So after nearly 2 solid weeks of cold, I think I rode it out of me today! At least I hope so. My husband of 1 year ago tomorrow () and I did a ride together, with our honorary best man joining us. It was an organized century and there was much debate about the distance, between 62 and 50. I wasn't sure how my ride would go, after the cold and bad experience the prior week. Husband hasn't ridden much in the last few weeks now that he's back in school. Our friend could probably ride to Katmandu since he's gone bike crazy in the last month (yeah, he even converted his single speed into a fixie), let his car reg lapse and so on. But he said he was looking for an enjoyable shorter ride.

I said we should play it by ear, and the guys, who went up ahead, should wait for me at the split or water stop. We had signed up for the 50 though.

In the meanwhile, I met a woman who said this would be her longest ride yet, and we got to talking. I encouraged her to try for the metric and she said if you will, I will.... so we agreed to do it. Well, we came to the split, and my husband and our friend were nowhere to be seen. I called, left a message, but neither of them it turns out had their cell phones. I decided with the weather being nice that they'd opt for the 62, so, off we set.

Well, a long time later, we pull into a rest stop that is on the 62 and 50 mile ride, and there they are. I rolled up, and he says, how was the 62? I asked if he'd been there this whole time, and he told me he'd stayed since he heard of a woman in an accident and no one knew who it was (we had passed it and it appeared to be a woman who fell/collided and may have had a broken collarbone or arm (hard to tell). So he was worried about me, and stayed at the rest stop for over an hour! Aww! We realized that not having the other cell phones hadn't helped the situation. They jetted off, eager to resume riding after their long hiatus.

The two of us kept encouraging each other, as we slogged through lots of hills (the cold really kept my heart rate going, but on flats I would recover just fine), and then we waited for her coworker friend who was doing the 100 to catch up, and the three of us rode into the finish together.

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride, winding along many roads near my home and surrounding towns, including some of our regular routes. Farms, river, meadows, shady residential streets, and several parks and conservation lands were along the route.

Best part, I helped (I think) someone achieve her longest ride yet AND a metric century. All in all very cool. I'm going to try to get her to come to the site too!