I don't mind the rat race but I could do with a little more cheese.

Aside from some unpleasantness before and during the Bike DC event, Scott and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. I'll start with the bad:

- Waking at an ungodly hour so that we could get to Gravelly Point by 6am to meet our bike club and get registration materials. Seriously, I don't know how you early morning commuters do it. I'm unhappy if I have to get up before 7:30am.

( Starting line crush. )

- The choke points at 50/Meade, all of Marshall, and Washington Blvd/Columbia Pike. The mixture of speedsters and children as the full ride and family ride converged made all of those especially fun.

- And speaking of little kids: eleven miles up and down strenuous hills is really too much for a "family fun ride". If I were supreme ruler, I would have kept the little ones on a downtown course around the Mall or something. More fun, and safer, for everybody.

- Food, or rather lack of choices in the food. There were apples, bananas, water, granola bars, and candy at the two rest stops. I didn't see any food at the beginning -- I would have maimed someone for a bagel with cream cheese -- and the food at the end was bananas, bags of chips, and Jolly Ranchers. I expected maybe something like a cookout atmosphere with burgers and hot dogs at the finish line. My expectations of supported tours has been completely ruined by the fantastic spread that the Backroads Century provides at rest stops and the end, but come on! I can't eat apples, Twizzlers, or Jolly Ranchers because of my braces. I've now eaten enough bananas that I'm sure I'll make a Geiger counter click.

That being said, we did have a good time on the full route. I got to go places and see things I haven't experienced before. I'd never personally seen the front of the White House before. I'd never been on a cycle track. I'd never ridden behind unicyclists.
( Uuuuunicycles. )

I've driven on Rock Creek Parkway less than a handful of times and traveling it via bike was one of the more amazing things I've done. What can I say, I lead a boring life.

( Rock Creek Parkway )

We rode on the GW Parkway of DEATH. I've now seen the Iwo Jima Memorial in person and the Air Force Memorial from the base. I'm still buzzing about riding through the K Street tunnel and up and down car-free DC streets. I do wish, though, that more of the ride had been in the actual DC boundaries. I mean, it was fun riding in Virginia, but DC, man. And now that I think about it, all of the congestion was in the Virginia half of the ride. Coincidence? I think not.

( Iwo Jima. )

We got to ride our bikes on an INTERSTATE HIGHWAY, y'all. Mind, blown.

( 25 miles to home. )

After crossing the finish line and not finding any suitable food, we snagged our T-shirts, purchased a couple of "vintage" ride shirts, and cruised across town back to Virginia on non-car-free streets. I wasn't entirely sure how to get where we needed to go, but I did know that once we hit Constitution, my bearings would return. We rode through the Mall and wound our way past the Vietnam Wall and on to the Lincoln Memorial which I haven't been up close and personal with since my family visited during Spring Break 1990.
( Finish line. )

All in all, and aside from the snafus, we had fun. Unless something more important or pressing comes up next year, we'll probably ride in Bike DC again. I do hope that my girlfriends become stronger and more confident cyclists by then so we can ride together.

A fun point is that I got lots of compliments on the floral basket. So many in fact that Scott was disappointed no one commented on his Hula girl shirt. People eventually noticed his sartorial flair and we wound up about even on comments. One guy even suggested that Scott invest in a dashboard Hula girl to attach to his helmet for the next group ride. We're both pretty keen on that idea.

This past Saturday was the fourth annual Paul's Ride for Life and sixth annual Cyclefest Expo in Reston, VA. Since we were riding the twenty mile route, we took our time getting ready and hit the trail just before 8:30am for the five mile ride to Reston Town Center via the W&OD. The skies were sunny when we left the house, but the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped significantly before we even got to Herndon. Check-in at the RTC pavilion was smooth and as we snapped photos of each other, two members of the Bike Me DC club joined us and we hit the trail.

