Feel the Burn!

In the mornings we have exactly 30 minutes to get out of bed and have all of our stuff packed up and our bags packed on top of the vans.  If we don’t get it done in 30 minutes we have to wake up 30 minutes earlier the next morning.  Well yesterday morning we didn’t get packed in 30 minutes so we had to wake up early which made us wake up at 4:30AM.  We packed our stuff, ate breakfast and started riding.  Our ride was 124 miles to Yakima and we had to go through the Cascade Mountains, which sounds hard enough.  But when we found out we had two mountain passes to climb on day 2 it made it sound even harder! The first mountain pass was basically one hill that didn’t stop for 10 miles and the second one lasted for 12 miles. That’s 22 miles of climbing.  We climbed a total of 8,500 feet for the day.  The first pass was difficult but we all made it and they had lunch waiting for us at the top.  Then we got to descend for 15 miles while hitting 45 miles per hour.  I don’t know if you have ever been on a bike going that fast but it was exhilarating and kind of scary!! But as soon as we got to the bottom and turned the corner the second pass sat there staring us in the face.  We were all tired and already sore but we just dug deep and started climbing knowing that the end would come and we would have another awesome descent waiting for us at the top!!  And after 2 hours of non-stop climbing I was only a mile away from the top but it looked like it was an eternity away yet, and it came to the steepest part of the climb.  My legs were cramping, my muscles and butt sore, and all I wanted to do was quit.  I was literally seconds away from giving up when the unbelievable power, teamwork, and motivation of the Journey of Hope came from out of nowhere and kicked in.  I spent the whole day riding with Branden Sowers, who is an avid cyclist, and one of the best on the team.   But even though he knew I was hurting, struggling and wanting to do nothing but give up he made sure I didn’t and did nothing but encourage me and kept my motivated and focused on the amazing descent waiting on us.  But about a half a mile away that was starting to not be enough.  And that is when Dean, the professional cyclist with our team, came and gave me that last push I needed.  He rode beside me with his hand on my back filling me with even more encouragement and motivation.  There were times I would just stop pedaling but the two of them together would not let me quit or stop no matter how badly I wanted to.  When I got to the top I have never felt more tired, accomplished, motivated, or proud.  I have never physically pushed myself as hard as I did to get up that hill.  I was 1 of only 11 riders to make it up both passes, but the fact that I have known these guys for only 6 days and they believed in me more than I did myself, showed me just how close we are all going to be at the end of the summer.  While standing there this overwhelming warm happy feeling came over me and my eyes started watering!  It was such a powerful and amazing feeling that words cannot really describe it.  But I will never forget what I accomplished and how I felt when I finished.  It was one of the greatest feelings in the world!!  After a little meeting we got to go down the 25ish mile decent and hit speeds of 45mph again but this time we were swerving and dodging potholes the whole way down.  It made the ride that much more intense and exciting!  We racked at 94 miles at 5:30 due to time, but that was a total of 11 hours on the bike!  What an amazing day!!