Adventure of a life time!!!!

  This first post has taken a little longer to materialise then I wanted but "better late then never" they say. Well, It's official or should I say it's becoming a reality. What I'm talking about is doing the Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race. This is a mass start event beginning in Banff, Canada in which you ride unsupported along the Continental Divide ending at the Mexican border in the state of New Mexico.
  My dream was born when I was flipping through the pages of a bicycle mag. and read a short review on a book called "Eat, Sleep, Ride by Paul Howard. The book is about one man's adventure riding the Tour Divide. I was so intrigued by what I read I had to run out and buy the book. I was probably just over half way through the book when my wife asked if it was something I would want to do. In my mind I was definitely thinking one day, little did I know I wouldn't be able to let it go.
  My first hurdle to cross to make this a reality was getting a mountain bike as I am typically a road rider. I started following the 2012 Race which started on the second Friday in June.  I did a bit of research about the type of bikes people in the race were riding. I narrowed it down to a hard tail 29er. I approached a couple of people for sponorship as I wanted the expertise of a bike shop or builder. One was West Point Cycles in Vancouver. I was pleasantly surprised with how excited they were to be involved. We quickly narrowed down my bike choice and it was ordered.
  I remember walking out of the shop wondering what I was getting myself into, but also very excited. The ball was rolling and now everything I thought about revolved around the Tour Divide. My wife and I had started planing a trip to Utah ( Park City) in which we would travel back through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. This would give me more of an idea of the terrain I would be biking through as I had never been east of Spokane, Wash.
  My new bike was ready two days before we left on our trip. I had been looking around at things to do and biking areas in Park City. I came across a site that listed a mountain bike race climbing 2700 ft. over 7 miles up the Park City ski hill. The problem, we were leaving Friday and the race was on Sunday.  We made a decision (or I made a decision and lucky for me my wife agreed) to try and make the event as it would be a good test for the new bike and old rider. We arrived at midnight Saturday and needed to be at the start area to sign up by 7:00 am. I made it into the race and was getting ready when I realized I hadn't even clipped into the pedals on this bike. Oh Well, there was no time to worry about that now I had a race to ride.
  The Climb was amazing, mostly single track and being a newbie I had some quick learning if I wanted to finish this thing. I watched the riders ahead of me and got into a rhythm, finally we broke out of the trees and I could see the finish line. I had made it without any major problems as the bike ran great. I was standing around the finish area with some of the riders cheering on the others as they came in. A fellow rider asked where I was from and the elevation. When I told him Vancouver, and sea level, he looked at me and said " you know your at 9500 ft. and you're still standing, good job!"

  The bike and I had passed the first test. The trip has really made the whole thing much more of a reality as now I have seen some of the landscape in which I will be riding.