LOTOJA 2014

 Heather Hayes, Rachael Sharp, Me and Rebecca Anderson

 I took the first leg. It was a flat 36 miles from Logan, Utah to Preston, Idaho --with a stiff head wind! I ended up with a family team that had more than 50 members. It was in honor of their late patriarch, Tag, who had died while training for his 5th LOTOJA. I'd never ridden in a paceline before and it was a real revelation! I was riding with these "Tag Team"ers and I kept on having to pull on my breaks! And we were only going 17 on a flat! I thought - this is for the birds! I'm going to ride on my own! So I pulled out into the wind - and suddenly I had to give 100% effort to maintain that same 17-miles per hour! Ok! Lesson learned. I pulled back into the line, but as the lead rider tired I rode ahead and pulled the line for the last several miles. I felt like a She-ra because they were all guys - very large guys, but still.

 The leg ran through endless farmland. Way to be beautiful, Utah.

Here's Rebecca!

My second leg went through Star Valley, from Montpelier to Afton, Wyoming -- 33 miles. Rachael started out with me. It was beautiful! We tried to catch a couple of pacelines. The first one was too slow, so I went ahead without Rachael and caught another paceline. I could see them ahead of me but it took me almost two miles to catch them. They were booking at 23-24 miles per hour! There was no putting on the breaks in this line! But with them I was able to go far faster than I could have on my own and it was a rush. They were all men as well, but they were not shabby. They gave me the last mile pull up the biggest hill and I was so sorry that I couldn't pull as fast as they were going, but they were very nice about it. When I got to Alpine the ladies were nowhere in sight because I was 20 minutes earlier than expected, so I went and found them in the parking lot. After that leg, I was spent! It had been the plan that we would ride together for the last leg, or at least the last half of the last leg but I was still wobbly for a couple of hours. I really went too fast on that leg. I'll know in the future -- it's an endurance event, not a sprint!

I really enjoyed hanging out with the ladies and their husbands. It was Clint and my 20th anniversary and we had reserved a room in Jackson, but in the end we decided Clint would stay home and babysit and Rebecca and I shared the room. Clint and I got our trip the following October.

You can see our time below, we are the VCBO Diva Cutters. Our sister team was the VCBO Rochester Cutters. They were all medical wife friends of Yalecrest friend, Arriane Dansie.

They were honored at the awards assembly as the most inspirational team because one of their teammates had terminal cancer.

She is the cute Strawberry blonde with a bob in the middle row. The gal in the wheel chair crashed on the first leg and broke her pelvis! I rode by her sprawled out on the ground not moving with people attending her. And judgemental me actually thought, "Boy, she's being a bit melodramatic. Stand up, lady!" She went to the hospital and was released the next day. She had many weeks of recovery ahead of her. Just one more incident that has me a bit paranoid about becoming a hard-core street biker. Everyone I know who has been riding for a few years has been hit by a car or had a serious crash.

I signed up with these great ladies again for 2015, but then we bought our house in Farmington and I knew that I'd be away from the great rides up Salt Lake's seven canyons (boo hoo! I miss them!). And 2014 was the year Clint was home full-time, paid, but with no job. Being Clint he was more than happy to watch the kids while I tackled 5-hour bike rides. But 2015 is the year Clint has a job in Wyoming and we moved and I really could not leave my kids alone for five hours at a time. Maybe another year. Meanwhile, I'm back into running again and I love the flat West Farmington terrain with the towering hills to the East and the horse fields that smell just like my old 4-mile run back in Huntsville.