Goldilocks

The bike ride has finally arrived. Too bad I didn't condition myself for it. I did give my bike the once over, pumped up the tires, cleaned it off. Wish me luck.

I love to dress up for events. Even though I do love biking, dressing up makes it a little extra fun. And since it was the day before mother's day which is a special one where I love to wear pink and think of my family and friends, some breast cancer survivors, some who fought bravely and lost the battle. I wore my pink goldilocks braids for the ride, my safety vest, Goldilocks jersey, hot pink compression socks and pink gloves

 

Marsha rides the Goldilocks

This year I rode the race with Liz and her cousin from Riverton. We met before the race in the parking lot and walked our bikes up to the starting area. Liza and ?? were fun to ride with, they were both stronger riders than me. They waited for me a lot once we got off the downhill portion of the course. Right by house at the Artic Circle Liz got a flat tire and we called Jan to help us. He came right over and in the meantime the Papa Bear's also showed up. We should have changed the tire, not just pumped it up as it later went flat again. When we came to the last of the ride Liz went on ahead so she could get done and get out of the heat.

This is my third year in a row to participate in this ride. Although Dani did a great organizational job as always, I probably won't be back to ride again. Riding around Herriman, South Jordan and Riverton is just not scenic. And with her 10am start time for the 40 mile route, getting to the final lunch stop at 2pm because I am a slow rider is just so not fun. It got hot, there was lots of construction, and the end of the ride is uphill. Since I was out of biking shape it was just too much for me.

Liz Gotter rides the Goldilocks.

I usually only write about positive things here in my blog, but I also write about things I learn too, so I am going to write about this because it has impacted my life, in a good way because of some great Marathon Maniac friends. My former friend Cyndie Nell thought it appropriate when she saw me alone on my bike to roll down her window and yell out her car window and call me a "dumb bitch" as I neared the finish line. We had about a year of fun times together, but at that moment it seemed like she was 41 years old going on 13 and no good history. It was very sad. In her mind I schemed against her in several different incidents and didn't put any where near as much into the friendship as she did and this is what it came down to for her. It hurt my feelings and so hopefully that made her feel better. This picture of her below, with her daughter beside her makes me sad because she did this to me with her daughter Tess in the car.

And what good came out of this incident? Well, Operation Dolores Umbridge that's what!

Bike Adventure on the Jordon River Parkway

One of the parks along the ride.

Today, since my long run with Cyndie was cancelled I decided to go bike riding. I wanted to ride to Salt Lake on the Jordan River Parkway. I decided to go down to the Winchester Park in Murray to start from. We run there for our long runs because of all the restrooms along the trail. I slept in, so I didn't arrive at the park until 8:30am.
Lots of activity at this trailhead. The Sojourners Running Club was there with an aide station, they were supporting running practice. There were also a lot of bikers and others. It was one big party by the time I arrived. Got the bike off the rack and off I went.

Golf course with the water park in the background.

As I rode the familiar parts of the trail I spent some time looking at the "green" areas, thinking maybe it would be fun to walk with Jan and the dogs off the paved path sometime. It was fun as I got further to see new areas, many less busy than that trailhead. Saw a volunteer crew out working and cleaning up one of the trailheads. It looked really nice. The trail takes you through a golf course, by several parks, by a horseback riding stable, near the Trax home base, by a couple of schools and a several lower income neighborhoods where I kept seeing lots of gang tags all over stuff. 

This is a house right at the end of the trail in Salt Lake.
From here I couldn't figure where to pick it up again.

I rode all the way to West Temple, but the trail actually ended before then. I was trying to find where to pick it up but decided that it was getting late and that I should head back for my work party in Lehi. 
Wildlife and animals today: ducks, cats, dogs, birds, horses and two snakes. 
Stats for the ride:
Distance 30.26 miles
Moving time 2:49:14
Average moving speed 10.7 mph

Wonder Woman Metric Century

Ready to conquer Wonder Woman 100K.

Today I rode in the Wonder Woman bike ride with Cyndie. I didn't really feel "prepared" physically, but I was able to ride the whole way - even the steep hill. We started out as a larger group, with Liz and Shalauna and a couple of other girls. At the five mile point, the others opted to ride only 30 miles and Cyndie and I went on together. We are a great team. Cyndie is a stronger rider, so she rides slower with me or goes ahead and then waits for me to catch up to her. That works well for me, it makes me a better rider trying to keep up. I did have one time towards the end of the ride that I asked her to open up, I think we had the wind at our back and I'd just had one of my energy snacks. We were cranking.

