First Century and Some Thoughts

Yesterday I did my first century and first group ride through Cascade bicycle club. It was the last of the Cascade Training Series for the STP and there were probably about 100+ riders gathered up at Magnuson Park. The day started off a little cloudy and cool and quite nice for some riding. The riders were split up into different groups based upon speed and given a little color ribbon to put onto their helmet: 10-14 yellow, 14-16 green, 16-18 blue, 18+ orange. There had originally been a red group (10-12) but they had been folded into yellow group.

I decided to play it safe and go into green group. I was impressed there must have been 50+ people in green group. Seeing that line of bicycles going down the BGT in a line was quite the site. Everyone using hand signals to warn those behind them of glass or if the following intersection was clear. Even though the 14-16 is suppose to be the average cruising speed on the flats, I would say that the average speed on the flats was closer to 17-18. However, once you factored in the hills the average for the whole trip was 14.7 mph.

The ride's destination was the Flaming Geyser State Park a little south and East of Auburn. I have never heard of this park and never did get a chance to see the park's namesake. After we got to the park the group started to loose people. Some people broke ahead of the group, others got stayed back to join up with yellow group. By the time we reached Renton we probably had about 15 riders left.

I had started chatting with a fellow rider and he and I decided to try and break away as well on the Interurban trail. However, this proved to be a foolish decision; we got a little turned around in Renton and as our little group stopped for a bathroom break/watering stop at the mcdonalds we saw our green group pass us by.

The last 10 miles were not fun at all. The break away and not having enough food put me close to the bonk point. My legs were like jelly as they tried to push myself up the hill. I thought I was in the middle of the pack, but soon realized that everyone had passed me by and was the caboose. I really think I would have been left behind at the UW if it had not been for a group up stop at Husky stadium.

When we got back to the Park, I was shocked by the makeup of the finishing riders. I would say that the average age of the riders was pushing 50, with all of our ride leaders at or above the average. Now don't get me wrong these are some tough riders with their RAW and Ramrod paraphernalia on. When I first thought about it I was puzzled by the advanced age of the group. But then I realized that the young cyclist were in the blue and orange group. My group was made up of older chaps and those just starting out. All of the young folks I spoke with indicated it was their first group ride.

Well, 13 more days to go.

A sense of accomplishment

So had a few moments over the last weekend. The 1st one came when I was dancing Friday night at Halo. When I started salsa dancing, I always had a little apprehension about asking a girl I did not know to dance. I remember on a few occasions I had to make a deal with myself that I would ask at least 5 different girls to dance before I went home for the evening. However on Friday night I actually got asked to dance by 4 different women/girls. I use the slash because there was a school group there that night and 2 of them were probably middle school girls.


The 2nd moment with a sense of accomplishment was on Saturday when I went for my first loop around the Lake Washington. Actually it was a string of moments. Like when I realized I was passing the pet shop near the Sletten household. Or when I rode past the "bikini espresso" place I had read about in the PI (I thought it was weird that there was such a place out in south king county, and then I realized it was right next to Boeing's Renton plant). And again when i was riding through downtown Bellevue.

The real memorable one though was when I finished my ride. I had parked at Madrona Park just north of I-90 and looked out across the lake as i was putting stuff away. I could see Downtown Bellevue in the distance and knew that I had been there just a few hours ago. To either side of me I could only see the lake, but I knew that I had peddled past the horizon. Yeah biking.