Cycle the Wave--Burley Girl, It's How We Roll!

Due to questionable weather, it was a small crew for Cycle the Wave this year. What is Cycle the Wave, you ask? It's a women only benefit ride against domestic violence (WAVE stands for Women Against Violence Everywhere). This year it was just Kim, Michelle, and me. Overall, the ride had registered 1000 women. There were four routes--Little Sister, Girlie Girl, Middle Sister, and Burley Girl. We, of course did Burley Girl. This route is the longest at 62 miles. It also has the most climbing--somewhere around 4000 ft. We started at Bellevue College.

Those doing Burley Girl left at 7:00. While we didn't get off right at 7:00, we were pretty close. The three of us stayed together. Although it was cloudy, and threatened to rain, it didn't, and the temperature was in the 60s. All in all, pleasant weather for cycling.

The route wound around, sometimes seeming to choose the hilliest options, other times making us feel relieved that we didn't have to go up the hill ahead, only to climb another one. The hills were fairly relentless. One long climb cooked Kim, and she had to walk.

Fortunately, you can't really tell, but I think Kim was giving me the "one finger salute".

We hit all the rest stops, and I once again stuffed my pockets with mini Luna bars. The food was okay. The best one was the first rest stop. There was a bakery who brought muffins and chocolate croissants. There was also fruit and bagels. The rest stop at Beaver Lake was better last year with Subway sandwiches. This year there were red potatoes, but only grated Parmesan--no salt or other seasoning. There was some delicious chocolate at the final rest stop (along with Red Hots handed out by the firefighters).

When we got to where Burley Girl again left the other routes to climb another hill, Kim tried to convince us her legs were "toast", and she should continue on Middle Sister. Michelle and I both told her she was no way going to wimp out and do Middle Sister! She signed up to do Burley Girl, and she was going to finish it! Besides, there was only 11 more miles (okay, so a few of those were uphill but...whatever!) She agreed to do it, if only to shut us up!

This sign was for Kim!

Of course, what goes up, must come down, so we did have some nice downhill. We also finally got to experience a nice tailwind. It had to happen sometime as we had dealt with headwinds and crosswinds most of the day. Once we reached Factoria, we had just one more hill to climb before returning to Bellevue College. Michelle and I waited at the top for Kim, and we rode the remaining bit together.

Almost there!

Woo Hoo! Made it!

We parked the bikes, and went in search of the food. It was the same as last year. Although, it was quite gourmet and tasty, there really wasn't enough (there was plenty of food, but you were only allowed a small amount). There were a couple of salads, and pulled pork sliders. I think the sliders had, at most, a tablespoon of pork. And, you could only have one. The dessert was a choice of either, a cookie, a chocolate, or a couple of tablespoons of froyo. 

We finished by taking this photo.

Arriba Arribas!!!

Kim did great! She had to dig deep into the very bottom of her reserves! She wanted to quit, but didn't! She is a BURLEY GIRL!!!