I wanted so much to take lots of pictures of things I saw, but that involves stopping and it is too hard when bike riding to start and stop as much as I'd like too. I took a couple of pictures while riding, but I didn't want to risk dropping my camera. So not tons of pictures.
We saw some very quaint and pretty communities, lots of road kill (Cyndie points it out so I don't miss it), cows, horses, llama's, goats, a totem pole, lots of statues in yards like a big lion and a gigantic green frog. Cyndie was startled by a big live snake along the side of the road that she almost ran over. We saw many beautiful orchards, corn fields, and a really cool canyon which we rode downhill. We saw the Mona Reservoir, lilac fields, and four antelope ran across the road in front of us. Then there were a couple of obnoxious dogs that were being held off by a WW volunteer squirting a water bottle. We were able to ride safely up a short steep hill because of him.

Wonder Woman lunch on the road.

The support on the ride was good. At most of the aide stations there was plenty to eat and drink. What a great lunch we had in Goshen. Sandwich, Cheetos, strawberries and some Hershey kisses.
The vehicle traffic treated us very well on this ride, no mad drivers at us biker girls. It was a great day and a safe one. It is always in the back of my mind the danger when we are riding on so many highways, it helps when the cars look out for us.

This is what we look like after riding 62 miles.
We are awesome. We are not having a good hair day.

Here are the stats for my metric 100K ride (62 miles):


Elevation Gain: 1,645 ft.
Moving Time: 5:24:06
Average Speed: 10.2 MPH
Maximum Speed: 33.7 MPH
Fastest mile: Mile 49 2:50.0
Calories: 3,607

Cyndie took this of me.
This is one fun bike outfit. Now we are styling.

ULCER RunningFree Week Report

Supercino marathongrandma!

Here's your report from last week on runningfreeonline.

Last week you completed:

Sport   #     Distance   Time

Run     2     14.2 mi      3:18:48

Bike    1     107.1 mi    8:54:41

Total   3     121.3 mi    12:13:29

According to Mark Allen:

Unless you test yourself, you stagnate. Unless you try and go way beyond what you've been able to do before, you won't develop and grow. When you go for it 100% when you don’t have the fear of 'What if I fail', thats when you learn. Thats when you are really living.

Guess I did this. :-)

Podium - Tour de Donut

Ready for the memorial loop around the complex.
You can see the tables with donut boxes.

Tour de Donut day began with a memorial ride twenty minutes before the race start honoring two women, Bunny Bradley 2010 and Brynn Barton 2011 who were killed while bike riding. They did this to raise awareness that people should share the road, giving a cyclist 3 feet of room when passed by a vehicle. It was a silent, slow ride, around the North Pointe Business Park in American Fork. Very moving.
So, now for the race. This race is done circuit style, heres how it works. Ride the 7 mile loop, eat donuts, ride 7 miles again, eat donuts, ride 7 miles and come through the finish line. Easy concept. I like riding. I like donuts. What could be better than doing both on your birthday.

Riders all lined up at the start line.

I put myself and my bike in the middle of the pack, I was a little nervous being clipped in my bike with that many riders around me. I think it was just after the start when I got stuck and had a hard time getting around some slower riders that I decided, why don't I try to place in this race. I was feeling good, it was a beautiful day. I was hungry. Go for it.

Pink braids, pink bow, pink cape.

