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We did our Bear Lake ride on Saturday. It wasn't that bad and at the same time it was the hardest thing I've ever done. Here we are pre-ride.
All went pretty smooth until about mile 25 when he hit 5 straight miles of hills, but then five miles later we got to rendezvous back at the cabin for a quick lunch and then back on the road to finish the last 15 miles. Leaving the cabin after lunch was probably the hardest part of the whole ride. I would've loved to have gone downstairs with Beck and snuggled up with him for a little nap, but we forced ourselves to keep going and finish what we started. Here we all are post-ride. I have never heard Matt as mad as he was at the headwind we rode into on the last 7 miles of our ride. Although, I would agree that it was the hardest part of the ride because of that #*$#@* wind.

Heidi...She is nails!
Chris, Troy, and Mall. This was only Mallory's second ride of the year and she did awesome!

And Scotty. What a stud!
We rewarded ourselves at the end with a huge hot fudge milkshake at Le Beau's. The next morning we were all pretty stiff but not as bad as I expected. I did learn a couple of things that I will have to remember for the real race in June...

*I only put sunscreen on up to the bottom of my shorts not realizing that while you ride a bike your shorts ride up quite a bit so I have a great sunburn along the top of my thighs.

*I also did not think to put sunscreen in the window hole of my gloves and now I have a sunburn patch right in the middle of my hands.

*The right song at the right time can get you pumped up enough to get you up a hill. My favorite song, "Little Less Conversation," started at the bottom of a huge hill that I really didn't want to go up, but it psyched me up enough that I pumped my way through.

*You have to pull the nozzle out of the camelback before you start sucking or nothing comes out. I tried to suck on that hose for about 15 minutes before I realized it was closed.

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It really was a fun ride. I am really proud of all of us that did it. It's nice just knowing that I can do it....now I never have to do it again. Not really, the 40-mile ride in June seems totally doable now. And we'll see if we do it next year...maybe.

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The trip up to cabin was also fun. We took Jake with us and played down by the lake and ate great food and just hung out with good friends. Beck had such a good time playing with Loralee, Wendy, Cam, and Sam, and he keeps saying that he wants to go back next weekend.