What a perfect weekend capped off by a great feeling of accomplishment! When I originally signed up to ride the Tour de Frankenmuth Grand Fondo, I was just hoping to survive. I was encouraged by the fact that it was an out and back ride so therefore if I needed to turn around before my mark I could. I signed up for the minimum of 40 miles and my longest ride to date had been 30 back in October. My nerves were running high. I also saw that on Saturday they were having a kids race and Jeremy wanted to participate so we got up in the morning and got moving to make it there by 10. As soon as we got to town we noticed a ton of stuff happening. Of course they were holding the bike races so we joined up with the race crowd, got Jeremy signed in and waited for his race. He competed in the 4-6 year old category. There were 3 older girls (6ish) riding with out training wheels and 3 littler ones riding with training wheels. Jeremy was fastest amongst the children with training wheels. Of course every kids got a prize and he is soooo proud of his stuffed chicken (it's a Frankenmuth thing). After his race we went for lunch and then drove over to the Bavarian Inn to check in. After we checked in we went to the pools for a while...it was fun to just have a day of playing in the pool for the 3 of us. When we were done there we walked over to RiverPlace to get fudge...low and behold they were having the Dog Bowl. There were more dogs there than I had ever seen in one place. They had competitions for Dock Jumping, Frisbee Routines, Agility, Sheep Herding and other smaller races. We got to pet one of the biggest dogs I have ever seen as well as one of the smallest. After that we made our way back to the hotel to play arcade games and mini golf. When we finished golf we ate dinner and then made our way outside to watch a Hot Air Balloon Glow. Turns out that there was a Hot Air Balloon race in town too. For the glow there were two balloons inflated and the rest of the baskets were blowing their flames, definitely one of the neatest things to see. Finally it was time to turn in for the night. We got back to the room and crashed hard! I was a nervous wreck so I didn't sleep well, but I did sleep enough. I woke at 6:30 so I could eat breakfast by 7, left the room at 7:30 for an 8:00 start time. Like I said earlier I wasn't really expecting to make all 40 miles and if I did I just wanted to keep it under 3.5 hours. I was extra freaked out that a) this was my first time back on the roads after Brad's accident and b) there was a categorized climb which means - steep for at least a km. The good thing was the cat 5 climb was at the beginning (6 miles in) and that would mean going down it on the way back. After the climb it was very flat, i decided to push it to the 20 miles and then turn around for my full 40. The final 6 miles were the hardest because Frankenmuth is much more hilly than Port Huron. But I did it - all 40 miles and in 3 hours 10 minutes...well under my goal of 3:30. After I finished I met up with the boys to load up the bike and head on home. We got here and I finally got a shower! Then Jim's family came up from OH and we went down to the Feast de St Clair festival. All-in-all probably the busiest weekend I can remember but also the most enjoyable. I am so happy I did it and hope to be able to make it an annual event.
Thanks for reading all this...just had to share. For photos check out my FB page after Monday.
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