( Pics )

The ride itself was pretty easy -- I mean, a third of the route was my usual commute and we've both traveled the entire route many, many times -- and everybody from volunteers to ride participants were enthused and high-spirited despite the chilly temperature. Most people alerted a pass with a "Good morning!" rather than the standard "Oh your left!" Lots of families joined the ride with kids on trail-a-bikes, in baby seats, or in trailers. One man even had a chihuahua in his front basket. Poor little guy looked chilly despite his fluffy jacket. The rest stops were nicely appointed, but some hot cocoa would have been a nice touch. I was so cold when we left the second rest stop and headed back towards Reston that I suggested we stop by our house and get some warmer clothes. Mother Nature must've been listening, though, because the temperature shot up a few degrees and the wind dropped enough that I actually had a good sweat going by the time we got to our jumping-off spot. We decided to continue without stopping.

When we got back to Reston Town Center, the Ride for Life volunteers were in celebration mode and the Cyclefest Expo was in full swing. We visited for a long while with a couple of women representing Tri Team Z. Scott's interested in triathlons and this looked like a great group with whom to get involved. He signed up for more information and will probably attend one of their next meetings.

I chatted with a representative of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling a bit. They've organized a ride from a Reston Park-n-Ride to the Udvar-Hazy center this coming Saturday (available to WABA members only for insurance reasons). I'd love to participate, but I've already committed to another ride out to Purcellville. The rep said that this was the first of what will hopefully become a regular ride; I hope he's right because it sounds like fun. We also discussed the issues that we suburban cyclists have which differ from our urban counterparts such as faster-moving traffic, limited access roadways, and scarcity of cyclists which means that drivers aren't as aware that we're on the roads. I also stopped by the Friends of the W&OD tent and asked how one becomes a friend of the trail. Seeing as how I use it for business and pleasure, I feel like I should give back, you know?

By this point, Scott's and my teeth were chattering and we decided it was time to head home. We'd been given coupons for a free water bottle from The Bike Lane and we swooped by the shop for swag before hitting the trail to go back home where there was hot showers, fluffy PJs, and lots of napping with warm cats.

According to an email sent out by the event organizers, 460 riders participated on Saturday and by all accounts, everyone had a pretty good time. I know that we enjoyed ourselves and will be back again next year. I may even feel comfortable enough riding one-handed on Circe that I can take some pics on the road.

I got very little sleep this weekend due to staying up much too late working on exchequer reports, insomnia, and early-for-me morning obligations both Saturday and Sunday. Between Friday night to Sunday morning, I got roughly ten hours of sleep. Seeing as how I typically sleep nine hours a night, I was not the brightest or bushiest tailed of the bunch. Saturday morning was the worst since I got three hours of sleep before getting up super early so that I could be in Alexandria by 8am for the Bike Me DC maintenance class at the Belle View location of Spokes, Etc.

The lecture portion of the day included topics such as gearing, brakes, derailleurs, wheels, leveling screws, chain "stretch", removing the rear wheel and changing a tire. My brain was overflowing by lunch time and I'm very glad that I took pages of notes as well as received an instructional DVD as part of tuition cost. I also jotted down the names and part numbers of some useful looking tools.

Park Tool Chain Checker
After lunch was the lab portion of the class and we got to work on our own bikes. To be honest, beyond measuring my chain I wasn't sure what else I should do. I should have tried taking off my rear wheel and putting it back on as well as practice changing a tire, just to see if I could do it, but I can work on that at home. The first (and only, as it turns out) item of "maintenance" I did was check my chain length. One should replace a chain as it nears 1 so the chain doesn't damage the cassette (back gear wheels). According to the tool, my chain was between .75 and 1. I knit my brow and called over the instructor to verify that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. He agreed with my observation and told me that while I could continue to ride for another month or so, but I should get the chain replaced sooner rather than later. The lady next to me was shocked since she knew that I got my bike in July. I told her and the instructor that I'd put about 1,000 miles on the bike since then.

"Yep, that'll do it," replied the instructor. The lady was flabbergasted at the mileage and then said, "Oh, that's right: you commute."

