Thanks, Tracy - and I forgot another first - I actually got up a couple of short, sort of steep inclines (fwy overpasses) successfully - I was in the granniest of granny gears, but I never got off the bike!

I think the 15 mile was a really good organized ride for a newbie - it was mostly flat and mostly on bike paths. At this point, I'm still really freaked about sharing the road with cars.

This was the 6th annual river ride - and it seemed well organized, and very low key. They staggered the starts so the folks doing the 70 mile ride had gone before I got to the start. The 45 milers left about 1/2 an hour before we did. The only thing that was sort of disappointing was that they clearly geared the post race stuff for the longer rides. When we got back, they were just setting up the bbq. But that's okay - we went and had yummy carbs someplace else .

Cathy