Elephant Rock 2011

Well, Michael and I survived our first bike race! We finished 34 miles in 2 hours and 28 minutes. We were hoping for a little faster time, but the course was pretty hilly. One hill in particular, 85% of the people around us got off and pushed their bikes. We managed to stay on our bikes, but had to rest at the top of that one! It was a great experience. The first 2 miles were pretty much straight uphill and I was worried, but then we settled into a pretty good pace. Around mile 5, we hit one particularly steep hill going downhill. I'm not particularly fond of going extremely fast on a bike with wheels the size of my finger, but Michael loves it. I was holding my brakes as much as possible without wrecking and got up to 41 mph. Michael hit 48! I'm accident prone enough to worry about wrecking going that fast! Shew, luckily the wind was blowing towards us on the other steep downhill, so it wasn't as fast!

Some pics from the race (I took some of these while riding, so they aren't the best!):



Michael on the left:



Start/Finish line:



One of the rest stops along the route. Port-a-potties, water, and energy bars!



There were something like 5000 cyclists at the event (there were 100, 62, 34, 25, and 7 mile routes):



See how skinny the tires are?



This was right after we finished, which is why we're not looking our best:





We're already looking for another race! The atmosphere was fun and having the police help and so many volunteers cheering you on was great! It also helped with the traffic aspect, which is what we like least about our road bikes. There are plenty of bike lanes around here, but it's not so fun to be riding with cars flying beside you.


Which brings me to mountain biking!



There are some great mountain bike trails about 5 miles from our house. The ride to get to them is steep and hard, but it's worth it! One day last week we were on a ride, when we passed another cyclist who told us there was a "big snake" up ahead. I am not a fan of snakes. The worst part is we weren't even on the mountain bike trail yet, this was on the sidewalk right in front of a high school! When we saw it, we realized it was actually 2 snakes wrapped around each other. I happened to have my little camera in my pocket(this is zoomed way in, I didn't get anywhere near them!):




Nice.

The mountain bike trails have great scenery (No, I'm not talking about Michael!):






Plus, it's fun!


Wow, a whole post without a picture of Olivia! That's a first, ha! She stayed with our friends Steve and Yarelys. She loves their little boy, Caden. They claim she was very good for them!