Another Bike Rice - Park City Point 2 Point

After pretty much dying at the Ultimate Challenge road bike race a few weeks ago (see prior post about that), Andy started looking up the Park City Point 2 Point mountain bike race that his two brothers Pat and Richie were signed up to do. His problem with the Ultimate Challenge was that it was A LOT of uphill. The Park City Point 2 Point had MORE uphill (like close to 15,000 feet of climbing) and was 75 miles of dirt trails on a mountain bike. His brothers signed up several months ago (the race sold out in 8 minutes), but they didn't get Andy a spot because he was in school, etc., and they didn't think he would be able to do it. It's one of the tougher races in the U.S., and requires some training.

However, when Andy was looking it up, he saw that one of the pro teams was giving away a free entry for the race to whomever had the best story about a) why they wanted the spot, b) how they've supported mountain biking, and c) how they can inspire others. He debated about whether to submit an entry, because he would only have two weeks to train, and this is a killer race. Being the supportive wife I am, I told him to go for it. I knew he would regret it if he didn't at least try. So we wrote a short paragraph about how he has loved mountain biking since he was a teenager, and always had a friendly competition with his brothers, but then he got cancer. He still mountain biked during chemo (12-hours of Sundance and 24-hours of Moab), which shows that he didn't let cancer beat him (which inspires others). He mentioned that his brothers were doing this race and he would love to ride with them. Needless to say, he won the spot.

For the next two weeks, he started training for the ride. Luckily we live on a mountain so there are hills all around us. He went out every-other night and rode his mountain bike up the steepest hills in the area. His brother Pat was convinced that based on his performance at the Ultimate Challenge, he would never survive this race (it's okay, Pat, we forgive you!). 

There are actually quite a few people every year who don't finish this race, so it was not so far-fetched that Andy might not be able to do it, given his lack of real training. I knew he would finish, though, because really. You get a free entry, and the sponsors want to know at the end how you did? No way do you quit. You kill yourself, then pick your dead carcass up off the ground and kill yourself again if needed.

This is Richie and Andy preparing to start. Pat was there, too, but he was beyond my picture. They started at 7:07 am at the Park City Ice Arena park. The race had about a 10 mile loop around trails there, and then passed by pretty close before heading up to Deer Valley Ski Resort, so the kids and I waited to see them come by again.

Skyler pretended to take a nap in the stroller with Kylee's blanket, and Kylee played on the playground equipment, which was actually really cool.

 

Luckily Richie wore the neon green jersey for this race, so I could see them coming from over a mile away and was good and ready to snap a photo. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't reset quickly enough, so I got Pat and Andy going by, but no Richie. I was actually kind of surprised they were all still together at mile 10, because Andy and I had discussed that in order to finish this race, he would need to go his own pace and not kill himself too early. He seemed to be doing fine, though.

Apparently shortly after this spot, Andy got a flat tire. Not too uncommon, and he is speedy fast at changing them, so Pat and Richie waited for him, and off they went again. However, around mile 20 or so they started the first huge hill climb. Andy slowed it down, knowing he still had 55 miles to go, and Pat and Richie went ahead. Andy texted me at 2:52 to tell me he had made it to mile 53, so I knew he wasn't dead, and was definitely going to make it. I calculated his finish time around 6:30pm.

As he was going up Park City Ski Resort, he came around a corned and saw this moose. It moseyed up the trail for a good 1/2 mile before another biker came along and scared it off the trail with some really loud whistling. Andy said it kept looking back at him, but just kept moseying. Not in any hurry to move out of his way at all!

Pat ended up losing Richie around mile 48, and he came in first of the three with a time of 10:20:57.

Richie came in next, with a time of 10:42:37.

Andy rolled in right around when I calculated him to, with a time of 11:30:02. His goal was to beat 11:45:00, so he was 15 minutes faster than his goal, which was great! 

The race ended at The Canyons Ski Resort, and they all agreed it was by far the hardest race they've ever done, but look how happy they are! Just finishing this race is a huge accomplishment, so they all deserve to be super proud!

Skyler is Bored

With Kylee gone all day, Skyler is just not quite sure what to do with himself. The first day she was gone, he walked around the house yelling (I think he was looking for her). Then he sat by the basement door waiting for dad to come up (he was texturing the ceiling). After awhile he got bored of that, and I guess decided to do some work. He pulled out the laptop and made a nice word doc and Power Point presentation by the time I figured out what he was doing. 

He knows what the camera is now, and when I pull it out, he walks over to see. He always wants to look at the photos and videos I take of him.

One day last week he got my keys out of my purse and took them to the front door. He was standing on his tippy-toes trying to stick the keys by the door knob. After he got bored of that, he brought me his shoes. I guessed that was his way of telling me he wanted to go outside, so we took a little walk down to the mailbox. I'm not sure what he'll do for a whole year with Kylee gone all day!

First Day of School!

On Thursday, August 22, 2013, Kylee started 1st grade. She has been super excited to go because she gets to ride the school bus, and eat lunch with her friends. We went to back-to-school day the afternoon before, and she got to see her desk, meet her teacher (Mrs. Grover) and look at some of the things they'll be doing. She thought it was really cool that her desk had her very own pencil box with crayons, scissors, dry erase marker/eraser, etc. all with her name on them. She also had some math, spelling and writing workbooks in her desk with her name on them, and two pencils that "are already sharpened, mom!" This is her the first morning.

She also made me take a picture with her backpack on her front side so she could remember how HUGE her backpack is.

I always forget just how many kids there are in our neighborhood. Down at the bus stop there are probably 30 kids each morning. It's funny to me that they stand in line. I remember everyone just kind of standing in a big group at the bus stop when I was young. Some of these kids come early just so they can be in the front of the line so they can sit at the back of the bus. Weird. About a week after school started, Kylee told us, "I like to get a seat right up front." Andy did the *cough-loser-cough-cough* thing, but luckily she didn't understand and I told him to cut it out. :)

So far she is loving school. She got to be "Queen of the Day" on the second day, and she came home with a crown and a book of pictures her class drew of her. They all actually drew her with her maroon glasses, even. I asked her if anyone else in her class wears glasses, and she said, "No, but teacher says it's okay because it makes me special and there are still lots of friends who like me with glasses." Not sure if there was some kind of issue, or what, but she was perfectly happy and okay with it, so I'm glad.