Bikes and Burns...

   Wow, it has been a while since I wrote something on here. I doubt anyone was fervently checking my blog every ten minutes for a new post but just in case you were, I am sorry that I am a slacker! Okay, so this past week or so, Kris did his first organized bike ride! I am so, so proud of him for sticking to his plan and completing the 60 mile trek through Lodi, CA. 

  When we got there, Kris felt a little intimidated because it looked like a bunch of professional riders were going to be in the long race that he was doing. Thankfully however, more amateur people showed up and put him at ease. Our friends Mike Caponio and his wife Julie were hosting the ride so it was also good to see some familiar faces. 

   There is Mike in the cowboy hat

  I am such a silly, emotional girlfriend. I was so excited the whole time before they took off and when Kris began to roll away-- I teared up a little...

After they were gone, my sleepiness hit me. The race was at 8am, registration started at 7am and Lodi is a little over an hour away so we had to leave by 6. That all meant that I had to be up by 4:30 so I could get ready-- yes, I take a long time to get ready! I know! I am my mother's daughter on that one. Anyway, the night before, I could not get to sleep for some reason so I was working on maybe two hours of sleep and my giddiness for the ride sucked those two hours right up. I ended up falling asleep in the car, which would have been fine if the winery that was hosting the ride wasn't right next to train tracks! I woke up and almost peed myself when a train passed by blaring on its horn. Feeling dazed, I opened up the car door because it was starting to get hot inside, forgetting that I locked the car before I fell asleep. The alarm started going off and I couldn't find the keys! I was scrambling around while the other people waiting were staring at me looking like a crazy person. After a few minutes of noise and frenzy, I finally got the stupid thing to be quiet. I was certainly awake by then.

  It wasn't too long after that, that riders began to filter back in. It was estimated that for decent riders, the ride should only take about 4 hours. Kris thought since he had "off the couch training" as he called it, he would probably take about 5 hours-- that would bring him back by 1:00. I had a feeling though that he wasn't giving himself enough credit, so I waited out by the finish line. After about 20 minutes, I see a red jersey coming up in the distance...it was Kristopher and it was only 12:07!

I chased him down, wiping away my proud tears and gave him a big hug and kiss. He did so much better than he thought he would and I was so excited to see him so proud of himself!

  After the race, a boyscout troop catered with pulled pork sandwiches (wouldn't be my choice after a ride like that) and then the winery offered free wine tasting to the riders. Kris enjoyed the relaxation afterwards. We hung out for a while because they were doing a raffle but sadly we didn't win anything...but we didn't mind because the rest of the day was amazing!

  So thank you Mike and Julie for hosting it, then you Cycles Gladiator Winery for letting the ride happen and thank you Kristopher for making me so very proud (more than I already am) to be your girlfriend! It was a wonderful day!

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Oh yeah...the "Burn" part of the title! I got really sunburned while waiting for him to finish...haha, no big.