In August, 2005, Joey did the Hurt, Pain, and Agony Metric Century and the Blue Ridge Brutal 100 bicycle rides in the North Carolina mountains. Katie Rose noted there were some kids in these rides, although they were several years older than her and most were doing shortened versions of 62 and 100-mile versions Joey was doing. Still, the tangible possibility of kids in an organized bike ride had piqued Katie Rose's interest. After reviewing a busy fall calendar and some searching and cross-checking on the NCDOT web site, Joey found the Mayor's Metric Century down in Faytetteville, NC, which offered a 20k (12-mile) ride in addition to the 100k full metric century and 50k half-metric century rides.

Katie Rose and Joey did several 4-10 mile training rides in Chatham and Alamance counties, and numerous loops around our Heritage Hills neighborhood for 6-9 mile rides. On October 1, 2005, Katie Rose and Joey got up before dawn and drove down to Fayetteville for Katie Rose's first organized ride. For the occasion, Katie Rose was wearing her new cycling shorts and jersey.

After checking in and collecting our official ride t-shirts, we did a few laps in the parking lot to warm up and lined up for the start. We kept other riders in sight for about five miles and rode the entire time just in front of the sag wagon. However, we rode the whole thing nonstop. It started in downtown Fayetteville, and they actually blocked off the intersections as we were leaving and coming back into the city. Once back inside the city limits, we also had a police escort for all but the last mile.