First group ride

As you may know.  I've been dealing with an outer ear infection since Wednesday...not fun.  And Greg's been in Phoenix since Thursday so I haven't even been coddled.  But I wasn't going to let those two bummers stop me from going on my first BTE group ride today!

This is me at 6:30 in the morning.  A little nervous.  A little doped up on Tylenol.  A little pink.

I need better cycling clothes.  Anyway, our fearless leader is named Mac.  He owns Sabino Cycles, and started out as a biology major in undergrad.  He switched to business after intro chemistry.  I told him we lose a lot of good biologists that way.  Everyone was super nice and peppy.  Here's an example.  I told one woman that I'd never done any hill climbing before and that I don't know what I'm going to do on the tour.  She said, "You're gonna have fun, that's what you're going to do!"  Like I said, really nice.

I bought cycling gloves because I thought that would make me look pro.  Rode less than a mile and decided they were terrible.  Bummer right?  I also think my seat is too far forward and that I'm putting too much weight on my arms.

We rode out to Saguaro East and back.  The last two miles of loopy baby hills started to take their toll on  me.  I started to wonder if yogurt was the best pre-ride breakfast. (If you have good pre-ride breakfast ideas, I want to hear em. I already have bananas on the list.) While we were resting at Saguaro the same woman handed me a granola bar.  I tried to eat it but was feeling pretty queazy.

I'm going to stop there...if you want to hear what happened next, ask my Mom.  Lets just say those guys were champs, and I got over my queasiness!  Another woman gave me chocolate milk.  Note to self: bring lots of tasty snacks to share next time.

The ride back was beautiful and fast.  Can't wait to get back out there.

Has anyone donated to BTE yet?  As soon as you do I'll start a $$$ counter right next to my crash and burn counter!