Little Red Riding Hood 2012

Something about lazy summer days makes it harder for me to blog regularly! Sheesh.

I have been meaning to tell you about my first 100 mile bike ride of the year. Little Red Riding Hood is the name of the ride, and it was held last weekend in Logan, UT. Can you believe that about 3000 ladies showed up for the ride?

It is a very popular cycling event, and I was lucky to get in. I have done this ride twice in the past, but this is the first time I had friends to ride with. Hooray!

There we are, looking fresh and excited at the beginning of the ride. That's me in the pink.

We had a great ride! One of the reasons the ride is so popular is that the course is awesome! It is very scenic and does not have a ton of hills. It was supposed to be in the upper 80s that day, so we were pleasantly surprised to have a cloudy morning. Instead of worrying about the heat, we had on our arm warmers!

I loved having friends to ride and chat with this time! I also enjoyed having my Honey along as our SAG vehicle and personal photographer. He is the one who took all of these nice photos.

The first 50 miles went pretty smoothly and we were making good time. The rest stops were well stocked and had fun, friendly volunteers. Then we stopped for lunch, which tasted pretty darn good after working so hard. My only complaint was the line to use the bathroom.

Seriously, with 3000 women doing a bike ride, you think they would realize we need MORE bathrooms!

It was nice to take a lunch break and get to sit and stretch for a minute. It was also nice to see my cute hubby. Here the three of us are at lunch. We still look pretty good, don't you think?

After lunch we hit the road again.The sun came out, and for a while it was pretty hot outside! The heat got to me a little bit, but we were all still doing pretty well. This is my favorite picture of the day:

It really was a scenic and fun ride!

There were so many women out riding that we were constantly riding past and with other riders. There was a nice, friendly atmosphere, and I talked to quite a few other cyclists. We actually picked up a fourth rider for most of the ride, just because she didn't have anyone to ride with.

The hardest part of doing a century ride is after you hit mile 70 or so. By then we were pretty worn out, and quitting is pretty tempting. But we persevered and luckily the sun went back behind the clouds. That helped a lot. It also helped to have my hubby along the course and at the rest stops, cheering me on.

We finished a little later in the day than we wanted to, but we made pretty good time on the bike. We finished the 100 miles in under 6 hours of riding time. Pretty darn good! I can tell you that by the end of the ride I had sweat so much that I had salt crusted into my hair. Yuck!

What a great ride. I am so proud of myself and my two good friends. We did it!
I can't wait to sign up for next year's ride! In the meantime, I guess I need to find some other rides to do this summer.