This summer I bought a roadbike--that bright yellow beauty in the picture--$300 used from the manager at a local bike shop. I've been riding it a bit here and there, slowly collecting all the necessary gear. The only problem was that I didn't have any girlfriends to ride with.
I heard about the Valley Girls Ride, a beginner friendly fund-raiser ride, the perfect place to try out my racing legs and meet some other road-biking ladies. A 38 mile course seemed daunting considering I had never ridden more than 20 miles at one time. I signed up, but carefully planned an escape route in case I would need to bail out halfway.
The 38 miles turned out to be not so bad. During the race I stuck with the ladies that lead the pack. This quickly dwindled down to about 10 of us. By the last rest stop we had lost 3 more and as the 7 us made our way around one of the last big turns, somebody got a flat. Two stayed back to help her, and four of us rode on. Over the last few miles two fell behind while I pushed hard to keep up with the lady in front. She was really nice, and we had been chatting along the way.
With the finish line in sight, I thought it would be a sprint to the end, but instead she slowed down and told me to go ahead. What? Are you serious--I'm first? It's a pretty awesome feeling when you win, even if somebody gives it you. The rest of the leading 7 came in right behind me. Afterwards, the leader of the triathon club and another lady I was riding with congratulated me and invited me to join their traithlon team.
So I'm totally stoked. I had been wanting a reason to start training hard and now I have it, along with some really awesome training buddies.
