie and I decided we'd just ride the 30 mile route along with the "real" riders, and just not stop at the aid stations. So Ben and I got up and rode to the starting line, which was about 6 miles. Then Katie and I rode the 30 mile route, which took us through Washington City almost to Hurricane and back, but by the time we arrived back at the beginning our garmins had only clocked 24. We decided to have breakfast at a wonderful little cafe on Main Street, then I convinced Katie that we should ride our bikes to her house, wait for our husbands to come through on the century ride, and ride a little further with them. She was reluctant, since they live up Highway 18 in Winchested Hills, and it would be quite a climb to get there. But we did it, and logged another 8 miles onto our garmins. At her house, we made protein shakes, then got bored and rode further up the mountain to Snow Canyon. By then, we still hadn't heard from our husbands, so we rode down the canyon - which made climbing all those hills totally worth it! - and decided to ride through Ivins and into Santa Clara. Upon leaving Santa Clara, we stopped at McDonalds and had an ice cream, when we discovered that the men were just behind us. So we waited for them to catch up to us, and we cheered them on as they passed us. We took a short-cut to the finish line, but Katie wanted her Garmin to clock 50 miles, so we circled a couple more blocks, and ended up crossing the finish line just after our husbands got there! Another 6 miles home, and had ridden an easy 62 miles! My longest ride by 20 miles! I've decided that for now, if I'm going to do any distance riding, it should definately be with plenty of food stops and lots of great conversation! What a glorious day!!! | 