Livestrong Day! (also known as my birthday)

The start was early but the route more then made up for the early hour and the painful wake up call. Dripping Springs (or Drippin’ as its known here) was the ideal location for a event like this. Never in my life have I seen so many cyclists in one place. The sea of teal entered the start and I’ve never seen such a group of excited cyclists. Nothing I’ve participated in my life before was this HUGE. I should back up a bit because I got a wonderful birthday treat, after Lance (Armstong, yes I feel close enough to use first names) finished his speech I ran to the fence to grab a picture. He was walking past and he started to shake the hands of those next to me and suddenly he shook mine. As quickly as it happened he was gone and on his bike. I was star struck (and secretly happy that I didn’t have another John Cusack moment) Quite the birthday already and it was only 8am! Then as I was walking over to the start I hear over the PA “and we would like to wish Kelsey with CTAPP a very happy birthday” too much! I couldn’t handle it!

After a beautiful (albeit hilly) course I joined my team for some badly needed celebration. We drank far too many energy drinks and cheered the remainder of the team in. Ty and Chad suddenly came up to me and grabbed my drink and suddenly I was getting the birthday bumps. All 27 of them. Also doused in so much water you would have thought I was winning a co-ed wet t-shirt contest, halfway though they had to switch out. What a team! I couldnt think of anyone else I would rather spend my birthday with! Every single person on this team helped me get through this year. Without them I wouldn’t have had half the success I did. I was so happy to be able to start my 27th year with them.