The craziness of El Tour de Tucson is now over and we are still tired.
There were 1,225 riders for just the 66 mile race and my fantastic hubby came in 429th place with a time of 4 hours and 12 minutes. Just awesome.
Now El Tour has several races. The key race is the 109 miler then there is the 80, 66 and 35, plus an 8 mile fun ride. There was 8,245 total racers. The big boys do the 109 miles in 4 hours. Pure craziness. the slowest for the 109 was 11 hours. For the race that Rob did the slowest was 7.5 hours. So we are all very proud.
Rob rode with his friend from church James and they started together but finished ten minutes apart with James finishing 351st with a time of 4 hours 2 minutes.
Now the behind the scenes story.

Kelly and Grandmom went up to the aid station that was positioned at about the halfway point of Rob's race to work with her Girl Scout troop. Myself, my Mom, Wyatt and Chelsea went to the start line. I hung out with the guys and then went to the street to take a picture as the guys rode past.
As we headed back to the truck my mom notices that the driver side door is wide open. Oh CRAP!! I took off running to find nothing missing just that Rob forgot to shut his door. Jitters I guess :)
The plan was for me and my gang to meet up with Kelly and Grandmom to get pictures of Rob racing and a picture of Kelly and Daddy. My mom and I stopped by a scrapbook store on the way up.
I swear I was not there that long!!
We got caught in the traffic as the racers were climbing a hill right beside us. Looky Lou's and all that. finally get to the aid station and I missed Rob by ten minutes or less. I'm freaking out... I missed my shots and he's heading for the finish time.
In my defense, he made it to the aid station faster than any of us including Rob thought he would.
So Kelly's troop leader let Kelly go because, now get this, she was the only scout from her troop to show! and she had worked non stop, even my mother in law was still frantically cutting up fruit for all the riders. Bless my my mother in law she stayed even after Kelly left with me to help out. The next scout from her troop to show up was at 1pm and it was just insane, not enough girls, they were running low on food, just pure craziness.
So now I'm frantically driving to get downtown before he crosses the finish line. We HAVE to be there at the finish line. I get stuck trying to get on the highway, and this is because the racers are on the frontage road. My mom is looking to see if she can find Rob in the packs. We get downtown and we are trying to find free parking, yes I'm cheap. I stumble on a space where I proceed to slam on the brakes, throwing everyone forward, so that I can back into a space. I take my camera and take off running for the finish line. I'm about 4 blocks away. My mom, bless her gets Chelsea in the stroller and brings the bigger kids.
I get to the finish line and jockey for a position against the rail to get a good shot. I wait. Mom and the kids catch up. I wait...we wait some more... I'm finally breathing easier now knowing that I didn't miss him crossing the finish line...we wait some more. About a half hour after we got there, I'm straining to see his light gray shirt. ***Note** Have Rob were a bright, simple shirt to spot in the crowd.
I spot him and start cheering and trying to take pictures. I want him to see that we are here, the kids are yelling "Hi Dad", we get a big smile and a wave from him and I snap off another shot as he crosses before we go to meet up with him.
I totally forgot to get a family picture or even a picture of him wearing his medal.
So we all hang out and checkout the booths before we walk the 4 blocks back to the truck. The kids walk up and open the passenger side door .
The door that is supposed to be locked.
I looked at my mom. Come to find out when she went to lock the door on my truck she hit the clicker for her truck. Forgetting the fact that I don't have power locks! Thankfully no one was in the market for a F-150 that afternoon.
So that is the absurdly long update about Rob's first bicycle race. I sure learned a lot and will be better prepared for next year.




So today Rob is still a little tired but otherwise he says he feels great. The crazy man is now talking about doing the 109 next year.
Oh and we have already been searching for a jersey. I found a jersey that is for Poland we have both been there that is red with a white eagle. Should be easy to see from a distance.
We also saw people put things on their helmets and we talked about putting Viking horns. Can't miss that!

*Carrie*