Boise Twilight Criterium

After spending a good part of the afternoon at the lake, we headed down-town with the Phelps Family to watch the Boise Twilight Criterium. In Audra's quest for some power bars a guy told her about the Criterium and there would be booths there with free samples. He was wrong. But we were so glad we went.

At first, we were at the Boise Centre on the Grove and we were surrounded by a beer fest-literally. It was some type of going green festival that was celebrating "natural" beer. I thought all beer was natural, but whatever. Luckily, Nic had his phone and I had him search the criterium. We were just a block away.

When we got there a men's race was just finishing. We walked around a bit and founded a perfect spot before the race started. Watching was really exciting. The racers bike for 50 minutes and then when with like 10 minutes left the start counting down laps. Every lap there is a prize. There pretty small prizes, but if you win a lot of laps it adds up. For a few laps one guy would be in the lead and then a few laps later, someone else would be in the lead. The men's race we watched was cool. The biker that was in the lead about 40% of the time had fell behind within the last few laps. Like all the way to the back. Somehow he totally pulled through on the last lap and WON-totally sweet!

(Beginning of the men's race)

I don't know about you all, but I would be so nervous riding in a group like that. I'd freak myself out and hit someone. Yikes! They rode around so stinking fast. I almost wanted a wipe out to happen so I could get a picture of it.

<-----This is the guy that won. This isn't his winning shot I didn't like the way it turned out so I deleted it. :( After this race, all of us were pretty much ready to go. Too much sun but then they announced that the women's race was getting ready to begin that it would be Olympic Gold Medalist, Kristin Armstrong's (who lives in Boise)last race as she would be retiring. * * * Side note: why is it that olympic athletes retire after they get the gold? Wouldn't you want two or more??? Is Michael Phelps considered an over-achiever??? * * *

As we're waiting for the woman's pro-race to start, Audra's mentions to me: "Is Jen Halladay (a lady in our ward) racing?" As they are announcing the beginning of the race we hear her name. For get about Kristin Armstrong, we were all about rooting for Jen. . .I think we were the only ones. The mens race was fun to watch but it felt SOOO long. The women's race was totally different. I think it was because we knew someone and we would always be on the look out for her.

This is Jen in the lead with her pink socks. That's how we alway knew it was her. We would just have to look for her socks. ----------------->

And it case you're wondering what it looks like to have an olympian trailing behind you, it looks like this:

We were so proud of Jen. We kept yelling: "you can do it!" "You can beat her!"

Even though it's blurry I LOVE this -------> picture of Jen. You get a sense of how fast she's going. Unfortunately, Jen didn't win and Ms. Olympian did. Jen was upset, but she was happy that it was Kristin. She said they're like sisters and Kristin didn't care about beating anyone else except for Jen-good ol' sibling rivalry :)

We didn't stay for the men's pro because we were exhausted. But we will definitely be there next year for the whole thing. So much fun!