What a great day to cycle Bartlett! Cool temps and a bit cloudy. There were 7-8 of us that rode the 200 and 1 did 100k. The group of Mike S, Lee W, and I rode out together and stayed together the whole day until I developed left shoe pain with about 20 miles left. I stopped to fix that and Lee & Mike continued. Turns out that by moving the tongue of the left shoe further to right made worse pain. Then moving it to left alleviated the pain! It really hurt for some reason, like I was about to cry! Jason, Mike S son, was the volunteer at Sears-Kay Ruins with some snacks, such as the Costco pre-package waffles, which I had never tried. I ate 2 of them and a banana. Grabbed a couple almond biscuits to carry, then off we went. I fell behind a bit as we rode to the turn to Bartlett and sort of waited for Steve A. He finally came along and together we bombed down the first descent of Bartlett and caught Lee & Mike. Today, was a great day for me on Bartlett clmbs. I was able to stay ahead of Lee & Mike & Steve. Mike had not ridden for a month so was a bit rusty. When we got to the lake ( Lee, Mike and I), we just turned right around and headed up. Right by turn to Marina, we saw Steve pulling in, so I slow-pedaled for the first 1.0 miles expecting him to catch me. There as no sign of him, so I opted to speed up and see if I could catch Lee & Mike, which I did before we finished the first 4 miles of that climb up from lake. I continued on ahead up Bartlett climb, alone, in front of Mike & Lee. Stopped at water fountain at top, I was surprised it was turned on since the temps were getting low, and took 2 electrolytes and refilled bottles. Then Mike and Lee appeared but they did not stop. On we continued down through Cave Creek where there was a huge motorcycle weekend and the they closed 1 of the travel lanes so the motorcycles could park in it. Over to 7th St/Carefree Hwy for quick bathroom / water stop. Then over by I-17/New River we saw fast guy Chris! Turns out he had to turn back to get his phone that he had left behind at the gas station. Then as we started that little hill under I-17 on New River Rd, chris went on ahead. Once all 4 of us were at the top and going south on New River Rd, the wind was at out backs and the 3 of us that were behind decided to catch Chris. We were hitting speeds of 26mph to get to him, which we did! Then after following Chris for a while, I pulled until my foot started to ache. After that foot thing, I rode moderate but not real hard. The construction around the canal and Lake Pleasant Pkwy had commenced. Then stopped again for bathroom at West Wing park. Then the dreaded 6 miles across Deer Valley. I seemed to be getting EVERY red light! Then Steve caught me around I-17 and together we rode to the finish! Thank heavens Steve helped me get a bit of enthusiasm back.