Biking for a Breakthrough Diabetes Ride

This Saturday, Andrew and I rode the YMCA's Biking for a Breakthrough Diabetes fundraising ride (pdf file). The ride was supposed to be 31 miles which was shorter than we were supposed to ride (according to our training schedule for the Bloomin' Metric Century, so we started at his house and we rode the 7 miles to and from the start of the race.

Tbe weather wasn't nearly as good as the previous weekend.  It was either overcast or light rain during the ride.  When we got there, we found that the YMCA had staffed the ride quite well.  It turns out they had more staff than riders.  This was the first time they had the ride so hopefully it will be better attended next year.  In addition to our T-shirts and water bottles, they had a nice spread of food out for us.  It did turn out that instead of 31 miles we were expecting, they were now only planning 24.  Since we were riding back home anyway, the shorter distance wasn't a problem (and it turns out their portion of it was closer to  just under 29 miles).

We got to the ride early so that we could start near the front (not realizing when planning that there would only be about 20 riders) since I had to get back for my daughter's ballet recital that afternoon.  The ride started about 20 minutes late, but then we were off!  The course was marked pretty clearly and they even had police at some of the busy intersections.

The whole group rode together for the first bit.  This is the first time that I've ridden with a large number of people on diamond frame (DF or regular) bicycles when I was on my recumbent.  I've been riding with Andrew for several weeks, but he's used to the idiosyncracies now (specifically that I am slower going up the hills than most DF riders, but a lot faster coming down the hills).  Andrew and I were leading the pack until the first big hill (Turkey Hill Road).  At the top of the hill, we stopped so I could put my jacket into the trunk bag and that's the last we saw of the group.  (I think we would have caught them except that one of the signs we saw said "Kid's ride, turn here"  and we stopped, took out the map, and made sure we were really supposed to turn there.

All-in-all, it was a nice ride.  At the end of the Diabetes fundraising ride, they had a nice lunch for us.  And we managed to eat enough and still be able to ride back home.  At the end of the day, we rode 43 miles in total and averaged 12.7 mph (which is our fastest ride yet).  And I made it back in plenty of time for my daughter's recital. And since I don't have any bike pictures for you, here's a picture of her and her classmates: