The Ride and A Celebration

Today was the Diabetes Tour de Cure bike ride! Eric decided to sign up and between the two of us, we raised a respectable amount of money for the cause, thanks to many generous friends. Thank you so much, generous friends. I hope to thank each of you personally in the coming days. It was a great day, a chance to spend an entire morning with my husband, doing something we actually have in common, for fun! It was so pleasant to do this together and feel that good kind of tired that comes at the end of riding 50 kilometers (actually 31.06 miles-the caloric equivalent of running a little less than 8 miles). I don't mean to downgrade the experience because actually it was really challenging. I fought hard to burn every one of those calories.
Due to the hilliness and some frustrations with my bike/shoes and not really having had the chance to do enough riding beforehand, I relied mostly on my running skills to allow me to endure, but cycling takes different skills and I was just plain slow. I did endure, it wasn't a race and I felt great at the end-strong and happy with myself. I was also so proud of Eric for taking time from his extremely busy schedule to do this in honor our family members that suffer from diabetes. He struggles so to find time for himself and this was a great step in that direction-something that was good for others that was also actually good for him.

The ride took us through the exquisitely beautiful countryside of Western Howard County. As long as I could find the green blazes, I would not get lost. Remember! Green! I just love that I was no more than 45 minutes' drive from two major metropolitan areas, but I was riding through this:


and this:

There were moments, when I was flying downhill at 30 miles an hour with the wind wrapping my entire skin in the unmistakable sensation of freedom that I could not keep a giant grin off my face. It was so much fun. It was good to remember those times on the many up-hills we encountered. Kinda like life, eh? For every exhilerating, zooming downhill, there is a difficult, plodding uphill. Amazingly to me, I was also seriously inspired by my sister and my two nephews who work so hard to deal with their diabetic challenges. This is the first time I've done a ride for a cause and it was a powerful feeling. They really were on my mind the whole time.

Here we are, victorious at the finish. We are grubby and sweaty, but very happy.
The rest of the day was spent cooking delectable ribs on the barbecue, then making yummy potato salad and curry-apple cole slaw so we could properly celebrate Sara's birthday. The good news is that we have tons of leftovers, so dinner tomorrow is all taken care of! I am so happy about that. Evan had a boy scout fishing trip and came home excited but tired. Sara and my mom helped with dinner and cooking together all afternoon was fun. The crowning achievement of all our efforts was Sara's choice of celebratory desert, Chocolate Toffee Trifle. So good she almost couldn't wait.
Anyway, here's my cute girl as she looks now.


I'm tired to the bone, sunburned and ready to stop moving for a while. It will feel so good because today didn't have a single wasted minute. Every once in a while, a crazy, non-stop day is good so that I can really appreciate that that sensation of falling into bed.