Goldilocks 2011

(Heather, Monica, Erin, ME, Ann, Kim, Sarah and Brooke. Click on the pic to see it better...)

See these beautiful, strong and awesome ladies? They were my biking buddies for this year's Goldilocks bike ride. Starting in Herriman and winding all over the southwest end of Salt Lake valley and down into Utah county, we ended up leaving our neighborhood at 5:30 AM to make it in time for a 7:30ish start. The weather was perfect, temperature wise but less than accommodating in regards to wind. Which meant that, coupled with the fact none of us had done much training up to this point because of the unusually wet and cold spring weather, we chose to only ride 40 miles...despite most of us having originally signed up for the 80-100 mile route.

All the same, we had a great time riding together, riding strong... the epitome of a NOW Girl. (Our neighborhood riding motto: No Opportunity Wasted. We're getting jersey's printed. No, seriously. We are!) Kim (my LOTOJA buddy) and I rode closely together. Soaring down the hill from Camp Williams at speeds close to 40 mph we joked somewhat morbidly about how awful it would be if one of us popped a tire going that fast. Less than five minutes later, but thankfully on a somewhat flatter and slower stretch, Kim did exactly that...popped her tire. We felt strongly that we were being protected...that we had just experience a little tender mercy. If the tire had popped even 3 minutes earlier, Kim likely would've crashed. And crashing at 40 mph would've been tragic. As it was, she was able to coast to a smooth stop. Another mercy? The fellow rider, policeman and support vehicle who ALL stopped to check on us, help us fix the tire, and send us on our way. Our 40 mile route.