They did a manual countdown and we were off. This was a gun timed race, which means that when they said go, our time started, not when we went under the start gate. So I went under the start line 30 seconds after the race officially started.
With the big group of riders it was a few hundred yards until we started thinning out and able to get riding with some speed. I had a hard time getting around a few riders in the beginning who were riding together. The course was flat, but you really had to use a lot of care getting around it. There were pot holes everywhere! They were well marked, but they missed a few and so I had to be really careful. Also, there were a lot of turns. All well marked with a fluorescent green painted donut and a big arrow, the majority had a person or policeman showing you to turn and helping with traffic. (Very little traffic.) I was keeping a pretty good pace, avoiding potholes, making turns. Passing people.
Made it safely around the first loop for my first stop at the donut tables. I didn't know what to expect, well, except for I did expect donuts. And I wasn't disappointed, they had those! So I rode up to a table with an opening and picked up a donut and started eating. A volunteer "donut counter" handed me a bottle of cold water and told me that it helps to get the donuts down quicker. Ok. Then she told me you pour some on the donut, hope some of the sugar falls off as you keep eating.
I don't know how you can prepare yourself to eat donuts fast. I ate an early breakfast consisting of two poached eggs, water and vitamins. Did not have my usual toast. So by 9am I was a little hungry. My strategy became eat as many as I could the first stop before my stomach knew what was happening, but don't do so much I couldn't ride. My total donut goal had been planned for 4. I ate that my first stop! The donuts were warm, loaded with glaze and if I had been eating one or two, slowly it would have satisfied me. This eating faster was hard, I did a lot of chewing. It took almost the whole bottle of water, I decided after 4 it was time to ride. The donut counter wrote 4 on my bib, I wiped my hands with a wipe as best I could and I was off - sticky fingers and all.
This time the ride around the course was faster because all the riders are spread out. I passed quite a few of the same people again, I guess they ate less donuts than me or there was a "no donut lane" you could ride through and get a 0 written on your bib for not eating a donut. Lame, you are not going to win.... they tell you, no matter how fast you can ride the course, if you don't eat donuts you won't win.
So round two of donut eating. I thought experience would help me. Not! Now my stomach knew exactly what was going on and was trying to tell me I was full. Sorry stomach, but since I can be a bit slower of a biker than other women my age I will have to eat donuts to gain some time advantage... and I will have to do it fast. It seemed a little harder this time, using the same water trick as before I decided to call it quits at 3. I was thinking if I ate another it would take longer than it would be worth time wise and stomach wise. The donut counter wrote 3 on my bib, then ripped off the bottom portion to take it to be entered into the computer. I figured my stomach had bought me -21 minutes on my time, now my legs would have to do the rest. So I rode as fast as I could with road hazards, turns and a stomach full of donuts and water.
There was some time after the race ended before results were tabulated. I took the time to go get a free chiropractic adjustment, a shoulder massage, and relax in the shade.

James Perry, my friend who works at Infinite Cycles
earns First Place in age 14-34 by eating 18 donuts!

First results:

PLACE	BIB	NAME	GUN TIME	CHIP TIME	PACE	AGE	AGE RANKING
1	264	JAMES PERRY	00:21:18	01:15:18	NA	99	1ST M 1 - 99
2	102	RYAN AMY	00:27:45	01:00:45	NA	99	2ND M 1 - 99
3	267	LANCE GILLIS	00:33:32	01:03:32	NA	99	3RD M 1 - 99

So here is where it is all about the donuts, yes it took him longer to ride the course, but you just can't beat a donut eater if they pound them down. 1st Place 18 donuts, 2nd place 11 donuts, 3rd 10 donuts. Then we have Infinite Cycles shop owner, Brad Rowberry. He got the same exact time as Lance, but he ended up in 7th place because his donut eating skills left him with just an 8 count donut total.

263

BRAD ROWBERRY

00:39:32

01:03:32

NA

99

7TH M 1 - 99

Brad Rowberry loses challenge to James Perry and has to
get on the ground and act and bark like a dog.

So lets see how I came out in my division. This came out a little differently because as I suspected, I wasn't as fast of a rider as a few of the women in my division. There were nine total.

PLACE	BIB	NAME	GUN TIME	CHIP TIME	PACE	AGE	AGE RANKING
1	139	JEANINE HALE	00:56:30	01:02:30	NA	99	1ST F 1 - 99
2	151	MARSHA MONSON	01:03:31	01:24:31	NA	99	2ND F 1 - 99
3	142	MARY SCOTT	01:05:36	01:14:36	NA	99	3RD F 1 - 99
4	176	SUSAN TOENSING	01:07:19	01:25:19	NA	99	4TH F 1 - 99
5	319	JANET CORNIA	01:20:08	01:20:08	NA	99	5TH F 1 - 99
6	179	ELAINE REBELE	01:26:21	01:26:21	NA	99	6TH F 1 - 99
7	274	CINDY WILLFORD	01:36:03	01:48:03	NA	99	7TH F 1 - 99
8	241	KAREN SWENSON	01:39:45	01:42:45	NA	99	8TH F 1 - 99
9	110	DEBBIE DECARLO	01:45:33	01:48:33	NA	99	9TH F 1 - 99

