the I-can't-believe-I'm-doing-this event

so.
when I first heard of this I scoffed.
snickered.
smirked.
rolled my eyes and said, who does this? and why?

and now here I am, registered, committed, part of a team, gonna do the darn thing.
"the thing" is the (excuse me, I just rolled my eyes again) Saints to Sinners bike relay.
argh.

I still don't know the answer to the "why" question above, but apparently the "who" in the "who does this" now includes, gulp, me.

and it's really all my fault. because I love to ride, which helped john learn to love to ride, which got his colleague on board with the joy of riding, which led to said colleague looking out for all the great riding experiences he can find . . . which led him to find this Really Great Relay and convincing john's company to sponsor a team.
yep, I take responsibility.
argh.

saints to sinners is a relay event, offering teams of 5 or 10 riders the Glorious Opportunity to ride from salt lake city (home of many saints) to las vegas (home of many supposed sinners). the ride is split up into thirty legs, and there is a lengthy "bible" that supplies all the rules and regulations about which team member is allowed to ride when. the relay begins friday morning (july 29) and ends whenever the team reaches las vegas, 500+ miles down the road.
we have a team of 5, which means each of us will be riding approximately 100 miles as the official team rider; we're also allowed to ride along to pace the official rider if it's a leg not directly before or after our own leg.
got it?
so I could actually ride 3/5 of the entire thing if I so chose.
I will not so choose.

the route includes a bit of climbing, and a lot of descending.
and here's the thing: the team rides all day friday, and all night friday night. I've never ridden during the dark of night (5 in the morning doesn't count). and I'm a little apprehensive about this. riding on the flats or uphill in the dark is fine---I'm used to that---but descending makes me a bit nervous!
can you say, big old light?

I think I'm going to have to do a night trial. (luckily I know someone who is well-schooled in night riding: our ivy league friend.)
the colleague who got us all excited about (suckered us into) this event has already done a hundred-mile ride in the dark, just for practice. the thing here is that I like sleep too much. then again, when the event arrives, I'll be riding in the middle of the night after not much--if any--sleep.
argh.

I just rolled my eyes again.

so back to the never say never thing.
although I did say "never" to this, I am now apparently doing this. so I've reframed it into "wow, what a great opportunity I have now for this grand adventure, doing something I've never before done."

grand adventure, yep. lucky me, uh-huh. wow, can't wait!
see you at the bike store: I've got to go buy a really big, really bright light.