I got a ride to Pocatello with Leslie and Garth. I spent the evening with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma made a delicious three course meal. The salad was awesome. She sure was fun to visit with. Grandpa was in good spirits too. We talked about old times and books that Grandma read. What a fun evening.
I rode up to Anderson's house to go to bed. That's quite a ride in itself. I checked out the weather station and no chance of a storm. The plan was Dale would get there sometime before 7am. I put a note on the door for him to go downstairs. He arrived at 5am. Rested for another two hours and I got up at 6:30, showered and got ready to go. Dale had a flat on his tire so we had to fix that and make last minute preparations. We didn't end up leaving until 7:45 am.
On the way down Satterfield I noticed my GPS quit working. So I changed the batteries. Nothing. Then I looked at the corroded battery terminal. It had completely corroded through the metal so it wasn't completing the connection. When I took the battery out the metal piece connecting to the battery fell out. Great! Now I have no way to power the GPS on this trip and I was only 1 mile into it. I was so mad! I am a data geek and now I won't know where I'm sitting.
It was just as well cause the ride was very slow going. Our average speed to start was probably about 14 mph. Then after Inkom it got even worse. It was around 12 mph avg by the time we got to Downey. Poor Dale was having a hard time. His legs were on fire and his first mention of it was only at around 5 miles before Arimo.
By the time we got to Preston which is a little less than half way, it was already 2pm. We were in serious jeopardy of not even making it home before dark. So he gave me the OK to go ahead. He would keep plugging along and see if he could get a ride further ahead and meet me.
So I picked up the pace and left from Preston. I was going at a good pace, probably 20 mph. When I got to the base of the hill after Logan heading into Brigham City I was tired. My legs at this point were tired. I applied some Dr. Hoy's magic rub on my legs and that felt good. The thing that really hurt was my neck. Going into the aerobars and looking forward was putting a strain on my neck. I applied several coats of that throughout the remainder of the ride. I stopped at three places on the way up to the top of the pass. Coming down was a little scary. The road was good and there wasn't much debris on the side of the road. But going over 40 mph on a freeway is scary. One wrong move and my skin is all over the road and I could roll into the road and get ran over too. So I was very alert and cautious.
When I turned at the base of the hill in Brigham City I stopped and got some fuel. I was low on sugar and was hurting for energy. I got a 16 oz Mtn Dew and some Zingers. Hit the spot! Not the most nutritious, but I needed sugar! I already had power bars and gatorades previously, but I needed some serious sugar, and that worked out great. I continued on and called Cathi to whine for a second. When I got to Perry, I saw Dale on the side of the road flagging me down. Sure enough he got a ride. We rode together at a 12 - 13mph pace until it got dark at Farr West.
The sun was going down and neither of us had headlights. So after 11 hours of riding, we stopped at the Front Runner Station and got a group pass so he could get to Salt Lake and I could get to Clearfield. I took my light off and I wasn't about to ride in the dark. After I bought the pass and headed towards the platform, a sign said that the service doesn't run on Saturday. Duh, why did the machine just sell me the pass then? I was ticked.
I called home. Cathi was at the Women's Conference at the Stake Center. I called Aaron Cunningham, not home. Duane Ralphs, he came through. He came by in a truck and gave us a ride the rest of the 15 - 20 miles home. What a good friend! He saved us in our time of need.
I was sad that I didn't get to finish. I don't doubt that I could have made it had the pace been about 3 mph faster earlier in the day. It was fun though and I got to talk with Dale quite a bit. He's quite the entrepreneur and I'm proud to know him.
Two days later and looking back. I'm not sore at all, just a tad stiff, but nothing major at all. Next year, I'll try going solo again, and then see if I can break my record and get under 9 hours. I want to do Lotoja next year and will need to step up the distance training in order to do that. 140 - 160 miles is quite a bit easier than over 200 miles I'm sure. Then again, getting some drafting would also help too.
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