59 Miles for Bike MS

 

This past Saturday I did Bike MS with my colleagues. I was a little skeptical of the whole experience but it ended up being an amazing time and really encouraging. The ride was very well supported and they sent us off with cheers of our team and how much we'd raised and every 10 miles they had restrooms and snacks. So many people living with MS were there giving high fives and at the end they handed out the medals. It was a great experience to be a part of and it was fun to do it with my co-workers (even if we were all in spandex)

We all had team jerseys made of the façade of one of the buildings we worked on, we had a team tent with our names on a banner that we got to sign, we had clif bar sponsor us so we had tons of bars and gel shots. Beer at the finish line in our tent, and a super cute puppy. The whole thing was so encouraging. As we'd pass or be passed by our co-workers on the ride they'd say keep it up or ride with you for awhile & we all waited for each other to have lunch together.



(photo not taken by me)

It's the farthest I've ever ridden (my training rides were only up to 40 miles) but the whole time I felt like I could handle it. My butt hurt sososososo bad the last ten miles but overall I was really proud of how well I was able to do. I thank Joshua for that, he pushed me to train and helped me learn how to use my gears to get me through when I was feeling tired.

My favorite part of the ride was going over Deception Pass bridge, we had a motorcycle escort and all the bikes would go over in a hoard. The first time we went over it we were enveloped in this stunning fog and on the way back over after lunch you could see all of the beautiful view!

Honestly I really want to do it again! It was so great to come home Saturday night knowing I totally conquered riding 59 miles that day!

Watercolor packages

 

My friend Jasilyn had written down on her 24 before 25 that she wanted to make a watercolor. So I sent her a message and we decided to get ourselves going and not slack off we'd come up with a topic and a deadline and mail each other our corresponding watercolor.

Last time it was night sky which you can see on her blog here
and this time the topic was built (you can see Jazz's on her blog here)

I usually loathe what I've painted but this time I actually quite like it, even if the second to last rock looks like a red potato :)

I did zen rocks for built because when we go hiking I like to knock over the zen rocks stacked up. Josh calls me evil but it's like how you'd build up blocks as a kid as high as you can so that you could then run into them. My zen is found in knocking them over :)

I love getting mail, to an  irrationally high degree, and this project has been really great for me to start being creative in my free time as well as up-ing my incoming mail :) Really hoping to keep it up with her!