May 23rd. The First Day!!

Well it was a pretty restless night. I was so nervous I could barely sleep. Some of our fears had been put to rest the night before by a veteran who had answered our many many questions mostly regarding our deep seated fears about having to be sagged in one of the support vehicles if we ended up being too slow. I had a couple nightmares about sore butts and being left in the dust and woke up well before my 5:30 alarm went off. Letty, Catie and I got our gear together and rode off to the starting line by 6am which was about half a mile away from the university. We had a little breakfast at the starting line, took a million pictures, watched other riders say goodbye to their family and friends who were seeing them off, and then it was time to start the ride. My mind was still fuzzy and in total disbelief that I was really starting this thing that I had been talking about and planning for for over 6 months. We were some of the last to leave, but we were happy to realize that we had easily passed half the riders by 15 miles into the trip. We started on a really neat shaded and winding path out of the city and every minute of it was more exhilerating than the last. Eventually the terrain changed to highways and then to rolling hills and then to the big test of our training and endurance, "Snoqualmie Pass." We knew it would be several miles of climbing and we had been nervous about that mountain for months, but I guess our training climbs on Mt Veeder in Napa paid off because it was way easier than we thought it would be and we reached the summit still breathing and our heads held high. There was still some snow on the pass, and even a little snowman that we later discovered was made by on of the riders, Simon, during his short residency in a nearby ditch. We had a little coffee at the summit and then began our long and well deserved descent. I topped out at 38 miles an hour going down and was feeling quite proud of myself as we rolled straight into camp after our downhill, completing the longest ride of my life at 91.4 miles. I couldn't believe I'd made it, and I wasn't even close to being last! We enjoyed cold beer and sausages that night, courtesy of former big riders that had ridden with us just for the day, and then konked out in my little green canvas house feeling very pleased with myself.