Apple Cider Centry 2008

Here we are picking up our packets on Saturday Night. We went out to eat at Chili's on Saturday night and they had a campaign to raise money for a Children's hospital, so I made this pepper. It says at the bottom of the pepper, "My name is Melissa and I approve this pepper." Here we are on Sunday Morning starting our 25 mile ride. Dar is in the bottom right hand corner. It was a beautiful day and a great turn out. At about the 5-6 mile mark there is a pumpkin farm and we stop there for some fun pictures and for the free apple cider and a potty break for Dar. We saw this beautiful flower in the front yard. Here is me and a scarecrow just hanging out waiting for Dar to finish her potty break. Last year this guy liked Dar, but I won him over this year. I was attacked by a huge spider!! AHHHHhhhhhhh!! Dar saved me though. She tore off her biking shoe and killed it for me. My hero. I really liked Frankenstien, so I was telling his bride to back off. Look at these two cute scarecrows. There was a goat with a Cubs flag. The Cubs feel they have the curse of the billy goat. I found him. I stuck my camera in the pen to try and get a better picture. This goat jumped up at me and this was the picture I got. I think he was ticked that I didn't have any food. We were held captive by this huge jack-o-latern Ahhh, Dar you look so pretty. Ready to hit the road again. This is a spot we stop every year to get a picture. Every year the same tree is changing colors. Dar by the changing tree. This is a spot right before a big downhill. We always think we shouldn't stop, but we do anyway. This is Dar riding off. If you ever get a chance to do this ride it is a beautiful route. We made it 18.5 miles to the SAG stop. Here Dar is eating an apple. Here I am at the SAG stop. Yum-O that was a good banana. We were deciding if we should continue on or not due to the fact that we were in pain and we hadn't been able to train as much as we would have liked. We also knew that the most hills were coming. We decided to push on and see how far we could get. We made it the whole 25 miles. Here I am at the finish line. The last 6.5 miles was by far the hardest. There were some decent hills. On the toughest hill I just kept thinking about my new Trisomy friends and telling them in my mind I was doing it for them. It really helped me to think of them because they are not able to be out on bikes and they are not able to be active and it made me realize, no matter how hard that hill was, that I am so blessed and cannot take my health for granted. Thanks Aaron (Bubba) and Samuel. You were the two I was thinking about most during that climb. I did it. 25 miles. Before you know it I'll be lapping those century riders. Here is Dar at the finish line. We did it. I had so much fun. Thanks for all the encouragement out there. Love ya. The highlight of my weekend was being able to buy plus size biking shorts. As a plus size athlete I have had trouble finding gear that fits. There was a vendor there selling plus size shorts and biking jerseys all very reasonably priced. When I do find items they are very expensive. Here I am after the ride modeling my biking shorts. I will post their website in my next post. I kept telling Dar all day, "Eeeeee, I'm wearing biking shorts." They were padded and boy did that take some getting used to. I felt like I was in a diaper. :-) Seriously, you do not know how exciting getting these biking shorts was. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!! After the ride we headed back to the pumpkin farm to buy some goodies. Here we posed for a picture after the ride. Here is all our stuff in a wagon. We got pumpkins, spaghetti squash, apple cider, Dar got Mums, and of course Apples. Here is the pumpkin farm. The lighting was perfect. After this we headed into the sunset to go home. It was a great weekend.

Here are a couple videos for your enjoyment: This first video was taken going down the longest downhill of the ride.


Here I am interviewing Darlene after the big hill.


Here is a video after Darlene got a hold of my camera.