73 miles, 6 hours, and 2 bikes!

Do you remember this post a couple weeks ago about all the different ideas I wanted to write about in a month? Well, the month is almost over from when I started. And I have only done ONE IDEA. Which is fine, no pressure for me. But, I would have liked to cover all of these beautiful topics:

It's been one year, now what?
73 miles, 6 hours, and 2 bikes!
The struggles of a working domestic wife.
Am I comparing or compromising?
Photo Challenge Series: City in 5 Photos (on the 13th will be posted!)
Remaining me in my marriage without losing him!

So far, I did the last one. It is probably one of the most vulnerable, interesting and helpful blogs for myself. Those of you who read it, thanks. Those of you who learned from it, praise God. He is the one who brought me through this experience and challenged me to look at it simply and share it with others. :)

But today, I want to talk about "73 miles, 6 hours, and 2 bikes!" YES! Daniel and I did this! My husband and I finished this... and guess what??? All with a smile on our faces at the finish line. :)

At the end of July, we went camping with my family. Here is the post about it. :) ONE OF THE BEST camping trips I have ever been on with my family, especially with new baby Emma-Elizabeth with us! I had been "cycling" for about 6 months... Daniel says I am a natural. He challenged me to ride around Lake Tahoe with him in one day. And with that, the challenge began!

The day before we headed out on our first big ride together, we decided to test the route a little bit with an hour ride. With lots of steep steep mountains, absolutely beautiful scenery and a cranky attitude from me... we were challenged on this 14 mile trip.

We finally got back to the camp site after I threw a fit, yes... I am 22 years old and I still throw fits. Cute, huh? Later that night, after I got over myself and before we went to bed, I made sure to have a "pep talk" with Daniel before we woke up at 6am for our BIG ride.

See if you know Daniel at all, like I do, you should know that he is one of the MOST PATIENT people I have ever met in my life. We are so opposite in this area of life. He is a thinker... and NEVER lashes out. He listens and sometimes never even says a word in defense. And for the longest time, I thought when he wasn't "fighting" me... he was running away from the problem. But no, Daniel is patient, loving, thoughtful, not careless with his words, and he can be an amazing encourager and terrific challenger. God totally uses this man as a tool to grow me and mold me into the "beautiful thing" He wants me to be. (At our wedding, during the "union" part of the ceremony... we had our parents pray for us rather than taking communion, or washing each other's feet, or mixing sand. And we had the song by Gungor "Beautiful Things" playing in the background. So sweet.)

After letting Daniel know how "I work," we slept so soundly and woke up ready. He had prepared for this day WAY before we left for camping... packing us all the small goodies for our ride, getting us "energy" water, and for me- new cycling shorts that we more than necessary and COMFY! After, I believe, a banana we began our journey with excitement.

The first 28 miles were some of the hardest. I remember thinking, ARE WE HALF WAY DONE? And Daniel answered my thoughts with no, but we are a THIRD done! He kept positive and for the most part I kept quite, otherwise the long and painful ride would have been even more long and painful due to the not so sweet words that would come out of my mouth. As we were almost at about 35 miles, Daniel asked if I need a break and I challenged us to continue on until we hit 50 miles! So we trekked on and pushed up those mountains! I ALMOST GAVE UP! It was less than  5 miles to 50 and I was pushing and pulling the petal as much as I could... I was literally going like 2 miles per hour, but I couldn't stop. As I am grunting and hurting, Daniel encourages me with "milestones" and "you're so hot babe" comments. I am pretty sure it was the "you're so hot" comments that really got me through those awful 5 miles.

WE FINALLY HIT 50 MILES! WE HIT 50! I couldn't be any more excited! The sun was finally getting hot, and so was my water! My legs were getting jelly like and my head was sweating! I wanted to rip of all my clothes and ride naked, but no THANK YOU- not a lovely look on me. ;) After about a 30 minute rest because I was so tired, Daniel had us move on!! The last 25 miles were so much better. There was only a little bit of climbing but a lot more down hill and flat areas- thank God! I "soaked in" the downhill rides and I continued to petal on the flats. 

We made it to "the strip" where it was quite busy but was the most exciting part! Knowing that I hit "the strip" meant that I was almost finished and EVERYTHING was flat! NO MORE HILLS! NO MORE MOUNTAINS, just flat and bumpy roads. The last ten miles were dreadful. My legs hurt so bad. I couldn't feel the "in between" of my legs (haha), and my feet were feeling numb. I had a cramp in my side and was almost in tears. But once again, I can hear Daniel encouraging me... telling me how cool of a wife I am, how hot I was, and how proud he was of me.

It was time. Time to meet everyone at the campsite! It was TIME TO GO THROUGH THE FINISH LINE! I know this sounds lame but as we entered into the campgrounds on our way to our specific campsite, I had watery eyes. I was so proud of us. We made all 73 miles of cycling mountains and roads with smiles, laughs, jokes, and encouragement! We made it together! We finished EVERY mile together. He pushed me through it! I wouldn't have finished without him, at least in a day! I would have TOTALLY given up! As we got to the campsite, our family was there to cheer us on!! :)

Daniel, he is the most amazing husband. I learn so much from him... and I learned so much especially on our ride together. One thing I hadn't mentioned yet was how he led the ride, behind. Yes, he rode behind me the whole time. He knew how discouraging it was for me to "try and catch up" and he let me be in the front for 6 hours! This just showed me how much he really did listen to me the night before. And how much he really did care about how I felt and me finishing. He is so loving. And he can be so selfless. He just amazes me. Thanks baby. :)

Yes, this blog is a bit of a brag about not only the biggest ride I have ever finished, but how ABSOLUTELY amazing my husband is and how much I have to learn from him! I love you Daniel. Thanks for being my husband. :)

Thanks for reading today!! Happy writing to you my friends! For those of you married, I challenge you to take an adventure with your husband!! There is so much that I didn't even get to share with you that I loved and learned about on this ride!!! Do it and let me know the plan!! :)