Chafe 150!!! I did it!!

The night before the Chafe 150 ride we stayed at a friends condo. As we were driving to it, we saw this brown bear cub just hanging out! We are glad we didn't see his mother.... 

We had a nice evening. I spent the night trying NOT to be nervous!

Here is Skyler and I at the start of the ride. We started in Troy Montana. There were about 80 other riders participating in the half Chafe. It was exciting to see everyone all decked out with their fancy bikes! The second picture is me and my buddy Rachel who couldn't ride with me. She is the one responsible for all the motivation and encouragement! Actually lots of friends were encouraging, but Rachel rode every single mile with me, except for the day of the ride. I took a picture of her in my jersey just in case I decided to chicken out! I sure missed her!!

Speaking of fancy bikes! Skyler and I got quite a laugh at how they just piled all these expensive road bikes into horse trailers! Some of those bikes were worth thousands of dollars. But they all arrived safely.

Here we are! Me in the back, Skyler in the middle and my friend Colette in front. We also had another friend with us Sue, who is not pictured. The ride was really beautiful. The scenery was amazing. I wish now that I would have gotten off my bike for just a minute to capture it's beauty. We even saw a Moose in a small pond off the highway!  The first of the ride started with a hill. I have been worried about that silly hill for 5 months! I was steep but when I got to the top I said "that's it?" I laughed at myself for doubting my ability. I have all the training on the rolling hills of the Palouse to thank for it! In fact the night before at the dinner we sat by some riders who had rode the ride last year. I told them I was worried about the first hill. He said "You are from Moscow, right? And you ride your bike there? You will be just fine!" and he was right!  So the first 30 miles were great. We stopped at the rest station  then headed out for the next 30. Those were tough miles. It was a lot of up and down, nothing too steep but just up and down for about 30 miles. I was getting very tired. By the time I pulled into the 2nd rest station I was exhausted! I refueled with some food and tried to think positive thoughts! Colette really helped me out because she taught me how to draft behind her a bit so I could get some rest. Apparently drafting cuts your work load down by at least 30%. I don't like riding that close but it really did help and after about 12 miles or so I was feeling much better. About this time Todd and the younger boys found us on the highway and were able to get some photos of us riding. They rang a cow bell and did lots of cheering, that made it a lot of fun! The ride ended up being a little longer than I had thought but we crossed the finish line at 81.5 miles! We did the ride in about 6 1/2 hours (plus time for stops)

 It was a great feeling to know that I had done it!!

Finish line  of the Chafe 150 (half) 81.5 mile ride. From Troy, Montana, to Sandpoint, Idaho.

I am looking forward to doing it or another similar ride, next year! Anybody with me!???

 If I can do this, anyone can!

Here is one of the funniest things that happened.
 I now have a sun tattoo of my ipod on my arm! Guess that's what you get for staying in the sun all day long!! My kids thought this was hilarious!