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• ride 125+ miles in one day- Done
• climb 15,000+ feet of mountain in one day- Done
• Obtain all 5 mountain pass stickers- Done
• Be a Death Ride finisher- Done
• Earn money for TurningWheels For Kids- Done
• Thank everyone who supported our cause- Working on it.

Soooooo, I finished! We finished! All 4 of our TurningWheels For Kids team members who were able to start the ride, finished the ride. Congrats to Brennan, Jeff and Leah. Thank-you to all who supported us. I could feel your support. I felt so honored to be the recipient of so much from so many.

Now I’m going to type a long diary of the day. For most of you that may be extremely monotonous and boring so feel free to skip down to the bottom and read my list of highlights and impressions at the end. It won’t offend me. Again, thanks for your generous support!

Here’s how it all went down: Keep in mind that this was my first attempt at the Death Ride. Also, I was a rookie at road riding period. I had only bought my bike in the fall and have only riden one organized ride which was a century.

Thursday morning before the ride~ drove into the Sierras to begin my deep focus on the task at hand…. yeah right! Drove up to take a break from work. I just used the DR as an excuse. I did drive over highway 4, Ebbetts pass into Markleeville to check out the area. The weather was warm but clear. Highway 4 looked tough and I tried to ignore the fact that it was going to beat me up in a couple of days. While in Markleeville I checked in and picked up my registration packet, numbers and goodie bag.

After hanging out for awhile I headed back over to Dorrington (near Big Trees) to meet up with tonights host, Jeff along with more TurningWheels support crew members- Sue, Donna, Derek, Deb, Jakob and Colby for a great Italian dinner. I love the carbo loading part of the preparation for a big ride.

Friday morning while the others headed out to the lake for a day of boating and tubing :>( , I drove back over to Markleeville to truly begin the “Death Ride experience”. It was only 10:30 am the day before the ride and the Markleeville area was beginning to hop. Turtle Rock Park had security at the entrance and I had to talk my way through with a little name dropping to get to the camp area I was to be staying at that night. Immediately after driving in I met up with a friend, Greg Eby, that I would be camping with that night and set up camp. Around noon fellow TWFK team mate and DR guru Leah showed up and we all walked up to a main area of Turtle Rock so the others could sign in and we could all walk through the vendors display area and bag a few freebies. Soon afterwards Leah took off back to Bear Valley where she would be staying in her cushy bed for the night while the rest of us would be sleeping with the bears.

Hunger showed it’s head again (happens a lot) and so we didn’t hang out too long before Greg talked me into riding the bikes down to Markleeville, about 3 miles, to a great little Deli for lunch. The only problem is I refused to ride back up the hill to camp (part of my pre-ride resting discipline) so we hitched a ride with another friend with our bikes in the back of the pickup. Now the real preparation began as Friday afternoon was filled with sitting around and talking and meeting new friends who were camping in the same area. It’s a tough life. Sit, talk, stand, talk, sit, talk, laugh…. Oh, occasionally wander over to my well prepared bike and check something just in case. When we spent sufficient time we walked back up to the main area to, you guessed it, eat again. Pasta, of course. Dinner was followed by more new friends joining our group. After everything was laid out for the next morning, we hit the sack at the relatively early hour of 9 or 10 or so. It would be a long night as sleep would be hard to find. It was. How does 1 1/2 -2 hours sound? In spite of being up most of the night I didn’t hear the bear that passed by our tent.

Saturday- Day of the ride! 4:00 am – Greg’s and my alarms went off simultaneously. 40 minutes later, dressed and prepped for the day, we rolled out of Turtle Rock park, in the dark with headlamps and tail lamps, into a long line of early starters single file down the hill and through Markleeville to begin the first long climb of Monitor Pass. In less than 2 hours the top of Monitor was crested at 8730 feet for the first time. For those that don’t know, every couple hours of riding there is generally an established rest stop where drink, food, restrooms, mechanical and medical help are available. Many people gave me great advice and one I chose to follow was to skip the rest stops at the summits. If altitude affects a person the only cure is to get down from the altitude. I spent very little time at the summits for that reason and usually rode right past since the next stop would at the bottom of the next down hill or shortly after and would be easily obtainable.