I struggled getting my bike back up the steep staircase. To be honest, I was struggling before I even got up the first stair, and an associate ran over and carried Rose up for me. He set her up on a stand and showed me how to remove the chain and then how to replace it. It looked like a fairly easy process if it's something that one does fairly often. He patiently explained each step and answered my questions. After attaching the new chain, he checked over the other parts and declared my bike ready fit for duty.

At that point, I was ready to fall over. I decided that since my bike was already at street level, I would head on home. I said my good-byes to the group, paid for some new tools and the chain, and headed toward home. I hit a snow squall on the Dulles Toll Road which gave Rose an impromptu bath. This turned out to be a blessing because the damp made cleaning the grime off her frame that much easier. She's not showroom clean, but she's as clean as she's been since her post Outer Banks scrub. And I don't have to worry about her chain for a while.

The Bike Me DC meetup group held an impromptu mid-winter bike ride from the Alexandria Marina down to Mount Vernon. I'd never been to Mount Vernon (or the marina for that matter) and jumped at the chance to see new sights and sites.


Alexandria Marina

I miscalculated how terrible traffic would be -- not at all terrible, in fact -- and wound up arriving half an hour before everybody else. Ah well. When the six other participants arrived, many of them complained about the cold. Buh? It was mid- to upper 40s which is poifect! Once we got moving, everybody was fine.

My camera, on the other hand, was not fine and I have no photos from the outbound leg of the trip. It was, however, exciting to see the bottom end of the Mount Vernon Trail, even if it was clogged with pedestrians. At one point, our fearless leader decided to cross the GW Parkway and ride through wide open neighborhood streets. My heart leapt into my throat and my brain screamed cyclists DIE crossing the GW Parkway!!! Obviously -- I hope it's obvious -- I did not die crossing the road nor did any of the other cyclists in our group.

I did nearly die climbing one of the hills through the neighborhood. I have no idea what street we were on and was completely lost, but I did not get off my bike to push. I used the granniest of granny gears, stopped halfway up the hill to gulp air and keep my heart from exploding, and eventually made it to the top where the group had patiently waited for me. We eventually returned to the trail and our fearless leader warned us about the hills and switchbacks and blind corners ahead. He told us all it was good gearing practice. I dead-panned, "I didn't know there was going to be a test on this ride."

We survived the switchbacks, and thank goodness for his warning! If I'd been flying along that end of the trail by myself, I would have most likely sailed off of the trail and into the woods faaaaar below. After climbing and climbing and climbing, we finally made it to the end of the trail and the parking lot of Mount Vernon. I was the only one who hadn't seen the grounds and everybody else had to get back home for some reason or another and we parted ways. I didn't actually tour the grounds as I'd forgotten my lock and I didn't feel like renting one. After a quick lunch of a banana and a Honey Stinger Waffle, I turned my bike around and headed back north.

To be continued...

On Sunday, Hubbyfink and I donned our costumes (Seattle biker and cheerleader, respectively) and slogged through horrific traffic (due to road closures for the Marine Corps Marathon) to Gravelly Point Park where we joined the Bike Me DC! group for an in-costume ride through the streets of DC. Happily, the sun was out, the temperature wasn't bad considering the snow storm the day before, and everyone was in high spirits.

We had to have a group picture before setting off, of course.


( Adventure awaits! )

I really enjoyed biking in a skirt. I mean, I bike in my Ruu-Muus all the time, but those feel like workout clothes. This skirt was actual real life clothing (albeit altered with appliqued orange and white triangles). I also liked my zip-tied orange pom-poms as streamers despite the left one occasionally covering my rear view mirror.

I asked Hubbyfink how he liked biking in a skirt (he wore a Utilikilt) and he said it was "an interesting sensation. He also wore bike tights underneath for warmth and propriety. :)

The party afterwards at the Shirlington Bungalow Billiards was a lot of fun and we got to know everybody a little better. Our fearless leader says he's working on a "lost cherry blossom" ride for next spring. We won't ride around the Tidal Basin because that will be way too mobbed with tourists; instead we'll bike around Northwest (yay. hills. please, oh please let's not bike up [or DOWN!] Wisconsin Avenue.). Can't wait!