Antelope by Moonlight

Paula and I decided to do the Antelope by Moonlight bike ride this year. This was actually our first organized ride for this year (cause we are both TOO DANG BUSY), and it was a lot of fun. When I think about it, we must be completely crazy. There were 2000 riders, it was 10:00 p.m. and very dark, this ride attracts an unusual amount of Boy Scouts, glow sticks are apparently prone to coming unhooked and falling onto the road where they become very hazardous to road bikes, and for whatever reason there really wasn't a bright moon that night (which I think is false advertising for a ride called Antelope by Moonlight). But you know Paula and I ... wherever we are, we're gonna HAVE FUN!!

Usually on rides like this, there is a staggered start time so everyone is spread out. This time, not so much, and that was NUTS! We all had headlights and reflectors on and glow sticks so at least we were all kinda visible, but all those bright lights made it hard to see and I ended up focusing on not crashing into people and hardly ever watched the road right in front of me which is somewhat dangerous ... especially for me.

Right off the bat, there was a bit of a climb and then a long downhill. I was reminded of my own recklessness and the dangers of riding at night in a big hurry when I realized I was FLYING (I'm not going to tell you how fast) down a hill in the dark on a 1.25 inch tire and I had lost Paula. Ooops. And once we got separated, it was hard to find each other, but we figured it out.

 It was harder than usual to navigate in the dark and keep from hitting people, and there were a lot of people missing the whole "slow on the right, pass on the left" thing. These must be the same people who drive on Utah roads. Weird. So it made for a kinda crazy ride. Did I mention it was at 10:00 at night?!

I had spent that day up at Deer Creek boating with my family for about five hours. While I LOVE going to the lake and we had a really fun day boating, it probably wasn't the best idea before a night ride. It was only 23.47 miles which is normally not a problem, but I was EXHAUSTED!! We had a long slow gradual climb at the very end of the ride, and it KICKED MY TRASH!  I knew I was struggling, but I looked down at my speedometer and realized how SLOW I was going ... 3.8 mph!! Really ?!?! I was honestly worried about starting to roll BACKWARDS!! But you know you me, I am NOT getting off that bike!! And then I looked at my watch ... 11:48 p.m. Well, that makes sense. Paula, because she is AMAZING, flew up the hill, and because she is a good friend, she waited for me at the top and said, "We always finish together." What a rockstar. Love that girl.

I guess maybe we look a little alike. Just a little.

This is our after-ride picture, and if I do say so myself, we don't look too bad. Of course, you can't really get the full effect of the helmet-hair in this pic. Too bad for you.The ride of course was around Antelope Island which is about 90 minutes from here, so we still had to drive home after we finished and got home around 1:45. Just a bit tired the next day.

And the shirts. Gotta have the shirts. I didn't get a very good picture, but it says "End of the World, Mayan Meltdown 2012" on it. Whatever that means.