Here is how I see it. Jeannie was a much faster rider than the rest of us. Since she probably didn't know her competition, I would guess she did this race for fun. She ate 2 donuts and easily took 1st Place. Now if you look at my "chip time", I was about the same riding ability as 4th-6th place. What took me to 2nd place was my donut eating ability.
Mary beat me on the course, but she chose to eat only 3 donuts. Just one more donut, if she had eaten it in less than a minute, and she could have maybe been in 2nd place. As you can see by chip time, Mary was almost 10 minutes faster than me on her bike. Factor in a couple of extra minutes of donut time for me. Things get close and sticky.
Susan took 4th, she ate 6 donuts. Go Susan. And you can see that 5th and 6th ate no donuts. What's up with that? Maybe next year they should try another race. 

Me and "Fatty", Elden Nelson of fatcyclist.com

So my strategy paid off and I walked away with a 2nd place Female Masters Division. 55+ I am hoping they post pictures, then I should have one with all three of us ladies with our trophies and they did get some of me eating donuts. Check back soon. And if you want to read about last years race, check out Fatty's blog post about the 2010 Tour de Donut. It is hilarious.

Rockwell Relay Pamperfest

Finally, the relay I signed up for months ago had arrived. I had 3 out of 4 of my original riders who signed up with me and had been blessed to find a replacement for the rider who dropped out at the last minute.

Relay start line. L-R: Sherry, Cyndie, Marsha & Paula.

Wow! I am awe struck at how well my teammates did on this relay. Originally when I found this bike relay I thought - this looks so fun, I want to do it! Well, this event was not organized for beginner cyclists like me. I need to get better at looking at elevations and really understanding what type of climbing is involved. Many of the legs on this relay had serious, hard core climbs in them, others had solid climbs and the rest moderate climbing. I guess when you tour from Snow Basin to Provo you're going to climb.

Support vehicle for team Kicking Asphalt.

So, who did I get to do the climbing I hadn't trained to do? Let me introduce you to my team #33 Kicking Asphalt:


Cyclist 1: Cyndie Nell - Legs 1 & 5
Cyclist 2: Paula Jacobs - Legs 2 & 6
Cyclist 3: Sherry Christensen - Legs 3 & 7
Cyclist 4: Marsha Monson - Legs 4 & 8

What a fun day. It started out early, we met in a Riverton parking lot at 4:45am. We arrived at Snow Basin, the start line at 6am. We picked up our race numbers & got our shirts. We then ate a free pancake breakfast provided by Rockwell. We attached our race number to the van, and then went to the team instruction meeting where a prayer was offered for our safety. We all were safe, our team had no flats!

Cyndie, ready to rock Leg 1 on her Felt.

Cyndie was riding our Leg 1. She rode from Snow Basin to Huntsville, on her ride she went past the Pineview Reservoir. Her leg was 21.3 miles which she rode in 1:10:34! She had some climbing right off, and she had a quite a downhill section which she rocked. At one point she was going 43.4 MPH! Riding safely downhill is a real skill at that speed. She even got boxed in and had to put on her brakes and go slower than she wanted to ride. In her own words:


"I rocked this race. This is the fastest I have ever gone over a 22 mile course. I really pushed hard on this race. I'm so glad that I did this race. It was a beautiful course. At one point in the race a lady said she really wanted to catch up to me. I told her she could draft off me if she wanted. I was going so fast she could not even stay up with me to draft. After words she told me I had stronger legs then she did and she was 20 year younger than me. It was a really great feeling."

Paula, ready to ride on her Specialized Dolce.

Paula, another hero of my team, rode Leg  2. This leg had the most difficult climb, about 1100 feet over 4.3 miles. Paula took our team from Huntsville to Morgan, a distance of 24 miles. She did an amazing job. Her husband Steve drove up from Sandy and brought his bike and climbed with her. Paula even took the time and practiced this climb the week before with her dad who is 72!

Sherry, ready to ride Leg 3. She rode a
Specialized Ruby Comp.

