The Ride
The bike ride ended up being 20 miles. Yes, two-zero. Holy Wow! It was quite fun and relaxing as well. The pace was a nice leisurely 9-11 miles an hour.
At one point we had to cross over a foot bridge. A cement-walled foot bridge. With pedestrians walking the opposite direction. The more skilled riders (read: the other 6 people) had no problems. Me? I ran into the wall twice before deciding to just walk it. I have a tiny bit of road burn, which is quite funny, but I'm enjoying it.
The ride back was similarly exciting. At one point we had to cross the road, which, since I've been riding in downtown Seattle, wasn't really an issue for me. However, I missed the sloping part of the sidewalk and hit the curb. Then, I hit the sidewalk. Minus the pain of a jammed thumb (left, fortunately) it wasn't too bad. The bike needed some quick roadside repair and the cyclist needed some quick Tylenol, but, yeah, nothing major (loose handle bars, actually, was the extent).
We took a break and let my hand recover, and hung out for a bit. Unfortunately, we didn't time it all that well, because the remainder of our ride back was in the dark. And, 3 of the 7 of us didn't have lights. We rode slowly, cautiously, and yelled out the turns to one another. Oh, and we shared the lights as best we could. One of the guys (actually, the other most experienced cyclist after Cyclist) hit a guard rail when his tire lost traction changing terrain. He was winded, but the damage was mostly to his ego.
At one point we had to cross over a foot bridge. A cement-walled foot bridge. With pedestrians walking the opposite direction. The more skilled riders (read: the other 6 people) had no problems. Me? I ran into the wall twice before deciding to just walk it. I have a tiny bit of road burn, which is quite funny, but I'm enjoying it.
The ride back was similarly exciting. At one point we had to cross the road, which, since I've been riding in downtown Seattle, wasn't really an issue for me. However, I missed the sloping part of the sidewalk and hit the curb. Then, I hit the sidewalk. Minus the pain of a jammed thumb (left, fortunately) it wasn't too bad. The bike needed some quick roadside repair and the cyclist needed some quick Tylenol, but, yeah, nothing major (loose handle bars, actually, was the extent).
We took a break and let my hand recover, and hung out for a bit. Unfortunately, we didn't time it all that well, because the remainder of our ride back was in the dark. And, 3 of the 7 of us didn't have lights. We rode slowly, cautiously, and yelled out the turns to one another. Oh, and we shared the lights as best we could. One of the guys (actually, the other most experienced cyclist after Cyclist) hit a guard rail when his tire lost traction changing terrain. He was winded, but the damage was mostly to his ego.
posted by granola girl at 7:57 pm
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