Random: I'm walking through the streets of Rome last October with my family (hey, I'm setting the scene for you, not trying to show off) and I looked at Aimie (my older sister) and said, "You know what? We should really get into road biking next summer. Wouldn't that be SOOO fun? We could be active and get really skinny." That is how Barb and Betty Biker were born...
Okay, so we're not your typical bikers. Getting started, we were more concerned about the 'cuteness' of our bikes, rather than function. We more more concerned about jerseys that were cool and spandex shorts that made our butts look good (I'm still looking), rather than worrying about the amount of padding they had in the seat to make our long rides comfortable. And that's okay. Just because we are more on the girly side, and still might look for the 'cute' in the sport, doesn't mean we don't love it and really enjoy getting out and going on a ride...
Our goal when we started this was to take part in our first ride, Little Red Riding Hood. It take place each year in Logan, Utah. It's one of only TWO all-female rides in the whole United States, and each year, it sells out. Over 2,600 women participated this year, and we were two of them. They have distances for EVERYONE...from 15 to 100. Aimie and I decided to give 67 miles a go...and we did it!

Here we are right before the ride started...all smiles and full of energy. This picture is deceiving...we had a little pre-ride drama in the morning. We got to the ride in plenty of time, but had some unexpected malfunctions. We're not sure what happened but one of my brakes was completely jacked up and we couldn't get my tire on without loosening the whole thing, which made it pretty loose once it was on; I had to pull full-force to get that brake to work, and by the time we got it 'working' all our 67 miler peeps had already left and they were announcing that no more 67 milers could go. I was so stressed...it sounds funny but I was almost in tears. I was so annoyed that I had been getting ready for this the past few months and had made it a goal to do it, and a random problem was going to make it so that we weren't going to get to ride in our group and have to ride in a shorter distance. To top it all off, my odometer decided that
IT didn't want to work either--leaving me with NO clue how fast we were going, how long we'd been riding, or how far. But...I still had one good brake, and the other one did technically still work with a little extra pressure, so we wolfed down a bagel and banana and took off anyway.

This is me, about to cross the finish line...

I love this pic...this is Aimie, about to cross the finish line. Look at that enthusiasm!
The finish line! This ride is really cool because part of the proceeds go towards women's cancer research, so there is a pretty strong pink theme going on and they make it SOOO fun for all the women.

Yea! We did it. They had a huge celebration at the end...tons of tents up with yummy food--chocolate fountain, HELLO!--cute gear for sale, music, raffles, massages, etc. It was cool seeing all the people there, supporting their moms/sisters/wives/friends, etc. and really cheering everyone on and having a great time afterwards, celebrating. We will definitley do this next year; I've already let Aimie know we're in for the 100!