Uphill Battle

This morning, while planning the day, Raj suggested a 30 mile bike ride.

Out loud, I said “ Isn’t your tail bone bothering you? Won’t that be uncomfortable?”

In my mind, I said “30 miles? Hell no, I want to wear a dress today, look cute and relax.” Three hours later, I longed for the bike ride. Read more below. Hardest workout of my life!

Breakfast never really happened – we went to Zakey around noon for falafels, hummus and pita:) It was tasty, the decor was really cheesy, but the food was good and fast.

  After picking up iced coffee (note how fresh and clean I look) and checking out fun coffee mugs, we hopped in the car and drove about 30 miles west to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  

And then….we drove up to Lake Michigan Overlook, 450 feet above Lake Michigan—the views were spectacular and breathtaking. Immediately, we noticed the people running (yes running!) down the dunes and frolicking in the gorgeous water below.

While wearing a dress and carrying a camera, I thought, what the hell. We are in decent shape. As we passed SO MANY people crawling, on hands and knees, back up the dunes, I thought that they must be exaggerating and felt grateful for my regular exercise routine.

Um, yeah. About that. Ten feet up the climb, I wanted to sink into the sand and sit there forever. OK, I did sink into the sand, but luckily for only about five minutes. We would literally take thirty steps up the dunes  glacial hill and then rest. My heart was pounding, my dress was drenched and my sweat blurred my vision. An hour and some change later, we conquered the monster.

Start time: 2:39 pm

End time: 3:33 pm

Some little girl told me she did it in 26 minutes. Silly youth.

I want to go on a bike ride.

Turn around you crazy person! I felt bad for that guy on my left. Then I learned.

  The aftermath.

NOTE THE FLYING SHOE AND SOCK. Raj’s. He left it with me so he could trot ahead and take a picture of me on the tail end of our journey. I was none too happy and threw it at him. Take that.

On a serious note, it felt great to climb this beast. It felt like quite an accomplishment and there was no way to quit once we started:)

We hit the road and stopped at the first place we saw, Gemma’s. We shared a BLT, fries and a HUGE lemonade.

Four hours later, a pit stop at a cherry stand (haha), McDonalds and No Thai!, we are back in Ann Arbor and I am in desperate need of a shower!