Saturday, July 25

We woke up earlier to go to the pancake breakfast with my Mom, Dad, Lila, Kaelah, Sierra, Kate, and Jeff. It was a lot of fun and the people from North Country Ministries (the people who put on the free pancake breakfast) were great. The kids got a kick out of it because they could go up and get as many pancakes as they wanted and were served by people with a smile on their faces and very kind words to say.

Joe and I left the family to go and sign up for next year’s race. Yes, that is right, we signed up without doing the first one just on shear faith that it would be a great experience. We met another wonderful volunteer who was from Amsterdam, NY, which is right down the road from where we live, who wished us the best of luck on the day ahead. The line was quick and easy and we were registered before we knew it. It was great to not stand in line on Monday morning after the race to sign up.

We then brought my family down to the Janus tent where they made motivational signs for us and then got free snow cones from the North Country Ministries tent while Joe, my Dad, and I went to get our gear bags and bikes and checked them in. We then left as soon as possible to get out of the chaos and relax before our crazy day ahead.

Our friends started to arrive that afternoon – Brenda and Scott from Pittsburgh, PA, Kim and Cady from Springfield, IL, Amy, Grace, Alynn, Erin, Melinda, and Kristie all from the Albany, NY area – they all came just to see us do a race. I couldn’t believe it. Not only did they all come to see us but they traveled at least 2 hours to get here but some traveled for 8 to 10 hours just to see us do this race. Aren’t they amazing people!! Scott and Brenda also took some time to make fun signs to show us when we were out on the course. They all got to know one another pretty well so that they could have fun with each other for many hours the next day. We rewarded them by giving them food and then going to bed at 9 pm (yes, we all were in bed by 9:30 pm).