I love the pictures. Those are the little things that make this ride so fun. I even got a tattoo at the finish line festival. My DH said "that's just a temporary tattoo, right??"... I just smiled.

We were SO LUCKY with the weather. I was almost to the first rest stop and decided it was so wet, I was going to call it quits when I got back to the high school, but by the time I got there it was clearing up. I also heard the thunder, and that was worrisome.

I was on the last hilly loop of the Middle Sister and taking a break about halfway up one of those long hills. One of the helper guys must have thought I looked pretty forlorn, he stopped and said he would PUSH me up that last little bit... well.... why not?? I've never had anyone do that for me before, and that guy was strong too, pushing a chunky middle aged lady up a hill... after that it was more or less downhill to the finish line. Such a good deed, ha ha.

I love that the finish line is so oriented to women, lots of fun stuff. Food was good. Got a kick out of the ladies that were doing the spin class thing. I also bought a cute little book by a local Seattle lady, called "Pedal, Stretch, Breath - The Yoga of Bicycling", by Kelli Refer. I'm just a little ways into it, but it is about incorporating yoga moves ON your bicycle.

Can't wait to do it all again next year.