Yesterday was my 37th birthday. I wanted to do something fun with my boys and create memories together. I had read about a new Mountain Bike park in Park City that was created specifically for mountain bicyclists to practice on. (Like a skate park.) As long as our family is trying different activities, I really wanted to try this out with them! Besides mountain biking has always been something that has intrigued me since I was in college and started biking.
Trailside Park opened in May of 2011 and there weren’t many people here on this Labor Day. It was a gorgeous day. Dave was our pit crew and Jacob’s playmate on the giant playground nearby.
The first thing we saw was a “pump track”. Hills designed for the mountain biker to learn how to get forward momentum without having to use pedals. We each tried this and were a little shaky, but we got better as we continued. James, Samuel and Benjamin got tired of this and went back to where dad and Jacob were. Anthony and I were pumped about this new adventure and we biked up the hill to see what other things there were to tackle.
Our First Family Race - Tour de Donut held in Pleasant Grove/American Fork on July 16, 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.
Samuel (5) is one strong kid!
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!
Anthony quickly eating a donut before getting back on the road. Dave's phone camera accidentally had a weird setting of a blue tint. But at least we got this picture of him as he just took off on his own!
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.
At the end of lap one. Benjamin (7), Samuel (5), Jacob (2). Picture taken by MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald
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 eating at the end of his 1st lap. Same strange blue tint on the camera settings. Oh well.
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.
Relaxing at the end of the race, waiting for results to be announced.End of the race. Found some shade while waiting to hear results. James (12), Jacob (2), Anthony (9)Benjamin (7) is tired. Waiting in the shade for results to be announced.Jacob (2) wanting to grab the camera from me and take pictures. He's a little upset I'm not letting him have it.
Anthony really wanted to have a friend birthday party this year since last year he only had a family party. LaReita planned a fun bike ride from our home to the Spanish Fork North Park down a newly paved bike path that practically runs from our street right down to the park. Yes it is “down” as in “down-hill”. One party-goer (Bethany) did have a minor bike accident but was able to continue on and get to the park. We all told our bike crashes to make her feel better. (Hopefully it did.)
And after the cake (brownies) LaReita went with a few boys to see where the bike path ended. On a bumpy dirt part, Samuel crashed right in front of LaReita’s tire. LaReita couldn’t stop fast enough to keep from rolling over Samuel. So she ditched her bike, and twisted her ankle. There was some pretty good swelling, and will be for quite a few more days. It was quite the adventure! (Before she left the house, she kept having the prompting to find her bike backpack that had a camelbak of water, and her emergency oils. She couldn’t find it, but at least grabbed a small first aid kit, which certainly did come in handy. Another lesson learned in following promptings! And wearing bike helmets!)
The kids played for about 30 minutes once they got to the park.
Bethany and Benjamin
The party did have its ups and downs:
Cesar, Sam & AnthonyCesar, Sam & Anthony
Then Dad arrived with the Pizza, Pop and Puffs (Cheetos)!
Kooper, James, Anthony, BenjaminJacob, Kooper, Anthony, James, Bethany, Benjamin, Sam
And more bike riding:
Sam tried nearly all the "big boy bikes".Benjamin on a "big boy bike".
More fun:
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Getting ready to bike home.Jacob had his cake, but ate it too!
Winding up and heading home: David had to bike home because of LaReita’s swollen ankle. (She took the van back.) First time Dave has biked up a hill since last summer. He came home and said, “I’m going to go die now,” and crashed on the downstairs couch for 2 hours. Carlos, Cesar and Kooper stayed at our house for another hour or so to play with the new toys. One of our kids asked, “Where’s dad?” Kooper said, “Oh, don’t bother him right now. He’s busy dying.” Oh the funny things kids say!
