Westport, WA to Lehi, UT COMPLETE

On the bicycle route there are 1,024 miles between Westport, WA and Lehi, UT.  On May 27, 2017 I started riding in Westport.  The injury on May 31 put a 6 week hiatus on cycling while my knee recovered, so we regrouped and decided to do the route in snippets instead of one long “thread”.  On Saturdays since I was cleared to ride I did the miles between Nampa, ID and Lehi, UT.  Then last Saturday (Sept. 2) got the miles done between Vale, OR and Nampa, leaving 329 miles, all in Oregon, to complete by today.

There were days this week that felt frustratingly long and slow, and days that I thought, man, I could ride all day today – though I’m glad I stopped when I did.

Today’s highlight was how it ended.  I’d only been on the bike about 3.5 hours and the only significant climb of the day was almost done.  I knew I was close, because the GPS said I had two miles left.  As I crested the hill and Randy was at the top, he stopped me and asked which shot I’d like him to get – (will upload probably sometime tomorrow) and we agreed to which one we thought would be the best one, he got the drone into place, and I headed toward the downhill as my music changed songs. Now, don’t judge me for my music selection on this playlist.  Almost any song with a good beat or inspiring message can make my list.

Whitney Houston’s One Moment in Time from the 1988 Olympics started.  (official video here) Whitney Houston – One Moment in Time  And yes, I was flying down that hill.  (the video may or may not bear that out, but suffice it to say I was.) Two miles of downhill goes pretty quick on a bike, and it’s kind of a long song, so it was just finishing up as I hit the bottom and slowed down.  It’s been hitting me all day that I’ve done something pretty incredible – mom said it best, though – it’s a little surreal.  So here are the statistics and charts:

1,024 miles

Approximately 90 hours on the bike

Approximately 29,314 feet of climbing

Approximately 24,774 feet of downhill (the fun part… lol)

26.9% of 3,800 miles total complete

41% of the total climbing

Now I’m going to rest for a few weeks and do some more miles after some planning and some more training.

Thanks for all your encouragement and love from across the miles!  I couldn’t do it without you.  🙂