Sherry had the next leg, also with some very very difficult climbing, including a hill they call "The Wall." I bet you can guess how it got that name. This was a very tiring leg also and the sun was shining bright. Steve and Paula followed and watched over her on this leg, Steve even getting on his bike and riding along. It helps to have support like that.  At the end of her ride she had a 5 mile downhill section. Sherry's leg went past East Canyon Reservoir and took our team from Morgan to Henefer, a distance of 21.9 miles.
I rode the next leg. I tried to ride fast but I had a headwind that really hampered my efforts to be fast. My leg was the easiest and flattest of the first four, a leg with rolling hills and a distance of 14.8 miles. I took the team from Henefer past Echo Reservoir and into Coalsville where they were they had blocked off Main Street and were having a car show. I rode through the middle of the car show and then into Hoytsville. My time was 1:07:42.
When I came in Cyndie was ready to rock Leg 5. This was a difficult leg, and now we were into the afternoon where the traffic was increasing. Her ride this time was 16.4 miles, with an ascent of 1073 feet. She rode by the Rockport Reservoir where the week before we did the triathlon. Cyndie took the team to Oakley with a time for this leg of 1:18:50.

On again was Paula for Leg 6. This part of the ride was an out and back, where she was to ride up to Smith and Morehouse Reservoir and back to Oakley. Steve decided to ride along again, and he was able to help Paula and a couple of other riders with some drafting on the way down the hill. That headwind again. Hard to believe that a downhill could be difficult, but that was how strong the wind was. This leg was 23.6 miles. While we were at this exchange station we got a bit of pampering, mini manicure, shoulder massage - and they also had a chocolate fountain. 

Pink nails, a little pampering during the bike race.

Baton exchange between Paula and Sherry.

Baton exchange between Sherry and I.

Ready for her last ride, Sherry had another hard leg ahead of her. Going from Oakley through Kamas and Francis, all the way to Midway, she had a distance of 24.7 miles. She had another difficult assent, 778 feet in the heat of the afternoon. We checked in with her and cheered a couple of times on this leg, making sure she was ok. The fun part was her decent, and she is a downhill girl. She rocked this. In fact, I didn't even have my shoes on when she came rolling into the exchange - she did an awesome job. On her leg she rode past the Jordanelle Reservoir, although the route took her below it. 
Last leg to take us to the finish line was mine. This would be my longer and harder ride for the day.

Chillin' in the van before my leg.

There was 615 feet of climbing during my trip down Provo Canyon. I had forgotten how many hills the canyon really has. Evening was approaching, the sky had clouded up so at least I did not have the heat for this ride. But the one thing I had on this section was heavy, fast traffic. It felt like I was riding on the freeway. Tired people heading home from a busy Saturday boating, etc. This was not fun. Sometimes the shoulder was narrow, or littered with junk or rocks.
It was fun seeing all the paint markers from the Utah Valley Marathon and half marathon. It brought back some good memories of running down the canyon with Alicia, having half the road blocked off, thinking to myself that was much safer, but slower.
When I was part way down the canyon the rain started. As a sprinkle at first and then a steady rain. I have never ridden in the rain. Added to the fast traffic screaming by and it was very intimidating. I just kept riding. My support vehicle checked in a couple of times and Cyndie made sure I was ok. I made it to the finish line. My stats for this leg 22.6 miles, time of 1:25:41.

Crossing the finish line for team Kicking Asphalt.

We could have all crossed the finish line together and shared the "glory", but I think everyone was tired and didn't want to unload all the bikes again. The finisher "medal" was a titanium Rockwell Relay ring on a pink ribbon.

We celebrated our completing the relay with a nice dinner at Marley's, a restaurant that had delicious salads, gourmet sliders, yummy skinny french fries and onion rings! We deserved every calorie.

Happy to be over the finish line,
my bike shorts were like a sponge in the rain.

The results are in, so here is how Kicking Asphalt did overall. We finished. First major hurdle. Yeah. We were in Division 4C, which meant our ages combined were 200+.


1 - BBC Ladies  10:07:47
2 - Who's Who  10:22:25
3 - Simply Mac  10:40:23
4 - Queen Bees  10:47:13
5 - Kicking Asphalt  12:11:46
6 - Flat-Tireds  12:24:56

Kicking Asphalt

There were a total of 69 teams entered, 68 teams finished, and overall we came in #61. I am so proud of our team, and we had FuN! Exactly why we came out to play.