Rockwell Relay - The Beginning.

This past weekend I was invited to participate in the Rockwell Relay Pamperfest. A friend that I have made through cycling had won a team entry and she ended up sick.

I have to admit, I was a little giddy when she asked me to ride. I wanted to put a team together, but I was so busy at the end of June, I didn't have time to put anything together. I just figured I'd hold off until next year.

We had a team meeting on Tuesday July 5th. We decided who would ride which legs, what time we would meet, etc. We all thought it would be best to sleep in our own beds and drive up early Saturday morning to the Snowbasin ski resort in Ogden. Of course I didn't sleep that well the night before the ride, and my stomach was in knots all morning as I was the team member that was going to start us off.

The team before the start
L-R - Joy, Hilary, KM, Myrinda, Me

Our ride was 168 miles of some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I had no idea that Utah had so much beauty just north of me. We went from mountainous beauty to lush green hillsides to massive walls of red rock. We passed reservoir, after reservoir, after reservoir. It was absolutely beautiful.

My first leg of the relay was 22.22 miles. We began by circling the parking lot of the Snowbasin resort twice and then a climb out of the resort. We descended Trappers Loop and that allowed me to be FAST. I got going 42 mph going down the hill.

The First Descent

My phrase on this leg - "on your left".  I started at the front of the pack and after the first circle around the parking lot I had dropped back to the back of the pack. The road was damp from the sprinklers and there was a little gravel. I was a little nervous and took the loops with caution. As we left the parking lot, we all began the first climb of the day. I looked up ahead and there were probably 20 or so ladies in front of me. I felt really, really slow, but as the minutes began to pass, I began to pass those women. There were very few that I didn't pass on the climb and I felt great. I pushed myself and played leap frog with a girl several times. By the end of the leg she said to me "You pass me on every single hill!" I smiled and said, "Yeah, but you pass me on every single descent." She laughed and said "That's because I'm heavier and that makes the descents faster." We both rode near each other for the last 2 miles and finished within seconds of each other.

We had fun in the van cheering on the rest of our team. We would drive next to our rider and honk our horn in a funny way. I actually loved that because I knew when I heard that sound, it was my ladies behind me cheering me on.