I may have mentioned this back in May, but just in case you don’t keep track of every single detail of my life, I spent the spring months training (not as hard as I should have) for the LP 200—a 200-mile bike race from Boise to Sun Valley.
It was my first time participating in a race of this caliber, and while I think it was a really great experience, I’m not totally convinced that I should sign up again next year.
The Race
The race started at 7 a.m. in Boise, and we arrived in Sun Valley just under twelve hours later. There were about eighty relay teams in attendance, and the teams were staggered at the starting line based on how fast they could go.
Slow teams started sooner, and faster teams started later. Our team ended up somewhere in the middle, and as soon as we heard our position number, we knew we were in trouble—we weren’t nearly as fast as they were giving us credit for!
It was a little daunting at first, as we were getting passed by some pretty incredible athletes! But as we neared the end of the race, we started catching up to them, which gave us the motivation we needed to power through ‘til the end!
The Results
I ended up biking about four legs of the race, or eighty-seven miles. The hardest leg was the second to last. It was about twenty-five miles and a 1 to 2 percent grade the entire way…with a headwind. Luckily, I was sharing that leg with one of our other team members! He had to pull me almost the whole way, but I made it through!
The four of us rode together during the very last leg of the race. It was really fun to ride into Sun Valley and cross that finish line as a team! I wish I could tell you that we held a big celebration in honor of finishing, but the moment we arrived, it was off to a friend’s house for a long, hot shower and some dinner before I hopped in the car and headed back to Boise.
I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to sit again, but I wasn’t nearly as sore as I thought I would be! Still, I’d be hard pressed to agree to bike it again next year.
The Run
Of course, that didn’t stop me from signing up for the Northwest Passage, a 200-mile footrace near Seattle. My wife and I joined a twelve-person relay team and have been training hard for the big event. I’m not sure why we keep setting ourselves up for these crazy long races, but it sure feels good when we’re done!
That’s toward the middle of July. In the meantime, Brittany just finished driver’s ed, and I’m still adjusting to the weirdness of having two daughters driving. The other kids are doing their best to soak up every moment of summer (literally) by hitting the pool pretty much every day. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they sprouted gills one of these days. Lots of running, biking, and swimming in this family—maybe we should look into more triathlons!
Back in the office, we’re preparing for summer by rolling out our brand-new Botox program. We recently took a facial anatomy course, and now we’re excited to bring Botox to our patients!
You probably know all about the aesthetic benefits of Botox, and we’ll be using it for that too, but our main focus is Botox therapy, which you can learn all about in next week’s blog!
Keep Smiling!
~Dr. Brown