LOTOJA 2009

This weekend was kind of a big deal for some of the members of my family. My two brothers and my Dad have been training for the big race from Logan to Jackson Hole, LOTOJA. It's a 206 mile race of tons of steep uphill. I was tired just driving the whole thing! Steve and Mark have done it before (along with a bunch of other races), but this was the first year for my Dad. My brother Mark, the one in pink, asked me a few months ago if I would be willing to crew for him during the race. I was excited to have the chance to go and help out.

I got to decorate my car with a bunch of super-official stickers

This is Marco, Steve's wife. Steve is in the blue and white, by the way. Marco and I were together pretty much the whole day. We were in charge of putting together musette bags for Mark and Steve. For those of you not familiar with the term "musette" it's just a bag filled with food and drinks that the cyclists grab as they ride by designated feed zones.

We always stood by number 8 at the feed zones so that Mark and Steve would know where to find us.

This is Rachel, Mark's wife, and his baby, Kate. They were able to cheer Mark on while I worried about getting him his musette.

If you look closely in this picture you can see Marco handing off the musette to Steve. Do you kind of get how it works now? I had no idea about any of this stuff before Saturday morning. They don't stop the whole time... just grab and go.

Here's Mark (in the pink and black) after I handed him his musette. It was hard to get any pictures of his front side since I was handing him his goods. The hand off is actually pretty intense. I saw one guy who made his cyclist crash way hard because of a bad hand-off. The cyclist did a complete front flip right in front of me and landed on his shoulder. It was pretty graphic, and loud! No joke, it sounded like a car accident. He lost control for a second and plowed into a cone. He did not finish the race due to a seriously jacked up shoulder.

Here is Steve crossing the finish line. He came in Second Place in his category!! We were all really proud of him.

Mark's kids cheering him on at the finish. I didn't get a picture of him crossing the line. Oops!

Here he is after his finish. Not even tired :)

Doesn't my Dad look like a stud? Hard to believe how fit he has become in the last couple of years. There weren't a lot of guys in their sixties there.

Here's Steve at the podium. He was .25 seconds behind the first place guy. Pretty impressive, don't you think??

Stay in touch and maybe you'll see some pictures of Lori participating in the race next year!