However, when I woke up this morning, I knew I was going to ride every single one of them. The trek out of Enumclaw was difficult from the start. About 3 miles into the ride, we were already riding uphill, and would continue for the next 40 miles. Our whole team was struggling up the mountain, but our crew was pushing us at every stop along the way and joking with us to keep our spirits up. As we came close to reaching our first mountain pass peak, I had a moment where I thought that I couldn’t keep going. All of sudden, we came around the bend of the mountain and saw Duane and Angie Stone waiting in the wings with our lunch for the day waiting to refuel us. The lunch stop was a huge boost, and with the temperature dropping as we faced a downhill wind chill, we needed it! I don’t think we could have finished without their help.
After reaching the bottom of the first mountain, we headed up our second and final mountain, 12 miles of steep climbing. My pace line with Kevin and Gabe had been riding well, until out of nowhere Kevin popped his tire! After replacing it twice to no avail, it seemed his day was over. He got picked up and Gabe and I continued on. The next crew stop, Kevin had repaired his bike with a third tube and was back ready to ride with us. His motivation to keep riding pushed all three of us up the rest of the way to our final elevation of 4500 ft. A feat I never imagined accomplishing.