Month: July 2011

Our first family bike race!
Yesterday we participated in the Utah Tour de Donut. A spoof on Tour de France, and not nearly as long!  It was for charity, and a lot of fun.  I stumbled across this event as I was helping James with his Bicycling Merit Badge. He needed to look up the state laws regarding bike safety and this event was listed as an upcoming event.   When I clicked on the 45 second video showing last years event I laughed out loud so hard the rest of the boys came running into the kitchen to see what was going on. (Apparently I don’t laugh very often, and when I do it’s a major event!)  They watched the commercial with me again and I asked, “Well… should we do it?”   “YES YES YES YES, Pleeeeaasssse?!”

To sum it up: 3 laps of 7 miles each. At the completion of each lap, eat as many donuts as you can. For each donut eaten, get 3 minutes shaved off your final time. All the funds raised went toward charity stuff.

So we entered!  Dave was a volunteer since he hasn’t been doing the biking as we have.  While he is at work, we’ve been biking a lot – anywhere between 5-10 miles every 2 days.

Interestingly enough, it is Samuel (5) who is the strongest of all the brothers in regards to stamina. (And of course Anthony.) Samuel was actually the first one in our family to complete the 1st lap.

Sadly, Samuel had an equipment malfunction with his Camelbak (a drinking apparatus to drink water without dealing with hands and bottles). In our hurry to make it to the start line in time, I didn’t help him put it on his back, and he put it on upside down. So the water wasn’t coming down the tube when he wanted a drink. So he rode 7 miles without any water, and still came in 1st!  That kid is amazing.  He was also the youngest registered child that actually rode. (Jacob was registered, but wasn’t riding a bike. He was in the trailer I was pulling.)

Next was Anthony who was 10 minutes behind Samuel!

I never even rode with Anthony because he just took off! He LOVED this event and wants to do more. He completed all 3 laps, but we won’t know his exact time because on the completion of the 3rd lap he didn’t go across the finish line for the computer to clock him. He went into the donut lane instead. We figured that he was about 15-20 minutes ahead of James and I. So when we get our times, I’ll calculate that in. Anthony says he ate 5 donuts total.

My mom  is here for a couple weeks and she came along to watch. She thought she’d just stay for an hour and have Lynette come get her.  But really enjoyed it and stayed and watched. After the end of the 1st lap, the 3 youngest were ready to stop.  So they stayed with Grandma Leavitt while Dave was doing his volunteer job.  They mostly just played in and around her and the bushes, watching the bikers come in and eat donuts. Benjamin ate 2 donuts. Samuel ate 2 donuts and Jacob had one.  (1,500 donuts were made by Maceys the night before. And they were ALL eaten too! About 600 riders were in the event.)

James at the end of his 2nd lap was getting exhausted but since he had to complete 25 miles that day for part of his Merit Badge, he said, “I HAVE to keep going.”  I did some quick plugging in of affirmations, prayers, and energy work  for him. About a quarter way through the 3rd lap he caught his second wind despite his gears not agreeing with his wanting to upshift.  James only had one donut because he didn’t like the regular glazed. He wanted chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  Gross. Makes me sick thinking about eating something that heavy!

Dave was a volunteer helping to put donut tally marks on participants tags as they came in and out. It was pretty much non-stop of 2 hours for him.

As for me, I really had a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to doing another family race soon!  Oh, and I ate 3 donuts 🙁

As a “treat” that evening we went to see the movie Cars 2. The boys loved all the action and the spy angle. Anthony observed, “they call that a rated G? There were machine guns, cars blowing up, and cars dying! That wasn’t a rated G!”

Since the Tour de Donut was only 21 miles, James had to go still another 4 miles to fulfill his 25 mile requirement. So he and I went to see the Spanish Fork Pioneer Cemetery that has recently been upgraded. Very nice place. (FYI – the Cycling Merit Badge actually is 100 miles total. So we’ll be doing some more riding!)

Last night we all slept very soundly. 🙂

Love,
~LaReita

p.s. For those detail people, wanting to know how we all got ourselves there with our bikes… I absolutely love our van. We folded down the back seat, took out the “2nd shotgun” seat, and were able to put in 3 big bikes as well as the trailer. In Dave’s car we put in the 2 smaller bikes and bungee corded the trunk down. Perfect! And there was a seat still for everyone without having to double-buckle.

p.p.s. One of the sponsors of the event is a blogger called Fat Cyclist. Here is his report on the event.