What a great and picturesque ride down the east side of Monitor! This was a blast! Soon I was at the bottom of pass #2 at mile 25, which is out near Highway 395. This was my first stop of the day and involved filling drink bottles with Cytomax, eating a little fruit and pretzels and shedding some clothes. I didn’t waste time at the stop (another bit of advice- minimize stops, keep moving) and soon I was turned around and headed up climb #2. It didn’t take long before I saw Leah fly by on her first downhill and Jeff Kazan not far behind. I was wondering how far back they might be as they started 45 minutes to an hour behind me since they didn’t want to mess with lights as I did. Over the top of climb # 2 at mile 35, 2 stickers in (each pass climbed means a sticker on your bib number) another high speed downhill and soon riding the rolling Highway 4 to begin what some consider the toughest climb- #3, the east side of Ebbetts pass.

Gratefully, I had ridden this exact route back and forth over Highway 4, Ebbetts pass just 2 weeks prior and knew what to expect. It would be a long, but very do-able climb. Resisting the urge to keep looking over my shoulder for Leah I tried to enjoy the amazing views and people that would pass by. So many jerseys and stories. Many people riding for a cause besides our team. In some ways it’s the people that really make this a great ride. At one point I looked right and then looked left to see Leah’s smiling face. She caught me. So, I’m grinding along and she whips out her camera and starts shooting pictures! Oh, brother. My pain will be immortalized. After talking (well she talked, I just tried to breathe) she stepped on the gas and sped up to her normal pace and was gone as she was even more excited than I because her family would also be waiting with our TurningWheels crew at the next rest stop. They had driven all the way up to support and cheer our efforts- amazing! Continuing my slow but steady pace I summited at mile 55, collected my 3rd sticker and bombed down the west side of Ebbetts to see the team. This was the best down hill of the day as I was on schedule, if not early and felt like I had a good chance to finish all 5. Sure enough as I rode into the Hermit Valley rest stop at mile 61 I was welcomed by a very loud cheer on my behalf from the TurningWheels For Kids crew. This was an amazing reception in the middle of nowhere. I would imagine other riders wanted some of that.

Very cool. First things first, I collected that very important #4 sticker

and then over to the “gang” to report. 3 climbs down, 6+ hours and looking down at my bike computer realized I only had covered half the course, mileage-wise! I think it was Jeff Kazan (he came into the rest stop shortly after me) suggested that I remember that I’ve already climbed 3 of the 5 passes including what some believe is the hardest. Don’t stress about the mileage. I had plenty of time.

I’ve got to say how grateful I was to realize the sacrifice Sue, Donna, Deb, Derek, Jakob, Colby, John O., Carlene and Jeff made on our behalf. They had a huge banner and attracted many other cyclists that knew about TurningWheels For Kids and even participated in our Big Bike Builds. Unfortunately if I was going to finish the DR, I needed to go. With mixed feelings Leah and I said our good-byes and began our push up climb #4. Just a short way into it as Leah was beginning to move off at her faster pace, Brennan went flying by. He looked good. It didn’t seem to take too long before the summit of Echo came up again at mile 70 and soon found myself flying down Ebbetts back towards Markleeville. This descent is fast and can be somewhat technical with tight turns and no room for error. No mistakes made and I soon found myself at the lunch stop where Jeff Kazan waited for me to have light lunch, refuel and take off for the long grinding ride out to Carson Pass.

