It’s only partly about the rides

This Ride: 29.7 miles
Month: 53.6 miles
2011: 984.8 miles
Total since 1/1/10: 7,104.5 miles

Two days off the bike seems like forever, especially when it is mid-week.  It was good to get back out today, but it was more of a struggle than I anticipated.

There were 6 of us at the Rusty Bridge for the start.  Some regulars were missing.  It was an uneventful ride, which was good, considering the story about yesterday’s flat, and a first one for one of the riders.  The story about the changing of that flat is one that will bring tears to our eyes for some time to come.  Everything that could go wrong did for this novice.  He also made the mistake to indicate that his wife took care of the flats on the kid’s bikes, so he had never done one.  Cliff turned back at the end of the trail, and it was 5 of us for breakfast at the Hard Bean.

Clint’s wife and a friend of hers joined us for breakfast and added a lot of humor to the morning.  She also started pushing Clint toward doing PBP this summer in France.  That then consumed the conversation the whole way back.  Bill C had planned to join us this morning, but he had a flat he changed at home, and also got into some trouble.  He met us at the end of Boulter’s Way and rode back with us.  He is considering riding at least leg one of OC12 with us.

So yes, I rode my bike nearly 30 miles this morning, but there was so much laughter and camaraderie going on that the miles seemed incidental.  It has been almost a year that I’ve been riding with the SPP.  I looked in my records, and April 2nd was my first breakfast ride with them.  It has been a good year.

I’ll do some bike maintenance today.  I’ll pack and be ready for my 4th consecutive monthly 200k tomorrow.  We are riding the “Over to Dover” permanent.  Weather looks great.  We’ve got a good group going.  It should be a lot of fun.