You might mention that there was a woman who rode her first century at 70 years of age at the BDB100, our own Arkansasgal of BF50+. She founded and leads our little bike group, the Ozark Roadies. She's ridden her age this year, and has conquered our local mountain ride as well.

A bunch of us, including Arkansasgal, came down from northwest Arkansas and rode the 100-mile ride. I've ridden several centuries, but this was was far and away the most well organized century I've ever ridden. The organizers did an outstanding job.

As has been mentioned above, the general public is frequently in awe when you mention that you rode a hundred miles on Saturday. Perhaps John Q. Public might be interested to know what motivates people of both genders, virtually all ages, all races, and all sizes and shapes to get out and ride that far in a day. Bragging rights, fitness, stress relief...

A discussion of rest stops might not be fully appreciated by non hackers. But for the sale of readers here, the rest stops were well provisioned and well run. At at the Bigelow rest stop there were high school cheerleaders by the road cheering the riders as they came in. I thought that was really neat. I sat up in my saddle and applauded them as I rode by.

The most striking thing I saw was a bunch of black-eyed susans just past the Bigelow rest stop. This wasn't a little patch of them but acres of them, and within that area, they were thick! It was a real eye popper.

I enjoyed the sights, things you might miss if you're in your car, and the conversations with people you meet when you ride that far.

From a business perspective, I'm sure the event brought in a few bucks for the Little Rock/North Little Rock area.

Hope that's some food for thought. If you know any of the organizers, please tell them that one of your 50+ brethren from northwest Arkansas said that they did an outstanding job!