This past Saturday, my uncle Paul, my cousin Andrew, my brother Tyler, and I all packed up our bikes and headed out to Wichita Falls Texas for the 26th annual Hotter N’ Hell bike race! There were estimated to be 11,000+ cyclists there! We all started at the same place, but not everyone went the same distance. They had 4 different loops; 25 miles, 50 miles, 100K (62 miles), and 100 miles. They also have running races and dirt trail courses for mountain bikes. It’s huge! In fact it’s the biggest century (100 mile) race in the nation. Meaning more people come to this one than any other. They were very well staffed with volunteers. Every 10 miles they had a rest station no matter what course you took. There you would find ice water, gator-aide, all sorts of fruit, energy bars, pickle juice, cookies, cots to lay on, emergency bike repair, water-misting machines, medical staff, everything you could possibly need to complete this crazy thing… every ten miles. It was incredible. They had teams of “SAG Wagons” driving the courses picking up injured or fatigued racers. They’d just throw your bike in a trailer and you’d climb into their air conditioned truck and they’d either take you to the nearest station or all the way back to the finish.
It was so fun to have entire streets shut down for us and to be able to ride down the middle of the road almost the entire race. We had a blast and can’t wait to get together next year, and hopefully recruit a few more Lloyds like Andrew’s brother Anson, and their dad Monty. We’ll get air brushed jerseys that match and be the unstoppable, TEAM LLOYD!
I’m thankful for my awesome/super-human wife who has actually encouraged me, and supports me to be active in these fun sports. She stayed home this time with the kids so I made sure to take lots of pictures. I love my Sariah!
Just as a side note, Tyler (my little brother) and I bought our awesome jerseys at the HUGE vendor expo the day before the race at a great bargain. We wanted to have matching jersey’s since Paul and Andrew already had their matching Texas jerseys. We looked and couldn’t find anything. Then we stumbled across those beauties and I immediately fell in love because orange is Gavin’s favorite color, Reese was named after that candy, and Caden would try to eat it if he saw it. And since Sariah surprised me with money to buy a jersey just before I left, I felt like by wearing it I had my little family with me!
Enjoy the slide show…
5 comments:
What a stud Christopher. All that biking and then it's hotter n' hell out there.
I love the uniform and all the reasons is represents your family, lol. Was Reese really named after the candy?
Yes, she was mostly named after Christopher's favorite candy! So sweeeet!!
Way to go Christopher and to Sariah for staying home with the kids and supporting your husband!
Carrie, It was either Reese or York, and Reese won the Sariah vote. I mean seriously, girls are sugar, spice and everything nice right?
Way to go. Enjoyed the clip. Too hot for me.
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