wounded Warriors

The first weekend in May i participated in a 50 mile bike race to support the Wounded Warrior project. I have ridden on the road a couple times last year and loved it. So fun. 

There were 2 distances you could sign up for....25 and 50 miles.  Hmmm...i haven't been on the bike in a year which should i do??  50 of course!  I was a little worried about how my butt would handle it since i hadn't been on the road this year but I had nothing to lose and there are always motorcycles or fire trucks ready to take wimpy-riders back to their cars if they have to stop;) 

Here are my fearless riding buddies. Mark(far left) finished his race in @2.5 hours. He was going for speed and didn't stop at the rest areas at all-he was 4th overall. Jody and Susan and I took all the stops and finished in @4 hours:) The stops were at mile 10, 25, 35 and 50. We needed each one. The only bad part was the traffic. We were riding through Alphraetta, Ga on a Saturday morning @830am. There were lots of traffic lights and stop signs. That was pretty frustrating but on the 2nd loop we had it down. It gave us LOTS of opportunities to practice clipping in and out of our bikes! We all felt pretty confident about that and i felt more confident with riding in a group and with cars around(although that still frightens me !)

THis race was also a hand-cycle race. The proceeds benefitted the Wounded Warrior project-they help the wounded soliders when they come back from war.  These riders were the true athletes!

There weren't many who did the 50 mile race.  It was a down-and-back course so after we rested and started back we realized not many were going out again.  There were 3 of us and along the way we caught up with this guy.  Jerry.  Like Susan said-it was nice to have a man around!  He said he enjoyed riding with "tough girls"...that's right Jerry! Don't mess with shorty(look how short I am!!)  When we rode in for our finish everything was almost packed up. There were less than 10 volunteers left and they did clap for us but I wanted more of a welcome! They had already deflated the start/finish arch (pic 1).  The free massage-person had already left!  All the good snacks were gone!  Oh well....it was a fun day and I did fine!  Now I want to do a Century ride this year!!