The Suncrest Ride...Part 1.

So, Chris and I have completed what I would consider our first "hard" ride. "Hard" is such relative term. We have been on rides with hard aspects to them... a ride with a hard hill, or a really long ride. But all of these rides have one thing in common... they are either short in nature, or flat.

I will put up another post on this particular ride, but with video and pictures. Yesterday will be a day to remember. Chris and I pushed the envelope like we never have before. We were sure to pack plenty of water, Gatorade, and Cliff bars to keep us fueled. We had two water stops also, where we could fill up and keep moving.

Chris and I left his place at 8:00 in the morning. We had mapped out our ride (or rather, Chris had) and he knew the way to get us to the beginning of our main climb. I've included a link to our map so that those of you familiar with Utah can get a mental picture of our ride. Please take a peek to get an idea of our ride. See the loop that we made around a sparsely populated area on a curvy road? That was the monster hill that we conquered that is known as Suncrest. The name comes from the Housing development that is on top of the mountain.

We killed ourselves up the hill! If you are savvy enough, you can look at a view of the vertical that we did on my map. It was definitely not for the faint of heart! I remember being right by the Mt. Timpanogos temple and staring at those bald mountains right above Alpine and thinking "I'm dead". But then I came around a corner and got a view of the hill we'd be climbing. I wasn't so worried anymore. For those familiar with Utah, you know that the Point of the mountain doesn't look that bad, but try telling that to Chris and I as we were climbing up the hill! It was a long hill... probably about 3 or 3.5 miles. It was super nice to coast down the SLC side though. Chris and I ripped down the hill and cruised back to Provo in record time. I'm still feeling the effects of the ride as of 4:30 p.m. wednesday, and I am sure Chris is too. Fatigue and soreness are a part of life after super long rides.

Miles ridden over the river and through the woods: 65.3

Hours in the saddle: 4.25