bring on the bike race!!

Last weekend, my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, my mother-in-law's sister-in-law and myself (phewf) had our big bike race in St. George. I'd like to say it was our 60 miler, but it ended up being only 54 miles. I'm not sure how they lost those 6 miles...but they did.
My other sister-in-law even came to cheer us on with her cute new pregnant belly.
When we got to St. George we planned on driving the course of the race so we knew what we were getting ourselves into. Boy was that a bad idea. Do not do that before any kind of race. For some reason driving the hills on the course made them seem pretty long and hefty to us. We started to rethink this whole thing. We all started to chyme in:
"The 30 mile race is looking pretty good...heck the 10 mile race is looking dang good...Are we sure we want to go big and do the 60 miler...?"
But then we realized we were tuff, had trained, and could totally take the hefty hills and all.
So we went on with our plan to dinner at Xetava to have our nice healthy meal before the race. We don't really believe in carbo-loading, so we opted for fish and shrimp. It was delicious! But then we decided we need to carbo-load on bread pudding. And it was goooood.
We then of course had to get into the hot tub to relax all of our muscles. And to have girl talk.
With every thing done and said in preparation for the race, we all headed to bed.
I called my husband who then turned into my coach.
Oh did I not tell you there was $100 on the line? Oh yes. The Brower's, nay the Brower boys, thrive on competition. Especially when it's between their wives.

"Ok Mal, did you eat enough?"
"Go eat something right now, you want to have plenty of energy."
"You know Shalane is in the other room right now planning with Daniel how to win."
"It's all in your head Mal, all in your head."
"Go drink 5 glasses of water right now. You want to be hydrated."

"Ok, I now have to get some sleep Kevin...gotta get off the phone now...love you...gotta go...goodniiiiiight..."

We got all our bikes ready, on the rack and ready to go in the morning (without our husbands mind you).
Took some pictures before the race.
And we were off!!





SO much cheese.

The course ended up not being as bad as we had imagined. This was good. We all felt great! They had two pit-stops along the way to refill water bottles and grab some energy. There also was some talk with a tattoo-covered, half-naked Ironman guy who had also done triathlons, biathlons, and I won't bore you with everything else. He sure bored us. But his tattoos were cool.

We biked into Arizona. Yep it was a duo-state race. Big deal.

My bum started to go numb. So did my hands.

Then came the last 5 mile leg of the race.
"I should talk to Shalane about this whole race/money deal..." I thought.
Wabaam.
There she went.
At a stop light she saw the opportunity and took it. Darn her.
I look back at Lorna and go "And there she goes."
I tried to catch back up with here, oh boy did I try. I do not know how she got so far ahead; so far ahead uphill.
My body told me the race was about to be over, and it would like to be done. Please.
Shalane had won, I had lost out on $100 and a nice dinner at Zermott I had planned on spending it on.

We made it to the finish line. And I pumped my fist into the air to show how excited I was to be done.
And to punch Shalane.
I kid.






I then called Kevin.

Everyone was laughing hearing my side of the conversation. Kevin could not believe it. His wife had lost to his brothers wife.
He demanded a rematch. I said give me a few months.

After a much needed shower to get all the chain grease off my legs and a nap, we all headed to our "We did it!" dinner at Anasazi Steakhouse. It was just what we needed.
Cheese fondue.
Beef filet, scallops and shrimp cooked right on our own hot rock.
Chocolate, Toblerone chocolate, fondue.
It was all so tasty.
If your in St. George, and looking for a nice place to eat, this is it.
But do share. Between the five of us we got two cheeses, two main entrees, and two chocolates and were completely stuffed at the end.









It was a great girls trip.
We were all so proud of our accomplishment. And despite all the talk, Kevin was too.