Micah's Big Day!

Yesterday, Saturday, was a big day for Micah. Since he got a road bike in Feb. he has really enjoyed going on rides and decided that he wanted to train and do a Century (a 100 mile bike ride). He signed up for the Glassner Autumn Challange which took place yesterday in a small town outside of Montgomery, AL. Here are some pictures with explanations about the day.

This event was a ride and not a race so there was no mass start or finishing place awards. But there was a good amount of people there. This group of cyclist you see is the group Micah took off with.
Esther and I waited around the church parking lot where the ride started and finished and then we took off, maybe an hour later. It was a little too late. We had planned to meet Micah at each of the 5 rest stops, which were about every 20 miles. However we did not even see him till mile 35. This picture below is at mile 35 when we saw him for the first time. He was going much faster than he had planned. I guess he was feeling great!

Each rest stop had a theme to it. This was the second rest stop which we came to not long after we had seen Micah for the first time. It was the Le Tour de Rest Stop! I thought it was so creative. They had water, gatorade, fruit, nutrition bars, other food, technical bike support, and bathrooms at every stop. The volunteers at each stop were very helpful and kind.

At the above rest stop Le Tour de Rest Stop Esther and I went inside to use the bathroom and I think while we were in there Micah came by, got some water, didn't see us, and then just kept going. We came out and waited for a little bit. After a while I decided we might have missed him so we headed on to the next rest stop which is pictured below.

At the rest stop pictured above I thought for sure we had gotten in front of him and that he would come by and we would see him. While waiting I asked some other riders how fast they were going. They said about 20 mph. I knew Micah said he wanted to go about 17 mph so I thought okay we should see him. We were there for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. At that point I was amazed and thought I guess he is in front of us. Or I was afraid he was having trouble and was way behind his schedule. So we took off anyway and headed for the next rest stop.

After driving 90 miles of the 100 mile course Esther and I finally caught up to Micah at the very last rest stop. We passed by and saw him laying on the grass. When we got to him he said he had just gotten there and that he was dead tired. He looked pretty tired too! The picture above is of Esther and Micah at the 90 mile rest stop. I was relieved to see him and that he was doing okay. After not seeing him for so long I was a little worried something might had happened to him. Well not long after he took off to finish the last 10 miles of his 100 mile ride. We passed him when he had about 4 miles left. He was tired!

Woohoo! He made it! This is Micah's victory photo after he made it back to the church. The overall time was 6 hours of riding including some stopping at the rest stops along the way. I'm really impressed with him. He did a great job. This picture below is when he turned into the parking lot and was DONE!

Here he is, off his bike, and leaning against the car for support. It's no joke. He really did need the support of the car!

This is a while after when we were just relaxing in the church. You can tell Micah is pretty beat. :)

Overall the day was really nice. The weather was wonderful, not hot, and the people were very kind and enthusiastic. That makes for a good experience. We enjoyed supporting Micah and doing this good wholesome recreational activity together. Although I have to point out that Micah was the one doing the recreation and Esther and I were just trying to keep up!