The Five Borough Bike Ride

Ok,

So last month . . . well, actually in mid March, I got it in my head that I was going to do this Five Borough Bike Tour in NY. I've been riding around the streets of NY some 22-26 miles on weekends to prepare, and was so excited about it, that last night, I slept maybe two hours, because I was so worried that I wouldn't wake up in time. (Yes, we all know I can be 'slightly' neurotic at times)

I don't know what I was thinking. The website says they cap participants at 30,000 people, but when we got there the announcer said that there were 37,000 people out on the tour. CRAZY! All you could see for miles and miles, was a sea of helmets. And, there were so many people out, that we were forced to dismount our bikes on several occasions because the space allotted simply couldn't handle the amount of riders in them.

I think, all in all, we probably walked 5 miles worth of the stretch. Around mile 25 it started to rain pretty hard, and by the time I finished the race, my clothing stuck to me like a second skin, my fingers were numb, and my feet were sopping wet. I was so cold, that the first aid people gave me a hypothermic blanket thing--You'll see in the picture. Anyhow, my friend's bike broke around mile 15, so I finished the race all on my lonesome. I met several nice people along the way, and got picked up on by a couple of nice guys, which is always flattering. And, since we were on bikes, I had the perfect reason for not being able to exchange numbers, although, one of the guys did hand me his business card, which was interesting. He just whipped it out of his pocket and asked me to e-mail him sometime, and almost crashed into someone in the process, since he wasn't watching the road.

The ride was fun, but I'm thinking it was a once-in-a lifetime deal for me. I think I prefer long stretches of biking where you don't have to get off the bike or worry about crashing into the person in front of you, or getting crashed in to by the person behind you. It was a great experience though. Despite the wretchedly cold and rainy day, most people were in good spirits, and the natives kept telling me all about the best trails and where to ride this summer. Oh, and it turns out that my neighbors that live two complexes down from me are really big into biking. They're about my age and invited me to join them on future outings. YEAH! I'm so excited for biking buddies. I love my mountain bike, but I think I'm slowly convincing myself that it's time for a road bike. . . we'll see how much I get into this NY biking club before I make my decision.

OK, that's all. Gotta go. I know it's a long e-mail, but I'm super excited and wanted to share.

Have a great day! :-)

Your loving friend, sister, niece, daughter, or cousin,

-Maritza