The Tour de Cure Ride

Well it is finally happened. Brent started and completed his ride to benefit diabetes on Saturday. It was an exciting day. We got to the starting site at about 6:45 a.m. It was cold and blustery that morning and luckily they had hot coco. Emma and I had three cups each. Finally Brent got started and Emma and I cuddled down in the car to watch "Enchanted". After that was over we decided to go see if we could track Brent down. We had forgotten to get gas before and so the search began by finding a gas station. Then from there, because we had so much coco, we had to take several pit stops. Meanwhile Brent was dutifully riding. When we were finally finished finding gas stations and bathrooms we started into Elfin Forest. If you ever have a chance to drive through, it is so incredibly beautiful. I loved every minute of that part of the drive. (That's not hard though considering I love the woods like I love living!) I began to get a little worried however because about the time I thought we should be catching up to Brent, we weren't. I drove and drove and drove and thought that maybe I had missed him. I hadn't realized just how much time I had taken up by finding bathrooms. He called right before he went into a bike only trail. I was about 20 minutes from that point.

He was already more than half way through the ride. We went around the trail and waited for him to pop out. There were these flowers just on the side of the highway were we stopped that we so amazing. He popped out and we followed him for a little and then I thought we would good down and look at the beach. We drove down onto this little road that is a one way only and got totally stuck in traffic. Then when we got out of that we stopped and had lunch. When I realized what time it was we took off again and got stuck on the Pacific Coast Highway in traffic again. When we turned off of that Brent called and said that he was finished. I was so bummed that didn't get there in time to cheer him in. It was such a pretty ride and Emma and I had a great time. As for Brent we don't know the place he came in because it wasn't really a race. He estimated that he rode about 14 mph through the whole ride. He rode approximately 71 miles in six hours and only really stopped once. We had a little party afterward with close friends and he leaned over to me at about 7:30 p.m. and told me that he was bushed. We hit the sack at about 9 and then all day Sunday he was pretty beat. I am so proud of him. Not only has he succeeded in a 70 mile ride but he has lost nearly 80 pounds in the process. You don't realize until you go through it how much training goes into such a thing like this. It is not just a casual Saturday activity. Again I am so proud of him. He is my hero.