So this last weekend was our TNT trip to Lake Tahoe for the Century Bike Ride. We were on a pretty tight schedule Friday – Sunday with the team but it has been a blast. And I’ll tell you right now, I have a ton of pictures but won’t have them attached until I get home. Saturday we took a sailboat cruise on the lake and basically just hung out together for a few hours. It wasn’t very warm but still a lot of fun getting bonding time with the team. We’ve really become a very close group of friends and I hope we can all stay in touch. Of course the “Tahoe’s Angels” had to pose for a picture.
Sunday it was up at 4:30am (ugh) to start getting ready for the ride. Each team from different states had some type of helmet decoration representing where they were from. St. Louis had a aluminum arch, DC had little White Houses, Kansas had pipe cleaner tornados and all of us from Minnesota…..we had SPAM cans. (Since SPAM is made in MN)
At first we all thought, yeah, no way is that thing going on my head but I kid you not, I think we were the favorite helmet decoration of all people at the race. We really had fun with it.
The ride itself was challenging but very scenic. I’ll try to find the link to the elevation change map to put here as well. (Tahoe Ride Elevation Map) We had these insanely steep switchbacks to climb around mile 15 up to Emerald Bay and then another climb that definitely left me tired and frustrated around mile 70 going up to Spooner. It’s hard to explain what those roads were like if you’ve never seen them before. The climb to Emerald Bay was basically rock on one side of the road and a cliff drop on the other. And a few places where it was cliff on both sides! It was a little nerve-wracking but we just stayed in the middle of the road! I’ll skip to near the end of the race when there was a group of about 12 of us that kept catching up with each other at rest stops. We decided to meet up just before the finish and wait for all 12 of us to come together and ride into the finish together. It was incredible! There were so many other TNT people cheering at the finish and yelling “GO SPAM!” when they saw us all coming in together. It’s an experience I won’t soon forget.
After the ride was our Victory Party. Dana, Becca, DJ and myself were all triple crown winners at this event. Meaning we’ve completed a full/half marathon, triathlon and century bike ride with TNT. We partied all night with our crowns on.
The ride itself was challenging but very scenic. I’ll try to find the link to the elevation change map to put here as well. (Tahoe Ride Elevation Map) We had these insanely steep switchbacks to climb around mile 15 up to Emerald Bay and then another climb that definitely left me tired and frustrated around mile 70 going up to Spooner. It’s hard to explain what those roads were like if you’ve never seen them before. The climb to Emerald Bay was basically rock on one side of the road and a cliff drop on the other. And a few places where it was cliff on both sides! It was a little nerve-wracking but we just stayed in the middle of the road! I’ll skip to near the end of the race when there was a group of about 12 of us that kept catching up with each other at rest stops. We decided to meet up just before the finish and wait for all 12 of us to come together and ride into the finish together. It was incredible! There were so many other TNT people cheering at the finish and yelling “GO SPAM!” when they saw us all coming in together. It’s an experience I won’t soon forget.
After the ride was our Victory Party. Dana, Becca, DJ and myself were all triple crown winners at this event. Meaning we’ve completed a full/half marathon, triathlon and century bike ride with TNT. We partied all night with our crowns on.
They had a small dance floor at the party and Minnesota had a good part of the floor all night. It was so much fun dancing and just being goofy with all my friends from the team. Then a bunch of us went out for a celebratory drink and dropped a couple dollars on gambling. I mean….we are in Tahoe J. Sunday unfortunately we had to get up early to drop our bikes back in the trucks but then got to relax a little, do some shopping and nursed my sunburns. Monday morning those of us staying longer had to say goodbye to most of the team that was heading home. Those of us left relaxed by the pool for a few hours in the afternoon, went out for a fancy dinner (really expensive but good) and then threw in a few more $20s to play BlackJack. Six of us were playing blackjack until well after midnight but it was so much fun since we just took over a table and all played together. Lucky for me I came out $35 ahead!
Ok so here I sit on Tuesday night, trying to relax a little since my stomach is not happy with my today for some reason. We got to sleep in and spent the afternoon hiking down to the lake by Emerald Bay. What a beautiful area! I could have stayed a few more hours but most of us were hungry for dinner so we found an Italian place and stuffed our faces with pasta.
Ok so here I sit on Tuesday night, trying to relax a little since my stomach is not happy with my today for some reason. We got to sleep in and spent the afternoon hiking down to the lake by Emerald Bay. What a beautiful area! I could have stayed a few more hours but most of us were hungry for dinner so we found an Italian place and stuffed our faces with pasta.
So that’s my Tahoe story, at least so far. We have one more full day here but no plans. I would like to do a little more shopping and sounds like we may hit up the new Sex In The City movie.
Then I have to get home, start getting on top of my PT certification studies and start thinking about training for the Chisago Half Iron….in less than two months!
Then I have to get home, start getting on top of my PT certification studies and start thinking about training for the Chisago Half Iron….in less than two months!
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