7/10 Jill's Bike Log

7/10-Saturday- The Prouty. (Biked 50 miles, total, 1231). My children, friends and family joined me in my journey and the connections I made deeply nourished my spirit. I set a goal of personally raising $2000 and as a team $10,000. I raised $2200 and as a team $8675. I hoped to have 75 people on The Cyclo Healer Team and 58 were signed up for our team. It feels wonderful to be within reach of my goals

The forecast for Saturday was for rain and possible thunderstorms, so at the welcome home party, many of The Cyclo Healers walkers decided to begin their walk at 7:30 am and the bikers depart at 8:00 am. When I got up on Saturday, at 6:30 it was pouring down rain. We had some debate whether on not to bike the whole 50 miles if it was going to continue to rain. We decided to play it by ear. Karen and the rest of the walkers in the family decided to head out later in hopes that it’d stop raining.

This year I was able to park in the VIP parking lot near the starting point because of the amount of money I raised. The rest of our group parked in the other lot about a mile from the start and had to bike in. We thought we saw Bryce’s friend Ira biking to the start as we headed to the parking lot, so when we got out of the car, I went to pick up our bibs and Bryce scoured the food tent to locate Ira. Unfortunately we never did hook up with him. We headed out on with our friends the Bilbacks after grazing in the food tent. Rich thought his daughter Kelsey’s belly was going to pop from eating so much of the yummy breakfast foods…a great way to begin the snack to snack ride. You see, every 10 miles there’s a food tent with plenty to eat.

Initially the numbers participating in The Prouty seemed to be down. I assume it was due to the weather. It rained pretty hard for the first 10 miles, but just a drizzle for the rest of the ride. The rain kept the temperatures down, so we didn’t mind it at all. It was great to have 12 Cyclo Healers biking together and we met half a dozen more wearing their Cyclo Healers t-shirts on the route.

I wondered how challenging I’d find the route compared to the previous two years we rode in it. I didn’t feel tired or particularly strained on any of the hills. Now if I can mange to stay in shape! At the finish line The Cyclo Healers Walkers were waiting for us to cheer us on. Ah…what a gratifying journey. I’ll cherish it for the rest of my life.
















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