100

So, I'll admit that the first time I heard Dustin say that he wanted to train to do a Century Ride, in my head I though, "Umm, okay. Just go out and ride your bike for 100 miles." I don't know if this plays into my inborn female-based lack of spacial reasoning, but 100 miles didn't seem like it would be that hard on a bike. I mean, really? You need to train to do something like this??

BEFORE YOU CLICK "Comment" and terrorize me for thinking such insane thoughts, I need you to understand that I was brought to the depths of humility (sort of) and realized the error in my thinking. To put 100 miles into perspective, I drive to Rexburg from Idaho Falls pretty frequently. This trip takes me about 40 minutes each way, and adds roughly 50-60 miles to our less-than-fancy Accord daily. to complete this century ride, Dustin would have to ride his bike from our house to Rexburg, back, and then AGAIN to Rexburg and back. That would take me over 2 hours even to drive!! He could also have ridden his bike to the Malad pass, or to West Yellowstone.

So, after understanding how far this distance really is (stupid, me), I am nothing short of impressed. Dust has been religiously riding early in the mornings five to six days per week for a couple of months. He's also training for his first marathon September 15th, and fits in some pretty long runs on the days he's not riding. He and his boss are training to do LOTOJA next Fall, and I really think he can do it.
He's a freaking machine.

Here's a pic of him coming in on Saturday. He finished in 5 hours and 52 minutes, and averaged 17 MPH even with hills, water stops, and insane wind speeds. Plus, it was bloody hot outside.

Gee, thanks random "tween" for choosing an awesome spot to find some shade and take a seat.

And one more shout out to this organization who put on the entire event for a more-than-worthy cause. They had a carnival for the kids that lets the younger kids slightly cheat to win, a bouncy house, face painting, catered food from Texas Roadhouse, 105.5 the Hawk and Z103 blasting all the coolest, latest jams of today, and even had snow cones and cotton candy-- all free with entry! We (me and the tikes) participated in the Family Ride (a whole 2 miles) which had Otter pops and name brand fruit snacks at the water station. The kids loved it, and loved getting their trophies at the finish line. We're planning on participating every year.

P.S. after doing spell-check on this post, I realized I've been spelling the word 'awesome' wrong my entire life. Wonderful.