jim's bikes & other business: runnin' me ragged

It was a conspiracy, I tell youse...

So I had a great ride yesterday, if a little long - 100km (60 miles) is close to the maximum distance I like to do these days. I'm also leading a 30-ish mile ride for the Memorial Day All-Paces Rides for my club, the Princeton FreeWheelers, tomorrow.

So for today, I chose a route of about 40 miles, with about the fewest demanding hills of the routes I usually do, and a plan to stop at the Blawenburg Bistro.

Well, after they were closed for Mother's Day, I called the Bistro... and found they were ALSO closing for the Sunday of this Memorial Day Weekend (that's today). I'd already posted the ride and the route, so I contacted my registrants, and told them to bring snacks, and we'd have to do without. (I've already called and checked to make sure that my stop for tomorrow's ride will be open...)

Now, I plan a pace of 13.0-14.9mph on my rides (my club calls that C+ ride). But there were only four club rides scheduled for today, and mine was the fastest-paced... so many of the folks who would have gone on a faster ride today, came out for mine. (And more would have come; I set the limit at sixteen, and had to turn away requests.)

At the start:

Above: even more revolution being plotted.

We started out in good order... but soon they got away from me, and for much of the ride, sweep Dave H and I were discussing the fate of the world, and how far away was the horizon over which the other riders had disappeared.

(After the ride yesterday, I just didn't have it to push today!)

At one of the places where they allowed me to catch up:

We stopped at the Bessie Grover Park (not least so I could put my lungs back in). We came back through Skillman Park, across Tony's Bane at Dead Tree Run Road, and up Canal Road. I limped back alone to find a few of 'em still in the lot.

Heddy, above, angela misericordiae (angel of mercy), gave me a bottle of cold water she'd had for her own ride home. I think I'm honor-bound to save her houseplants from a building fire, should the need arise.