Goldilocks Bike Ride in the Rain

Last Saturday, I rode in the Goldilocks bike ride again.  I was so excited to do it because I had enlisted more friends to ride with us and I loved last year's event so much.  I knew the forecast was calling for rain so I ran out the day before and bought a light rain shell.  But I was totally unprepared for how freezing cold it was going to be.

Here is what I was wearing the day before on a ride around my neighborhood so you can imagine that I wasn't anticipating the cold:

We got there that morning--ate the yummy porridge and fruit breakfast, picked up our swag bags, and took the obligatory photos.  At this point it started POURING rain.  We were all soaked before we even got on our bikes!

I feel like I am a pretty tough person most of the time.  I can push myself when I am working out through pain and rely on mental grit. (Stop laughing Sam!)  But nothing makes me give up faster than being cold (and wet!)

Within the first ten minutes of being out there, my fingers froze and my feet got completely soaked.  I could feel the water sloshing around in my cycling shoes.  At this point, I gave up mentally.  I had hung back to talk to a friend and my group of friends were way up ahead of me. 

This is where I lose all dignity.  I decide my friends are dead to me.  We had decided to do 40 miles  but in that moment I decided I was doing 20.  I didn't know if I was ever going to catch up to my friends but I didn't care anymore how they were going to get home!  In fact, it was a good thing I didn't see a Papa Bear vehicle or I would have waved the white flag, called it quits and gotten in the car. I was that cold.

We stopped at a rest stop and I caught up with my friends.  I talked to them and they all agreed to do the 20 miles and be done.  Everyone was freezing.  The cool thing about Goldilocks is that the volunteers made it a fun event even when everyone was miserable.  There were Papa Bears at the rest stops taking our bikes from us and "parking them" and one guy even gave me his coat to wear while I was taking a break.  I was really impressed with these guys who gave up a Saturday to come volunteer in the rain!

Knowing that we only had 10 miles left, we got back on our bikes and soldiered on.  The odd thing was, once I was completely soaked and my fingers were numb, it was okay.

Of course, at the Finish Line, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  You can finally see my cute Goldilocks jersey from last year.  A very nice friend bought it for me!

They gave us darling little necklaces and we had a yummy lunch (at 10:30 in the morning!)  Next year I am doing 60 miles no matter what!  And if it is raining, I am going to be prepared with warm gloves and plastic bags over my shoes!

 

Of course, my favorite part of the whole thing is how girly and darling all the details were:

 

 

Even the port-a-potties were pink!

Dani (the gal in charge of Goldilocks) is so nice--she bought everyone's Zazoosh photos to make up for the rain. (Zazoosh is a photographer that takes pictures of people along the route and sells them after the race.) Here is the one of me:

 

And finally: my cute t-shirt from the swag bag to remember the day!

Goldilocks Bike Ride

I love all things girlie.  I also love to be active.  On Saturday, I did a ride that was the perfect combination of both.  It's called Goldilocks and it is a ladies' only ride. This was my first time being outside on a road bike.  I spin at the gym every week but I have to admit I was really nervous to clip in on a bike (you have to remember to unclip at lights or you tip over!), shift gears, and ride in traffic. 

But it was so so fun.  I had no reason to worry.  I felt very safe on the road since we were part of such a big event and cars were aware of us.  When we arrived in the morning, there was an awesome porridge buffet (oatmeal with lots of fruit and yummy toppings.)  I didn't know there was going to be breakfast and I had already eaten, dang it.  I wish I had my camera at that point to take a picture of the darling table.

They gave us the cutest box of swag--darling fitted t-shirt and other goodies. 

You could choose to do 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 miles.  Susan and I had decided to do 40 and our friends were doing 60.  However, Sus and I missed the turn off for 40 so we were locked into 60.  Here we are at the aid station after ten miles:

The aid stations had red vines, oreos, candy, fruit, peanut butter sandwiches, water, crystal light...nothing was overlooked. 

There were men in Papa Bear t-shirts taking our bikes from us and helping out.  (If you get a flat tire on the course, you just call a cell number and a Papa Bear comes to fix it...love that!)

Lunch was amazing too.  Look how cute the tables were decorated..yes, that mattered to me:

Yummy food:

Legs covered in grease (I don't know how that happened!)

Everything was going great until we hit about mile 50.  Then the fun ran out.  My bum was hurting, my toes were asleep.  With three miles left, we pulled over to wait for someone to catch up and I begged Lori to go get the car and pick me up.  I was that spent. 

But I soldiered on and made it back.  They had these yummy shaved ice/ice-cream sundaes with fruit as our reward.  I still begged my friends to carry me to the car but they selfishly refused.

My only regret was not purchasing the darling Goldilocks jersey to wear:

I have already signed up for 2013 because the thing sells out every year.  They are keeping the registration open until Saturday for next year's ride.  It is already a quarter full right now and if you sign up now, you get a $10.00 discount.  I have no affiliation with Goldilocks but I thought it was so fun, I encourage everyone to do it next year!

Sign up here.