Day 2: The long and short of it

This day could possibly go down as the longest distance covered on my entire trip and yet for some reason, it flew by like nothing before. Just to mix things up, today we'll pick up where we left off last night.

I went to bed just as the rain started to fall and prayed that my gear selection would hold. Shaun, I have to thank you a ton for helping me pick out all the camping gear because last night was a wind storm, followed by a good ol' fashioned prairie thunder storm, and my lovely little tent held up quite well. Really, my only indicators for that are the fact that I didn't end up blown into a field somewhere and that I was still dry when I woke up, but that was good enough for me.

I was up a bit throughout the morning and eventually decided to get moving around 6am. Since I haven't had the practise, it took me about an hour to tear down, pack up and get on the road, so I didn't get going until just past 7. Even though I wasn't expecting to see my Alberta sheriffs escourt until about 8:30am somewhere on highway 2, I apparently left an impression on the guys and they decided to come all the way to Nanton to meet me. Matt and Ben were a huge help on the road today and I was particularily amazed by Ben who had barely slept in the past 24 hours yet still came out to keep an eye on me.

I don't know if it was the joking around with Matt & Ben, the desire to see family in Lethbridge, the amazing meal last night (thanks again guys!!), or my body just saying "let's do this" but I have never had stamina like this before. Through the entire 135km trek from Nanton to Lethbridge, I stopped only twice, at Claresholm and again at Fort MacLeod. The early morning jaunt was split into two 40km pushes which I chalked up to cool weather and early morning energy.

From there, I had made plans to stop in Fort MacLeod for lunch and a long break however being a holiday Sunday, nothing was open. Since the guys were good to keep going too, I choked back some more bar-shaped food and we hit the road. Matt had been bugging me about how the Monarch hill, halfway to Lethbridge, was going to kick my butt, so I figured I would split the last 55km in half and take a break aroud the hill.

This is where I began to confuse myself. I hit the hill starting to feel a bit tired and ready to take a break at the top. The hill was a severe pain, but I managed. For some reason though, when I hit the top, I had no desire to stop. I kept going, saying I would take a break eventually and without even realizing it, I was 10km out of Lethbridge. The boys in the car were in contact with my brother-in-law Morgan and apparently had a good laugh at how the heck I was still going.

In the end, the 55km felt like nothing (ok, my butt may have something to say about that) and I got to spend the whole afternoon with my parents, Brie, Morgan and little Elaina. I can now look forward to a day "off" (read: 3 interviews, bike maintenance, repacking to lighten the load) tomorrow and a big eastward push starting Tuesday morning.

Oh, and don't worry... we blew lots of stuff up last night.

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