Lotoja

Lotoja has come and gone so quickly!! Entered the lottery to race Lotoja back at the beginning of the year, and ever since then it has been on the back burner.  We've talked about it here and there and people would ask Elias about it all of the time.  Lotoja is the longest one day race in North America. It goes from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming and finishes at 206 miles.  Elias has been training all year for various races but once the end of summer was coming he really stepped up his mileage for this big race.  Elias raced in the 3/4 category and his start time was at 6:20 am.  That means we left at 4:30 am ha ha!!! We woke up at 4:00 am finished packing the last of the things that we hadn't packed the night before.  Elias made his special little sandwiches to eat throughout the race and I did my hair and make up of course.  

So Elias's little sandwiches are so funny and I REALLY wish I would have gotten a picture of them.  A few weeks ago Elias bought some special tin foil off of amazon.  They are one side foil and one side paper.  We bought these little rolls called "dollar rolls" that are like 3 bites max and Elias made 2 different kinds of sandwiches, peanut butter and honey, and ham, cheese, honey mustard. He then cut the tin foil perfectly and folded them in a way that would be easy to open on the bike and labeled them PBH and H ha ha! 

Anyway so we get on the road at 4:30 and head towards Logan, on the way there we saw tonnnnnnns of cars with bikes on them headed in the same direction.  It only took us about 50 minutes to get there which was perfect because it gave us time to label our car with the race tags, glue Elias' bib number, fill his water bottles and for him to go to the "porta john" 

This is what the start looked like right before Elias's time.  There were SO many people and it was freezing.  It's so fun at races like this because even though it is so early, dark and cold there is such an amazing energy there!

Since Elias was in such a fast group I wanted to have enough time to get to the first stop before he got there. So unfortunately I didn't see him start but I got a few pictures of him before he set off!

At about 6:15 I took off to my next stop which was Montpelier Idaho.  To get there you go through a canyon that drops down into Bear Lake and then you head north to the very tip top of Bear Lake and that is where Mont Pelier is!

The drive was gorgeous! Although I was pretty tired and all by myself so I was blasting my music trying to stay awake!  The funny thing is that through the canyon I was like the only car.. so I started getting worried that I was going the wrong way.  At one point I even pulled over because I noticed the stickers with Elias' race number on the back of the car were starting to peel off.  So I pulled over to fix them and expected some cars to pass me and there was still NO ONE!  

Here is the end of the canyon where it opens up to Bear Lake! It was so beautiful with the sun rising over the water.  I've only been to Bear Lake a few times but it really is such a pretty place it would be awesome to have a cabin or something up there!

So when I first left Logan to head to Montpelier I really really had to pee and I was starving aaaand I needed to buy ice for our cooler.  So I was going to find a Mcdonalds but I didn't realize that there wasn't one in between the start and Montpelier so when I got to Bear Lake I stopped at the first Chevron, went to the bathroom, bought some ice and when I was putting it in the cooler is when I saw the first line of cars pass me!  So legitimately I was one of the first people to leave the starting point.

For the most part photos without people are kind of boring, so you have to throw some selfies in there right??

Here is a pretty chapel in Paris Idaho.  Keep in mind these little towns I'm going through have populations of like 1,000 or less! It is crazy ha ha.

So I got to Montpelier with plenty of time to spare.  I stopped and went to the restroom and got a disgusting breakfast sandwich from maverick.  Then went to the feed zone for the riders.  The feed zones are separated into 9 sections and a neutral zone which is for rides who don't have anyone supporting them.  Elias and I decided to be in zone 9 that way not too many people could pass him without him knowing it.  

I sat in the feed zone for awhile, then Karen got there and we hung out for awhile and then Ellison came as well!! So it was fun to sit and chat with them for some time before the riders rolled in.  First the pros came in and then about 5-10 minutes later was Elias' group.  I'm not going to lie it is pretty stressful when your rider gets there.. the goal is to switch out their water bottles, take any trash and clothing they want to get rid of, and reload there jersey's with anything they need in less that 60 seconds! Thankfully Ellison helped me at this stop and Elias was out of the shoot in probably 30 seconds.  We gave Elias some new bottles, clif bloks and sandwiches.

Because of the stressfulness I didn't get any pics.. But let me tell you Elias looked awesome! He didn't even look like he was sweating!

From there I took of to the next stop.  I knew this one was going to be more difficult to get to in time because the route they make you take to get there is soooooooo long and you back track so I got out of there fast and headed on my way.  It took over 2 hours for me to get there and I was falling asleep hard core! I was popping sweet tarts the whole time trying to stay awake.

all day these clouds were threatening rain but thankfully Elias didn't get rained on.

