An impressive lucky 13 riders showed up early on Saturday morning for a long 53 mile loop around the city (details here) - John, Gary C., Eric, Laura, Jeff, Greg, Rob, Calvin, Brady, Olga, myself, plus new riders Ed and Lisa. It was a long one today, and one with a lot of hills. Undaunted, we headed out early heading south toward the airport to connect to the Bosque trail as it loops up to Rio Bravo. The surprise of the morning? Seeing a very persistent rainbow which lasted for about 10 minutes as we made our way south on University.
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| Rainbows at 6:30 am? |
After a fairly uneventful ride so far we made it the Bosque trail and settled into a nice groove. There was evidence of some sort of event (water station, arrows ) but for the time being it was quiet. We rounded the south west corner and headed north on the full Bosque trail when we had our first flat of the day. Brady drew the short straw, and 4 of us stayed behind as the rest headed on to Tingley Beach. As Brady frantically changed his rear tire, we started to see many, many runners heading south as a half marathon (or training for one). Tire back on and we attempted to head north, and blammo - the second flat tire. Brady's front tire went flat. We repeat the procedure.
Tires all sorted after about 20 minutes, we headed north to catch up with the rest of the pack at Tingley Beach and kept heading north. Here is where we began the interval training - sprint, slowdown, wait for runner, sprint, slowdown, wait to pass stroller, sprint, slowdown, wait to pass power walker - for the next 8 miles. While is is sort of annoying, I still really enjoy seeing so many people out and about in the morning enjoying our beautiful Bosque trail.
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| Heading north on the Bosque trail |
We rallied at the top of Alameda. We grabbed a bite and drinks, while we had a tire changing race - Brady assisted by Lisa versus Olga assisted by Jeff. A tie, but that is 4 tires for those keeping count. From here we headed out on our way up to the Tram, at the top of a very long 7 mile climb including the final steep one mile segment to the base of the Tram. At this point everyone spread out (or at least it seemed like it to me as I crawled along way behind everyone).
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| The secret shortcut to 4th street |
By the time I made it to the base of the tram, I saw Brady standing beside his bike in the shade of the trees. He looked like a man dejected - it was his fourth flat tire. A new Penultimate record - a 4-peat! May this record stand for a long while. Luckily, Lisa lived close and she grabbed her vehicle to rescue rider and bike.
At this point the hard work was done, and we just needed to complete the last 15 miles of general downhill. Calvin split off and headed home, which left 10 riders heading back. The ride south on Tramway is not too bad, with the exception of the traffic, but we all pushed on despite the general tiredness and heat. We finally made it to the end of the ride and a little breakfast. I keep forgetting to snap some pictures over our late breakfast at Serafin's, but good food was had by about 8 of us, including Brady and Lisa.
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