100 Miles of Nowhere Race Report #1: Cute as a Button Edition
A Note from Fatty: Lots and lots of 100 Miles of Nowhere Race Reports are starting to come in. I’m going to post several per day, so check back often, and be sure to leave a comment for the folks who have taken the time to not only ride, but to write about the ride.
A huge thanks to everyone who has ridden (or will soon ride) the 100 Miles of Nowhere. By doing something ridiculous, you’ve made a big difference.
Sometime today, by the way, I hope to post my own race report — I think it’ll be a good one.
I’m fairly new to this whole 100 MoNW thingy. Last year was my first time and I had a blast. I was planning on doing the same thing with the same crew from last year, but my schedule got in the way. In other words, I’m a wuss for not thinking I could do 100 MoNW and then a race the next day.
So instead I tried to get some friends to ride with me on a different day. I couldn’t find anyone willing to join me. So I took the next logical step and recruited my wife and daughter. Sounds good you might think – but my wife just got a bike last year and my daughter is 4 years old.
To make things even cooler, we decided to make it a fundraising event. After route inspection, Charlotte expressed to me that she thought she could ride 5 laps. So that’s what we told people she was shooting for when we asked for their support.
The morning of our event I loaded up on waffles and bacon and started my route. It’s pretty easy, feels mostly downhill, so the laps started to tick off pretty quickly. After 21 or so, I stopped in to check with the family and see if it was time to start. Sure enough everyone was ready.
For Charlotte’s sake we rode the route backwards so she wouldn’t have as steep of a climb to contend with. We also set up a snack table. This worked two-fold: obviously it held all of our snacks for the ride, but it also worked as a bribe table for Charlotte. We could get her to do a lap, eat some snacks and then ride another lap. Eat snacks, ride, repeat. Fortunately for me, Charlotte hasn’t figured out when I’m bribing her, so it totally worked.
Notice the bad-ass Twin Six shirt:
One of the snack times between laps….the table held: swiss cake rolls, grapes, bananas, water, snacks from our goody bags and a sandwich.
She’s been riding a pedal bike since she was 3 and is transitioning between two sizes. So some of the time she was on her 12″ bike and the other times she rode on her awesome Raleigh Retro 16″ – it has fenders. And a cool bell.
During every downhill section, Charlotte would yell “wheeeeeeeeee!” (pay no attention to my early ’90s era shoes.)
After hitting her goal of 5 laps (6.5 miles), she was still smiling and still ready to go for another round (maybe the Swiss Cake Rolls had something to do with it…)
By the time she was saying “done” she had completed 6 laps and was very proud of herself for what she had done. Not only did she complete one more lap than her goal, she also raised over $600 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation!
Oh – and I managed to come close to my goal of 100 miles, but when the 2nd rain fall came with thunder and sirens, I had to stop short. Together, our total is over 100 miles, so I hope that counts!
Thanks for getting us to do this crazy event. We can’t wait until next year!
Comment by GJ Jackie | 06.6.2011 | 9:35 am
WOW. Great mileage Charlotte! You’ll be ready for your first century in a couple of years. Well done!
Comment by NYCCarlos | 06.6.2011 | 9:37 am
Great Job guys! Congrats to both you and Charlotte!
Comment by stuckinmypedals | 06.6.2011 | 9:40 am
What a great way to start off the stories this week! Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Penina | 06.6.2011 | 9:45 am
Kudos on your combined WIN!
Comment by Keighty | 06.6.2011 | 9:47 am
Brilliant. Who could resist donating money to that precious face?
Comment by Paul Guyot | 06.6.2011 | 9:48 am
Uh, bad news, folks.
The UCI wants to drug test Charlotte.
Apparently, Floyd Landis did an interview with a Budapest community college newspaper where he accused Charlotte of eating tainted Swiss cake rolls.
Will it never end?
(Hey, Charlotte! You are awesome!!!)
Comment by Doug (Way upstate NY) | 06.6.2011 | 10:01 am
Nice. Love the retro bike with the fenders. You gotta look cool when you are riding!
Comment by Kel | 06.6.2011 | 10:03 am
Oh, Cutey Patootie!
Comment by Scott R | 06.6.2011 | 10:17 am
Great story, and awesome photos. Can’t wait to ride with my newborn son someday.
Comment by Paul | 06.6.2011 | 10:41 am
Way to go! I managed to get about 50 feet out of my 3 year old!
Comment by grizzlyadam | 06.6.2011 | 10:42 am
Thanks everyone! She still talks about it after more than a week later. She’s even asked a couple times to check the red donation meter to see if it’s still full.
Great comment @Paul G! Maybe Charlotte should challenge Landis to a Swiss Cake Roll eat-off.
