I successfully finished my first century (100 mile) bike ride of the summer! Wahoo! Now I have finished four centuries in the past year.
It was a beautiful day for a ride. It was sunny with some scattered clouds, but it wasn't too windy and I didn't get rained on like last year. There were 3000 ladies registered for this women-only ride in Logan, Utah. It was fun to be on the road with so many ladies! There was never really a point where I could not see other riders on the road with me.
Joe was my personal photographer again this year, and I have to say he did a great job! He didn't catch up to me until just before lunchtime because he ended up being asked to help direct traffic at the starting line. Three thousand ladies, cars and bikes is a lot to get organized!
Of course there were also event photographers on hand to take pictures of all the ladies. Before Joe caught up with me they got a couple of nice pictures in the morning. Here is one that my parents were kind enough to purchase for me after the event. Thanks Mom and Dad!
It was nice to get to the lunch stop and find Joe there waiting for me. The food was really good, and I even shared a little bit with Joe. I figured that was o.k. since he actually turned into a volunteer for the ride that day!
This year Joe left the boys at Jeanette's house, which I am sure they enjoyed more than following Mommy around. I missed seeing them, but I know they had more fun. Here is a picture Joe took of me with my bike that I think is nice. This is when I was leaving lunch, so I had gone 50 miles at this point.
I have to say that the organizers of this ride did an awesome job! I heard parking was a bit of a challenge for some ladies, but everything else was wonderful! The rest stops had plenty of water, great food and great volunteers. There were SAG cars ready to give assistance to anyone who broke down. Even more importantly, there were plenty of bathrooms!
The entire ride I didn't end up waiting in line to use the bathroom, which was phenomenal. :o) Another thing that was great was the lunch. The food was fantastic and it was at a nice park. Check out all these ladies and their bikes!
Even though I was doing the ride by myself, I met plenty of people and rode with different groups here and there. One leg of my journey I caught the wheel of a team that was keeping their speed up around 20 mph. I managed to hang in with them, and it was so fun!
I even caught up with some of the ladies from our local Trek bike store. I didn't get to ride with them very long though because they were doing a shorter distance than I was. But Joe did manage to get my picture with them!
After lunch Joe got some pretty awesome shots of me. I had a hard time choosing the best ones, but here are my favorites.
The course was mostly flat, but of course there are always hills. Here is a picture of me going up a hill right before my first rest stop after lunch. I am standing up and pushing hard.
I love this next picture too. It was fun to know that occasionally I would see my husband a little further up the road, waiting to take my picture.
I was also proud of my mom, who finished 35 miles. Way to go mom!
I am proud to say that I finished my 100 miles in 5 hours and 45 minutes of ride time. With breaks I was on my bike from about 7:45 in the morning until around 2:30 p.m. or so in the afternoon. My average speed was about 17 miles per hour, which is 1 mph faster than I did last year!
My family was there to meet me at the finish, so I got to see the boys. They had been having a great time at the Kirkham's and hardly even missed me! Joe had to talk them into coming with him to see mommy, but I'm glad they did.
I love Little Red Riding Hood! It was a great experience and I had so much fun. I definitely want to keep on doing this ride.
You go girl! I'm amazed...and the pictures are awesome!
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