For those of you wondering how Saturday turned out, well, I have to say it went pretty good. All in all my friend and I rode just about 50 miles, so I'm confident I'll be able to complete my metric century this coming weekend.
Trust me when I say I tried to create a map to show our route but failed miserably due to the technical flaws inherent in Google Maps. It's all the technology's fault. Therefore, you'll get a description of the route via the written word.
Started at Lee Highway and Glebe in Arlington. At 6:30. On a Saturday morning. The roads were very clear. Along with six other riders (a group that soon became four others due to some broken spokes) we headed from there to Great Falls (the Virginia side) for the morning coffee.
After splitting off from the group the two of us rode from Great Falls to Reston on a variety of roads, including a lovely jaunte down Sunrise Valley Drive, and then down to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail (the WOD). Fourteen or so miles later, at the intersection of the WOD and Columbia Pike, I passed my personal best for distance at 35.5 miles. By the time we made the turn onto the Potomac Trail by National, we'd done around 40 miles, just 10 to go.
The next five or so miles - National to Rosslyn - skipped right by. Hey man, I was thinking, this is easy. And then we got to Rosslyn and Lee Highway again. While riding from west-to-east on this road is pretty fun, it's definitely no fun going west. Straight. Up. Hill. For the last five miles. Not a serious grade, but just a long, dedicated pull up hill.
But I did it. And now I'm looking forward to the ride down in St. Mary's this weekend. Who knows, maybe one of these days soon I'll be able to throw away that "metric" tag and just do a real century.
As I mentioned in my last post, while I'm doing this for fun, my friend has a more important purpose in mind. He's riding 635 miles from San Francisco to San Diego in eight days next month to raise money for LIVESTRONG. And, while he's 80 percent of the way to his $5,000 goal, every little bit helps. So here's how you can help:
You can make a donation by going to his LIVESTRONG fundraising site
Enter an amount in the box
Click “Continue,” and follow the instructions from there
See you on the trails...
2 comments:
I'm impressed! I was proud after hitting only 12 miles for the first time. You'll do great at St. Mary's!
Hey, 12 miles is a good start. That's about all I could do without sucking wind back in April. As I've learned, you just gotta find your pace.
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