@Scott – riding with kids is awesome! Start him young. With a Strider even. Charlotte did and transitioned to a pedal bike no problem.
Comment by Dan | 06.6.2011 | 10:51 am
Too Cute and Totally AWESOME!!!!
Comment by Liz | 06.6.2011 | 11:05 am
Congratulations to Charlotte! Dang, wish I’d thought of a snack table.
Keep riding and raising money, Charlotte!
Comment by BamaJim | 06.6.2011 | 11:10 am
6 miles at 4 years old is amazing, as well as being icredibly cute. Well done to the whole family.
Comment by GenghisKhan | 06.6.2011 | 11:11 am
Charlotte is so cool!
Comment by Jesse | 06.6.2011 | 11:23 am
That is totally awesome. As is the bike with the fenders.
Comment by Angie | 06.6.2011 | 11:30 am
That’s great that you got your family involved!
Comment by Paul W | 06.6.2011 | 11:38 am
…. that’s ‘Motivation’ or ‘Goal Oriented Training’ – NEVER ‘Bribery’ please ….
:)
Comment by Mark J. | 06.6.2011 | 11:40 am
Great job Charlotte! That’s going to be difficult to beat from the cuteness standpoint. Come on Fatties…you can do it. I’m working on mine still (and waiting for pics from a co-rider!).
Comment by Janet B | 06.6.2011 | 11:47 am
Congratulations Charlotte! I love your bicycle.
Comment by Dan in Sac | 06.6.2011 | 11:52 am
Love the story guys. Charlotte, you are an inspiration to my 2 year old daughter. We look forward to similar adventures in future 100 MoN.
Comment by grizzlyadam | 06.6.2011 | 12:16 pm
Ooooh – good point @Paul!
I can’t wait to read more stories. Hopefully more kiddos will be riding.
Comment by Kathleen | 06.6.2011 | 12:20 pm
Yelling “wheeeeeeeeee!” on all downhills should become mandatory for all future editions of the 100 MoN! Nice job!
Comment by Haven-KT | 06.6.2011 | 12:26 pm
@Kathleen: Yelling “wheeeee!” on all downhills is SOP for me, 100MoN or not. But then again, I’m funny like that. :)
Great job, Charlotte!! Way to keep pedaling!
Comment by Up North | 06.6.2011 | 12:57 pm
I love her bike!!
Kudos to her for exceeding the goal!
Comment by Clydesteve | 06.6.2011 | 1:06 pm
2 big thumbs up for Charlotte!
Comment by Al | 06.6.2011 | 2:26 pm
Charlotte – you are my hero!
Comment by KT | 06.6.2011 | 2:31 pm
So CUTE! I almost died watching the video!
Comment by MattC | 06.6.2011 | 3:53 pm
Excellent writeup Grizz, and cute-as-a-button is right! Cycling IS a team sport after all. @ Paul G, 9:48am, you cracked me up good! I’m pretty sure if there WAS a 4-yr-old race cat the UCI would be all over it. There’d be rules on the size/quantity of juice-boxes, fruit roll-ups, and I’m sure they’d somehow get into what color helmets are allowed (absolutly NO little Mermaid or Sponge Bob, sorry kids!)
Comment by Jo | 06.6.2011 | 6:43 pm
Congrats to you and Charlotte!
Comment by lynn e | 06.6.2011 | 7:23 pm
Two bikes, several outfit changes and swiss cake rolls….div(a)ine.
Comment by Kevin | 06.6.2011 | 7:36 pm
Great story! Love that you made it a family event.
It makes me want a swiss cake roll really bad though…
Comment by Patrick #4091 | 06.7.2011 | 1:43 am
Of course it counts! Well done, I can’t wait to take my daughter cycling with me.
Comment by Debi | 06.7.2011 | 7:25 am
Congratulations Charlotte, Mom and Dad. Awesome finish. And, Charlotte is cute as a button.
Comment by Roses | 06.7.2011 | 9:23 am
I’m so glad I didn’t enter the Cute as a Button category because there is now way I’d match up to Charlotte!
Great Job, you are an inspiration.
Comment by davidh-marin,ca | 06.7.2011 | 10:42 am
Well done Charlotte! My daughter rode 15 miles of the the Best Buddies Hearst Castle ride at 7yrs old and had a blast. Rode with her Mom who, like Charlotte’s, had only recently begun riding again. Daughter had to drop Mom on the only uphill when the Jelly Belly Rider came up and they rode off riding tempo.
@Comment by Scott R | 06.6.2011 | 10:17 am
Better get out there soon. They are only “newborn” for a limited time.
Time to read more.