LOTOJA

Remember how Matt has been training for LOTOJA (bike race from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, Wyoming)? Well, it was on Saturday. We (the support crew=Jared, Jesse, and me) met up with Matt at three stop points, and he was happy at two out of three. He wasn't feeling so great in Alpine, which was the last stop we were allowed to meet up with him. He had over-trained for the hills, so he was pretty happy that they were easy for him.

heading to the start

just about to leave.

really just about to leave.

At this time, this random guy asked me if I had a cell phone, which I didn't, but I said that Jesse, Matt's bff (brown bear), probably did. So Random had Jesse call his wife, and it went something like this: "Hey honey, I'm leaving in about twenty seconds....oh good!....I have ten seconds...five seconds bye love you." I thought it was pretty funny and wondered what was so interesting his wife had to tell him when he had ten seconds until he had to take off. He crashed soon after they started but came back riding with a hole in his shorts.

and he's off.

Montpelier. After the longest climb. 80 miles down. Happy.

Leaving Montpelier. 

We, the support crew, started leaving Montpelier, but we noticed that there weren't other crew cars around us. We were going the wrong way.

Afton, Wyoming

Had to get a shot of him in his weird position.

Leaving Afton.

Next stop was Alpine, Wyoming, but I forgot to take a picture of him. He wasn't feeling so hot at this stop. There was a really really short guy in the race (I noticed him cause he was freakishly short and I wanted to ask him if I could ride his bike), and at this stop he smacked his wife's butt and told her he wouldn't be there without her. I said awwwwwwww.

I was supposed to get a text at the 5K mark before the finish line telling me that Matt was almost there, but of course I have yet to get that text. The only notification text from the race I did get was hours late. Matt's amazing crew was standing out in front of the finish line with other supporters, and we noticed people that we had seen right in front of Matt in Alpine, so we knew he was getting close. I saw a big group coming, so I figured I should get my camera ready just in case. Matt ended up being in it, and he was coming by so fast that I was scared I'd miss him (you know how weird point and shoot cameras can be). Here's what I got:

It made me laugh a lot. Good enough!

Don't pay attention to the time in the following picture. That's probably the time lapsed from the beginning of the race, and Matt started in a later group.

Finish time: 11:47