As I was taking the longest scenic route of my whole life I was in like a mile long line of cars going to the same place and at one point the line came to a stop.  Why you ask? Oh just to take a look at the sheep.  Seriously look at all the of those! I'm not going to lie I was pretty mad people were stopping.. they were going way too slow as it was. But since I was already stopped I figured I should take a picture ha ha.

Okay here comes to the most insanely frustrating time of the whole day.  I'm pulling into Afton Wyoming where the second feed zone was and there is a ton of construction.  Keep in mind I already took a 2+ hour route to get there then I pull in to the town and we are going about 5mph because of the construction.  To make it worse I saw the pro group coming towards me which meant they had already made their stop and elias was mere minutes behind.  My heart started racing, I pulled out of the line of cars and found my own path to the feed zone.  I took some side streets until I could see the zone, I knew I would be cutting it close but I parked about two blocks away left the car running opened the hatch back grabbed all the crap I could and then a volunteer told me I couldn't park there, I told her I didn't care (I was panicking)  In the same moment Elias is calling me and I could see him at the feed zone looking for me.  I start sprinting (pregnant and all) with my bags of food and drinks and am saying "looking to your right I'm two blocks away!! Look I'm right here!!!" He couldn't understand me and said "I'll just get stuff from Matt's dad" Thankfully Elias was strategizing with his friend Matt who happened to have extra stuff so Elias didn't go hungry or thirsty!  So I head back to my car as Elias and Matt pass me I yell "I'm sorry babe the caravan was too slow and I didn't make it in time!!!!" he couldn't understand me.

I was SO furious.  How could the stupid Lotoja people purposely make us go the stupidest route and miss our riders????

I was not going to let that happen again.  I drove so fast and I was driving I was cursing the Lotoja people in my head.  I was thinking why the heck do I even have Lotoja numbers and caution signs on my car?  And then it dawned on me.  That is the only way they can patrol where you go! So I got to the next feed zone and furiously ripped everything off of my car and decided I would go whatever way I wanted because I am not missing Elias again.  Especially when he finishes!

So I got to Alpine which was a good stop.  I had enough time to situate everything for Elias and was ready for him when he got there.  We even had time for a kiss :)  I was so proud of Elias at this point.  He was killing it! It is such an incredible thing to see a person do something so physically and mentally challenging, and to see them do it well!

Unfortunately no pics again :( I just DID NOT want to jeopardize him in anyway.

Once again I took off fast from this point, this was the last stop before the finish so I wanted to give myself enough time.  This was another part of the race where they make you go a way stupid roundabout way to get to Jackson.  So instead of going the stupid way I sneakily got around the volunteers and sheriff's and took the fastest way which was through the canyon.  I am so happy I did, not only did I get there in time but I was able to see Elias riding as well.  When I passed him he was riding hard up a hill and looked incredible.  

I finally got to Jackson and I was extremely happy, until I realized that they actually finish at Jackson Hole Resort which was like another 10 miles.  I couldn't even believe it, this course definitely plays mind games! I couldn't even imagine how it would be on your bike to realized you had that much further to go.

When I got up to the finish line there weren't many people there.. and I probably hung out for about a half hour before the pro's came through.  It was pretty lame when the pros came through they came in so fast but there was no crowd, so it was really quiet and not a lot of energy.  After the pros a few more groups came in and I was getting worried because I saw the group that Elias was with the whole race and he wasn't there.. I was thinking did I miss him? or did he crash?? oh geez I was praying that he didn't crash. 

And just before I started panicking Ellison called me and told me she saw Elias.  She said he was with another rider and they were about 2 miles out.  THANK GOODNESS!!!  The announcer said there were a few guys coming in and lo and behold it was Elias!  Yay!  

He was with another Intermountain Livewell guy and he looked pretty disappointed.  Although his time was 8:59... um sub 9 hours is unheard of! He did amazing 

I was waiting for him with a big kiss and a Blue Berry Redbull.  His friend was like "you get a kiss even when you're gross and sweaty??" He sure does!!!!

So all in all Elias wasn't happy with his rank (14th in his category) but was very happy with his time 8:59.  His goal was just sub 9:30 so he killed it!  Especially since most of the people in his category had done this race 5 or 6 times and knew the course like the back of their hand.

Right after he finished Ellison came running to the finish and about half hour later Karen came so we all hung out waiting for Rob and my dad!  As the time went on sooooo many people started showing up.  Elias and I think it's funny because in the above picture there is no one but around the 10 hour mark there were hundreds of people.

Rob came in at 10:08 and my dad came in at 10:28!  

I am so proud of them all!  They worked their butts off for months and months with waking up extra early, riding thousands of miles, having strict nutrition and having killer self control.  I am so excited for Elias to do this race again next year and to have our little girl see her daddy kill it!!

Until next year LOTOJA

-Stef