To be honest this next section was the part of the ride that I was dreading. It involves a long, usually against the wind, rolling hills ride out back through Markleeville passing my car along the way and on to Carson Pass. The advice to me was to hook up in a pace line to minimize effort and to find some relief during this part. If you aren’t familiar with that term is, it’s a close single file line of riders with the lead rider working hard and breaking the wind while following riders have an easier time in the draft. Fairness dictates that there be rotations or turns in the front pushing the wind. Almost Immediately I saw a long line forming just ahead and tried to catch it, but I was spending too much energy getting to it so I let it go. Not too much later a short line passed by at my pace and I hooked on. It broke up in Markleeville as the lead riders stopped to see supporters so I pressed on. It wasn’t long before I realized that I had a shadow (another rider) on my rear wheel that seemed content to just stay there. I came to find out she and I had started about the same time and 10 hours later found ourselves pretty evenly matched. Last year was her first attempt (she completed 4 passes) and we agreed to work together to push each other to the top. This part of the ride got hot and at the next rest stop there was a volunteer squirting people with a hose. The volunteers were great all day. Unfortunately at the next and last rest stop before the final summit I left my temporary partner, Laura, behind as she was running out of gas and pushed for the summit of Carson. Carson Pass is open to traffic so it was important to keep my concentration for this last leg. Everyone seemed to be slowing down to my pace, so part way up the hill I found myself in a long pace line. Luckily I was paying attention because a few riders tangled and crashed up in front and immediately bikes and riders were sprawled across the highway up ahead. Keeping my head up allowed me to avoid the mess. Luckily no one was seriously hurt and could push on. At about mile 100 I could see the top of Carson pass way up ahead and it looked like it was still another 100 miles away.

Pushing on at my snails pace I eventually found myself at the final grade. I knew I was close and the riders around me and I started to talk about just that. We could taste it. We were so close. We could feel it. Oh, wait. What we were feeling was hail! It was starting to hail! We had heard thunder for the last hour or so and I was worried about rain, but hail? Turning the last corner at the summit I rode down to the #5 summit rest stop and the hail began to dump. Luckily I was wearing my helmet. Ditching my bike I joined the mass of riders squeezing under every available shelter to wait it out but it kept coming down. It lasted about a half hour before it changed to rain. I wanted to get down and finished, so donning a garbage bag as a make shift raincoat I started the big descent down Carson in driving rain. This was the most miserable part of the ride. I was soaked and couldn’t see much at alland was shivering, which makes it a little hard to control a bike going at a pretty good clip down a mountain pass. I was concerned that the oil had lifted out of the road which would make the pavement very slippery, never mind the wet white lines and the passing cars. Eventually I made the last right hand turn back onto Highway 89 as the sun came back out. Only a few miles to go. I was going to make it.

I did it! Finished! There was Turtle Rock Park. There was my car! Done. Completed. Accomplished my goal. Finished not only for myself, but for the kids who deserve to have what I have and the freedom to be happy.

125 miles.
15,000 feet of climbing.
5 mountain passes.
11 1/2 hours in the saddle.
13 + hours total time.
9200+ calories burned.
1 day.

So, what did I do next? No, I didn’t go to Disneyland. Instead I rode some more~ down to the camp to catch up to Greg, who finished hours before. He’s a stud. Then I rode back to the car to pack up and head out, touched bases with old friends and new friends on how their day went and then off to Jeff’s cabin in Dorrington for the celebratory dinner of superb pasta and shrimp prepared by John O.

End of day.

Feelings, Impressions and Highlights:

*The almost 2,000 training miles, over 100,000 training feet of climbing and countless spin classes were worth it.
*Loved camping at Turtle Rock. Met new people, made new friends
*No sleep the night before.
*Disappointed that I didn’t hear or see the bear that passed by our tent.
*The Death Ride has multiple personalities and many chapters.
*The 4:40 am departure~ Seeing the long line of bike tail lights on Highway 89.
*The high energy RAP High School guys filling water bottles on the run coming up Monitor.
*The prom queens cheering the riders up Ebbetts.

*The spectacular support by the “Skeleton Crew”.
*Being amongst thousands of riders.
*Talking to so many other riders along the way to learn their story.
*Being asked over and over if I knew Leah and was riding with her.
*Top speed recorded- 49 mph.
*So many who were willing to offer great advice that was “spot on”.
*Lots of hail and lots of rain.
*Unfortunately I don’t know what happened to Laura. Hopefully she finished.
*The spectators and supporters scattered all over the course cheering and supporting us.
*Both sides of the main street through Markleeville lined with people waving, making noise and cheering.
*The sense of accomplishment.
*The TurningWheels For Kids crew who sacrificed and drove so far to support our team.
*All of you my supporters and your generosity.

THANK-YOU!