Race re-cap

The 2007 edition of El Tour de Tucson broke a record for attendance, both overall and at the 109 mile event. Over 5000 people (and their bikes) were at the start line. Our 14 person team rode a warm up ride on Friday that was filled with adrenaline and anxiety. It was a tense 14 miles. After Friday's ride I was worried about the mass start on Race day. Turned out my worries were for nothing. Everything on Saturday (for me anyway) was so smooth. Once we started rolling, we just kept rolling for 9 hours and 12 minutes (aprox). Seven hours and 12 minutes of that were wheels moving, an average pace of 15 mph. Two hours were spent total in breaks for food/water/restroom and 4 tire issues for Dale. Poor Dale.





Someone said to me on Friday, "you realize, Amy-Preacher, I don't even know your last name." Didn't bother me. I was happy to be part of the preacher/teacher duo. Amy-teacher was my roommate for the weekend, here we are in the hotel lobby just before walking to the start line. The sunflowers and wheat helped our coaches count team member helmets from behind and allowed us to share our Kansas Spirit with everyone we passed. Out of the 587 TNT riders at El Tour (from 40 different chapters), I can easily say we had a completely unique team ethic, team spirit and team pride. We rode together, stayed together, finished together. Goofy wheat-headed and all.



My other concern, pre-race, besides the mass start, was carrying my bike across the 2 dry river beds. This also turned out to be fine, a little dusty, but not excruciatingly hard. If you count the walking we did through sand, we actually traveled 111 miles on Saturday. That's my baby blue bike in center-front hoisted onto my shoulder.

Though at times, due to hills and traffic, our form broke apart a little, we rode well as a team. Not everyone had the easy day I did, but bodies are different, a few were recovering from illness and one never knows until race day how the body will perform. I am grateful to Travis for excellent coaching and a tough training plan. This is our team at the last turn, yards from the finish line (I'm third from the front on the near side). Just around the corner, we "took the road" and crossed the finish line four across, fists in the air, screaming. It was a rush.

All done! My medal now hangs on my office lampshade. A reminder of a wonderful day, a season of hard work, a great team, money raised toward a worthy cause and a meaningful tribute to my aunt Pat. I am so satisfied. Grateful, of course, for a healthy body, some stubbornness of spirit, and truckloads of support. Life is Good.