Rest stop 2, 18 miles to go

I finally found a power source and was able to plug in my phone last night. I'm feeling great, and can't wait to cross the finish with team athena. My parents volunteered today at the finish, should be a great finish line event. It's 72 degrees at 10 am, and I am thankful for no rain! :)

Team athena

Alexis and I loaded our bikes and luggage into a huge van this afternoon and set off. We rode from Belfast to Sunday River with 8 other athenistas, it took 3 hours, but we finally made it. We unloaded our stuff and all got into an SUV and now we are headed to registration. We are all hoping it won't take too long, but we shall see....

Alright, so I haven't posted enough....

Hi guys! (is anyone out there?)
The Trek is now officially 2 days away, and I am still trying to steady my nerves. I am getting excited to ride with team athena, this will be the first time I will meet most of them. Alexis and I (my riding buddy, and best friend at work) haven't gotten the chance to ride together as frequently as we would like, so the Trek will be a great time together. We decided to camp out on Friday night, and neither of us are sure why we did that. I can't imagine we will want to sleep on the hard ground after riding 60 miles. Saturday night we are staying in a hotel, and I am already looking forward to crashing in a big cushy bed. OH, and we just received confirmation from team athena that we will be staying in a beautiful cabin on Thursday night, and cooking a pre-ride dinner together. I think we are all looking forward to that!
My parents have registered to volunteer at the finish line, and are very excited to be there on Sunday to watch us come through (bedraggled I'm sure).

I cant think of much else to say, except how nervous and excited I am! I finally hit my fundraising goal of $500.00, and now I'm just trying to see how much more I can raise in 2 days! :)

Leave comments if you want me to expand on anything or explain stuff. (i.e. maybe why I am nuts enough to ride 180 miles?)

Checking in

Wow, its been a while since I posted anything... Sorry! Alexis and I held a bake sale a few weeks ago, we made a ton of different things and raised $195 for the Trek. It was very successful and we re thinking we will have another one. I have been trying to find the balance of riding on my trainer, and working. It should get easier now, as my schedule is changing... We shall see. I'm off to ride my bike on this beautiful day!

A Beautiful Saturday

Today is it 73 degrees and absolutely amazing, I woke up early this morning to go for a short ride.... Which proceeded to make me both nervous and excited. Training is interesting, a combination of knowing I'm not ready yet and fighting against that feeling. The ride was great and makes me want to ride more.
I helped Alexis check out a nice bike this morning which she bought, and I'm sure couldn't wait to get home! I'm very happy to be riding with her and team athena. :)

Here we go....

I started this blog over a year ago, before graduation and the new job. I was sure at that time that I would keep up with it and keep in touch... Well turns out finding a job in a recession is not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Colleges don't tend to tell their students, "um good luck, now that we are rid of you, there is no promise that anyone else will take you!" but I digress. So I decided I would just clear out the old and outdated posts and start fresh. Here we go!

I finally got a job about 2 months after graduation, working at athenahealth in Belfast. I absolutely love my job, and enjoy spending lots of time at work, much to the chagrin of Wes. :) athenahealth has a cycling group this year that will be doing the Trek Across Maine, there is a group of $15 people and we are getting organized and ready to ride! The ride is 180 miles from Sunday River to Belfast, from June 18-20. I have been training for the past couple months to get ready for this, but I'm struggling with my work-life-training balance. I'm sure I will get it down in good time.

Thanks for reading!

-Em

P.S. - Wanna meet my bike!?

Did I mention that I am very excited for my new cycling shoes and pedals...

Sidi Genius 5 Women

These are the shoes!

If it was acceptable to wear these 24/7 I would, they are unbelievably comfortable!

Speedplay X/5 Chromoly

And these are the pedals.

They are proving to be a little tricky to un-clip when I am ready to stop... But I'm sure I will get the hang of it...

Did I mention that I really think my bike just wants to be color coordinated? Let me tell you why..... This is my bike.

Note the overwhelming red white and blue. So when I bought my shoes, I knew which specific ones I wanted, and I was able to get a brand new pair of last year's model for less money, so obviously I did it, turns out they are red and silver.... And my pedals, I bought them at Pat's Cycles in Brewer, and they only had one pair of the specific ones I wanted. So I show up, and what color are they? Blue. Seriously I'm not making these choices anymore, my bike just has a sick sense of humor.