The Tour de Park City

...or should I say the Tour de Suffering? This was quite a painful ride (sponsored by my cousin Deborah), but I've heard that the more you practice suffering, the better you get at it. So, it seems like it was good practice for the big one, LOTOJA!


Deborah Gatrell: I still owed my cousin 290 miles after my last posting. It took a while to get them all because I had to "taper" for the Tour. I might as well describe the 174 miles of suffering I did for Deborah. The race started at Kimball Junction in Park City. There were 10 ladies in my race group. We started at 7:35 AM and headed towards Brown's Canyon, then through Coalville, and down Chalk Creek Road (~40 miles, where I got dropped from the lead pack...sad). I ended up riding the next 30 miles by myself until there was a terrible headwind and I luckily found another guy to work with for 10 miles or so until just before we reached Evanston (~80 miles). The wind in Evanston was completely demoralizing. I rode about 15-20 miles alone again until I found another guy to work with until the next feed zone (~107 miles). I felt pretty hopeless because the wind had wiped me out and here we were at the base of the Mirror Lake Highway with a long ways to climb until the summit. I do this really pathetic sobbing thing when I'm physically exhausted. Lance got quite the show during this race. After taking a good 10 minute break, I somehow got back on my bike and climbed to the top of that awful mountain (~125 miles?). I put on another waterworks show for my whole family at the top (they were camping at Trial Lake and came up to cheer me on.) I then, thankfully, had 29 miles of downhill. Unfortunately there was STILL a headwind, so I had to pedal the whole way down. The worst part was after Kamas. There are these 2 daunting hills as you head back to Park City, which is exactly what you DON'T want after you've put in 150 + miles. Somehow I sobbed my way through the hills and drug myself across the finish line after 174 miles of complete and utter suffering. At least now I'm reasonably sure I can finish LOTOJA without a big problem (assuming it's not as windy as this race was!). I wound up actually taking 3rd place in my category, which was exciting.

Now for her remaining 117 miles...I got in a good flat ride before the race by riding out to Lagoon again (40 miles; I like that ride!), then took a quick ride out to Holladay Blvd and 4500 South after work one day (20 miles). I also took a hot and miserable ride out to the base of South Mountain from my Mom's house after eating sausage and pancakes for breakfast (NOT recommended; 37 miles). My last ride for Deborah was out towards my Mom's house in Cottonwood Heights (20 miles). I had to put in a lot of short ones to make sure I didn't burn myself out. I appreciate all of the hard work you helped me do Deborah! I hope all is well in Kuwait!!

Dr. Aaron Hofman, MD: He is one of my Dad's former patients and I actually got to pick up his donation while he was sitting in a dental chair at my brother's office. I think he was actually even getting a shot at the time which makes his donation even more meaningful. To thank him for his donation I rode to work, then out to my Mom's by Big Cottonwood to deliver her prescriptions, then home (~40 miles). I also rode to work one-way as well as a one-way ride up to the Spruces campground up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a family reunion (in the blistering heat; 31 miles). 18 miles were spent doing a practice run of the last several miles of the Mirror Lake Highway climb before the Tour de Park City. The last 11 miles took me out to the mouth of Emigration Canyon and back + 2 miles of a work trip. Thanks for your support!