where to begin.
"that sucked!" from an almost-fifty-year-old president of a large corporation: this was my favorite quote of the day.
he was referring to the climb we all had to make to reach the top of Mirror Lake Highway, where the summit is about 10,700 feet.
the irony here is that "suck" is a word I do not permit my children to use when in my presence. (at least not in the sense of the word I'm discussing here.) but it was completely, totally, fully, perfectly appropriate today, used in reference to that climb.
first of all, it went on about 3 miles longer than I thought it would,
second, I was out of water for at least the last 2.95 of those miles, and
third, it was just HARD.
I rode the Tour de Park City today, and it beat me up. to the point that all of my brain cells are on "refill and revive," still, more than 3 hours after finishing.
so all I can write about is that ride.
I am glad I did it: I conquered a new climb. I faced headwinds and crosswinds you wouldn't believe. and I rode the last 20 or so miles with a chain that kept falling off and a non-working cleat on my right shoe . . . geez. ( tomorrow I will be visiting the bike shop, won't I? )
I am always glad, after the fact, that I do these rides. but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to do them again.
but, although the climb sucked, the view from up there was absolutely amazing. beautiful. restorative . . .
and my favorite spot of the ride is a place called Slate Gorge. from the road, you look down, over the right berm (okay, it could have been a concrete retaining wall but 'berm' is a much more romantic word and I had to use it) into a deep divide where the river rushes 50 or 60 feet below.
it was stunning.
great rewards abound when we reach outside our comfort zone, as sucky as it might feel at the time.
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