Little Red Riding Hood Century - June 6, 2009
I know, you probably won't believe me, but....I put on spandex and rode in an organized road ride! After all my mocking of roadies and weight-weenies and sweater vesters, I've become one. Part time. Once in a while. As a fitness supplement. Or something like that...
The Little Red Riding Hood is an all-women century put on by the Bonneville Cycling Club, a fundraiser in the Logan UT area, with over 2600 women participating in distance choices such as (I'm going from memory, they are probably slightly different) 35, 45, 62, and 80 mile rides, and the century itself: 103. It's a sweet event - most of the volunteers are men, some dress up as wolves (get it? Little Red Riding Hood?), there are mechanics to change tires on the road, people wear costumes (we passes some ladies in grass skirts), and it's a huge party.
Anyway, having ridden my road bike all of twice this year when I signed up, and with my longest ride ever being 14 miles, which distance did I choose? Logically, the 103 mile ride! Of course. (Actually, I should clarify, I'm really not allowed to train for stuff like this since it's endurance and I need fast-twitch muscles for sprinting for skeleton.)
By the time the ride came about, I'd ridden four times, still with a max distance of 14 miles....um, seriously Kimber? You want these legs to do WHAT? Well, I was prepared to get in the sag wagon when the legs quit functioning...or turn off to do one of the shorter distances.
Driving up, we were prepared for the worst. It had rained all night, and the forecast called for rain and wind. Yippee. It didn't look promising.
Here we are at the start, me on my 1984 steel Trek behemoth:
From left: Kimber, Tracie, Connie, Liana, Robyn, Melissa
I don't have many pictures from the ride, but here's the summary:
- Mile Point 7: first rest stop. Seriously, after 7 miles, there was food: oreos, animal crackers, red vines, water, etc. We cruised on by, since we didn't need anything yet.
- MP 12-ish: I lost the group when we stopped to take our jackets off due to the sun, and I decided to try to fix my front brake - it was rubbing the rim. When I looked up, the girls were gone, oops. I ended up stopping a couple times to work on the brake and also to adjust my gear a bit, so they got about 15 miutes ahead or more. Sigh, I was unlikely to catch them, unless they stopped for a while...
- MP 12-25: I tried not to be frustrated at riding alone, since I knew all 5 of them had been training for this and I hadn't, so was bound to lose them at some point anyway, and it was a real oops, not their fault. The good: I tucked into my new aerobars, and found I liked the position a lot and could pedal better and faster...and started to pass people. I set my sights on groups in the distance and tried to catch them, each time hoping it was my group. Inevitably, it wasn't, but I kept chugging along.
- MP 15: a new personal record for distance! Hah...every pedal stroke from here on out set a new distance record for me. :)
- MP 25: water stop. My group wasn't there, and I had plenty of water, so I adjusted my gear a bit and took off again. Enjoyed staring at the road as it flew by and fell into a rhythm. Went down an AMAZING hill, just flying in a tuck position, and was glad not to have a speedometer as I'd have likely died of a heart attack if the speed was visible...at the bottom, there was a volunteer to make sure people stopped at the stop sign to avoid getting a ticket, and to direct traffic and let us know when it was clear. Great service! :)
- MP 37: full service rest stop...PB&J sandwiches, oranges and bananas, the ubiquitous oreos and animal crackers, sunscreen, red vines, rice crispy treats, water, gatorade, and only four (4) porta potties. Wow, for a women-only event, you'd expect more than four...but otherwise the station was great, tons of volunteers and tons of food. Also, FOUND THE GROUP! They had skipped the water stop too, and only been at this one a couple minutes, so I'd actually caught them! We were all surprised actually - I hadn't expected to catch them, and they'd expected me to turn off for one of the shorter distances since I'd told them I might. I was suddenly in a great mood, and we all pigged out on the snacks. After we all stood in line for the potty, we took off.
- MP 37-50: Kept pace with the girls for the most part, amazing! They waited for me on the few climbs, and I learned a lot about road etiquette and drafting, and had some great conversations as we rode. Fun group!
- MP 50-61.5: I didn't think I was going to be able to finish, and contemplated getting in the sag wagon for a ride back to the start, at the next rest stop. My legs were burning, my girly parts were numb at best, my lungs hurt....
- MP 61.5: LUNCH! Yes, that's right, a full lunch. All the same as the other food stop, PLUS Subway sandwiches and all the toppings in a buffet line, chips, cookies, multiple beverages, ibuprofen.....I can't say anything more about how wonderful it was. We set down our bikes and sat on the grass, chowing down on our food. We were there for about half an hour, and by the time we finished I felt like I could ride again.
- MP 61.5 - 75: It was super windy, so we started working as a group, the front two riders "pulling" and the back four drafting, and taking turns pulling. It was awesome, and we had a great group that really worked together well. I will admit to crying once on this leg - into a headwind that was endless and demoralizing, up a slight hill that was just enough to make it impossible, and I couldn't hang onto the wheel of the girl in front of me. I hurt, and had no energy left....then the group slowed and hooked me up again and all was well.
- MP 75: the cookie incident. I'd stuffed my Subway cookie into my pocket, since it was cold out and I didn't expect it to melt. Well, at the rest stop at MP 75, I pulled out the cookie and found it melted into my jacket, oops. I wasn't hungry, but held half the cookie in my lips (like you'd hold a paper or a dollar while you need your hands) so I could fish out the other half and pull out some of the chocolate. I ended up with cholocate all over my face and in my teeth, even though the cookie itself got handed around and eaten by the group. Everyone dissolved into giggles, and it was a really needed moment of levity while we were all feeling down and tired...
- MP 75-82: We still struggled, but managed to keep together and work together. The headwind still attacked us, but we made good progress, and somehow it never rained on us. We skipped the rest stop around MP 82 since we were good and it was a water-only stop, and kept moving.
- MP 91: We got excited since there was less than 10 miles to go to 100...then we remembered it was actually 103 miles, and all got a bit depressed. By this time, we'd been on the road for well over 6 hours, and were running out of steam. (Running? I mean ran. Out.) Emotions were high and we were all on the brink...
- MP 92, 93, 94, 95, 96: We thought we remembered a rest stop at MP 92....92 came and went, 93, 94, we struggled through to 95, finally it was there at 96, the full-food stop from MP 7 of course. We pigged out on the BEST GRAPES EVER, as well as filling our water and eating other stellar snacks - I pretty much stuck to the fruit since it was so refreshing. 10 minutes there and we were back on the road, our spirits raised. 7 miles to go, after 96 ridden? Totally doable.
- MP 96-103: Pretty awesome. The wind had died down, we were cruising at an easy pace, and we ended up breaking into a couple small groups. This close, we didn't need to worry about leaving someone behind, and the finish was SO CLOSE!
- MP 103: Literally one of the best feelings in the world - the pink lei we got for finishing means a lot more to me than most of my other medals, since I finished this when I had no idea if it was even possible, with no expectations, after no training, and suffered through a lot with some good friends to finish.
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