The Zyriek Zoo: St. Jude 24-hour ride

The time had come for Gary's 24-hour bike ride for St. Jude. All of the training, packing, anxiety and excitement was at its peak for the weekend. The first day landed on Caroline's birthday. Gary took the entire day off and spent the morning packing up the car. He was done by 9am and then spent a few hours wondering if he had everything he would need while doing the ride! I took the afternoon off and we met Caroline for birthday lunch at school. After lunch we packed up all of the girls' stuff as well as mine in my car and headed down to Riverside Drive to unload, set up the tent (yes the girls were planning to spend the night in the tent) and get everything set up. Gary was so ready to be at the start line. Lots of jitters and lots of smiles!!

Gary checked in, we set up the tent, unloaded enough food to feed the entire field of 200 riders, set up Gary's transition tent, our chairs, and everything else that was in the car. I drove back home to pick up the girls and get them ready for the big night ahead. We arrived in plenty of time for the start. Could not believe when I looked at the clock that it said 24:00 remaining....it would be a long night!!!

Gary was amazing. The girls stayed up until around 10:30pm and then retired to the tent for the night. It turned a bit chilly, so they were excited to be in their warm sleeping bags and out of the wind and chilly air. I stayed up all night and fed and encouraged Gary. It was fun for me to see how well he was doing, support other riders I knew out there giving it their best and help Gary gauge the competition. Even though this was a ride for charity, Gary had a goal in mind and that was 325 miles and to win!! There were two other solo riders (1st and 2nd place from the prior year) hanging right in there with Gary. Until 7:30 am Gary never left the bike other than once. At 7:30 am Chick-fil-a had arrived for breakfast (the girls and I were thrilled!!) and Gary and the other two riders that were close (only 3 or 4 laps down) decided to take a 30 minute break. Gary changed clothes, ate a decent breakfast, cleaned up, heard lots of cheers and encouragement and then hopped back on the bike at 8am. The girls and I had to leave for a few hours for Anna's soccer pictures and soccer game. We returned right after lunch for the remainder of the 24-hour time period.

Gary ended up stopping around 4:30pm with 90 minutes remaining. He rode over 21 hours and ended up with over 350 miles!! He won by 15 laps and was so very proud and humbled by the experience. He was beat up physically and mentally but had such joy knowing that he had accomplished his goal, raised quite a bit of money for St. Jude and had fun pushing his body to the limits throughout the ride.

Gary kept a blog during his training and you can read his final blog entry here. http://givethanksride.com/ It give you a little bit of flavor for his pride and enthusiasm for the event. We were all wiped out that night. Gary was in bed by 8:30pm and the girls were not far behind. I stayed up to finish watching the Auburn/LSU game that ended up being a good game...we came up short by 2 points, but good nonetheless.

Congratulations to my husband. Amazing accomplishment!!