Craig's Tour de Park City - 108 miles

The Crew at the top of Bald Mountain Pass. Aah, 10,759 ft. elevation!!

Me wanting to puke at the top of the mountain.

Me and Chad making good time around mile 70.


At the finish line with with a happy Justin!

Who would have thought that Kristi and I would be spending our weekends doing triathlons, bike rides, and running events?? Somehow we have each caught the bug to participate in these things and over the past two weekends we've had some big events.

On Aug. 2 I participated in a cycling event called the Tour de Park City. It was my very first "Century Tour" or 100 mile ride. The course started on the east side of Park City near the Outlet malls, and from there went up past Jordanelle Resevoir, on through Kamas and Francis, and then up the Mirror Lake Hwy to a peak called the Bald Mountain Pass before turning around and heading back to Park City. Most of the first 54 miles was uphill....either slight uphill or a serious climb. Miles 40 - 54 were the most intense as we made our way up the canyon to the Bald Mtn Pass at 10,759 feet elevation. We started at 6,300 feet, so we definitely did our best Tour de France imitation. It was absolutely an intense climb. Even though we had practiced this climb before, we had not done it after having already ridden 40 miles. So, it was quite the challenge and there were times when I didn't know if I could make it without stopping to rest. But, I held out strong, made it to the top, then laid right down on the asphault!!

On the way back to Park City we were unpleasantly surprised with two more huge climbs that happened to be with a stiff 25mph wind in our face. These climbs happened at miles 91-95 then again at miles 98-100. They really wanted us to earn our racing stripes! All in all, we completed 108 miles and did 9,000 feet worth of climbing.

Now then, I've been saying "we" because I did not do this alone. I had the great opportunity of doing this with my two brothers, Chad and Dan, and also a great friend from work, Steve Dalton. It has been so fun training with these guys. We've done several rides of 50+ miles together and I can't remember a time that I've had more fun with my brothers. Dan is moving to Minneapolis soon and I'm really going to miss him. I'm glad we were able to conquer the century tour before the summer was over.

Thanks to Kristi and the kids, my mom and dad, and Kirsti, Blake, and Luke for waiting out in the hot sun for 2 1/2 hours to watch us finish!