Sunday, October 9, 2011

Arky 100 2011

We try to support the Arkansas Bicycle Club's annual fundraising ride, the Joe Weber Arky 100, either by riding or volunteering to help.  It starts and ends in Sheridan, which is about a half hour from our house.  As we've done in the past, we drove down the night before, ate with cycling friends, and spent the night in tents behind the small-town community center.

Up early, we helped around the registration a bit and got Mandy started - she'd decided to ride the metric century with our friend Kathy.  Her husband left in his 'sag wagon' with their dog and ours.  And Bryan and I loaded up the supplies for Rest Stop 2 and headed for Poyen.

We arrived at our spot just after eight, set up to feed and provide drinks for nearly two hundred riders - fruit, cereal bars, hot and cold drinks, oatmeal, and - the crowd favorite - tiny pbj sandwiches.  By eleven we'd fed everyone, cheered up the stragglers, reloaded the Subaru, and arrived at Rest Stop 5 to visit with friends before heading to the finish line to wait for Mandy.

She bailed at the 50 mile mark and caught the sag wagon in with Jim Britt.  It was disappointing, but not too bad considering that she hadn't ridden much at all since our summer vacation.  After a couple of finish-line hot dogs, she felt better enough to get her unicycle out of the car to entertain the people still left in the picnic shelter.

Kathy finished the 62 mile course feeling good and decided, after a bite to eat, that she'd just ride home.  The extra afternoon mileage meant that she met one of her big goals today - her first "century", or 100-mile ride. Congratulations my friend and thanks for sending "photographic proof" as shown below!

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