I rode 100 miles yesterday! Actually, probably closer to 110 miles all total. But I didn’t finish the ride. I’ll explain after the jump, along with photos from the day.
But first, I want to thank everyone who donated to this cause. You were all very generous and I really appreciate the support. If you didn’t get a chance to donate before the ride, it’s not too late. I won’t be submitting the donation to the charity for another week or so, so you definitely still have time to put some money toward the cause. Click the “About” tab above for more info on the charity and for a link to donate.
Anyway, click below for a long-winded explanation of what the hell I was talking about in the first paragraph…
Um, yeah… I rode more than 100 miles yesterday. I don’t know exactly how many miles, because my odometer fell off somewhere around mile 81, but I rode at a pretty good pace for another two hours after the odometer fell off, so I definitely rode more than 100 miles. The trouble is, my 100+ mile ride didn’t end at the Transportation Alternatives official finish line, but rather at a subway stop in the middle of the Bronx.
My crash and Eliz’s tire problems delayed me for a few hours, so by the last leg of the ride (miles 80-100), I was in the final group of about 5 or so 100-mile riders (Eliz went home after 80 miles, so I was by myself). The final group of riders was going pretty slow and, thanks to the rush of adrenaline from being spit out onto 1st Ave. in an unprotected lane, I was riding much faster than they were. After about 10 minutes I’d completely lost sight of them behind me. In retrospect, this was a bad move…
An even worse move, however, was TransAlt’s decision to mark the route in difficult-to-read, tiny, green spray-painted letters on the pavement. A lot of the time they just re-used route markers from previous years, so the paint was faded and even harder to read. Have you ever tried to read 7-inch high, faded green letters on a dark background at dusk while riding 20mph? If you haven’t, don’t bother… you can’t do it. The entire day was plagued with poorly-marked turns, and the pack Eliz and I were riding in got lost and had to turn around numerous times throughout the day. When I say poorly-marked, I don’t mean just “hard to see.” There were multiple intersections where the geniuses painting the route would put the direction arrow AFTER the intersection. This happened at a couple of forks in the road/path, as well. There would also be arrows painted in the crosswalk of the intersection, but nothing prior to that. When you’re riding with the flow of traffic at 15-20mph, an arrow two feet from the intersection doesn’t give you nearly enough warning whether or not you’re about to make a hard turn or keep going straight. Seriously, look at this shit:
(note: in case you can’t see–and I don’t blame you if you can’t– that third photo says “CAUTION” to indicate that there’s a tire-killing bump in the pavement… two feet away. Thanks guys!)
So there I was, riding through the Bronx, when I realized I hadn’t seen a green arrow in a few blocks. Earlier, in the top of Manhattan, there had been a stretch where there wasn’t a route arrow for about 10 blocks, so I figured maybe they were just conserving paint or something equally stupid. Nope. I went back to retrace my route, but it was dark and I didn’t remember what street I’d last turned from since I was just following an arrow and not reading street signs. I couldn’t find the route again, so I ended up just riding around some really cool greenways in the Bronx for about 90 minutes or so before riding over to the 6 train and taking it back to Brooklyn. If you’ve never ridden a shiny chrome bike by yourself around the projects in the Bronx at night while wearing tight spandex with a ripped-open ass cheek, you haven’t lived.
So thanks to poor route markings, I ended up not making it to the finish line to collect my commemorative t-shirt. Pretty much every rider I spoke to yesterday complained about the markings as well, and said they’d been lost at least once during the day. I’m totally going to write TransAlt an angry, Grandpa Simpson-esque email complaining about it. “Dear TransAlt, I kept getting lost because of your terrible route markings. Let me tell you about my day yesterday. I was wearing an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time…”
Anyway, aside from the unexpected detour and the various delays, I thought the ride went really well. I wasn’t sore when I woke up this morning, other than the giant bruise on my hip… no muscle fatigue or stiffness. I found it interesting how my body reacted to the distance. Your legs can just pump up and down forever as long as you stay hydrated and eat food, but you really start to feel the miles in your wrists, shoulders, feet, back, and groin/butt.
I don’t think that I’ll be doing the NY Century next year, but I definitely want to continue doing long distance rides. The problem with the NY Century is that a lot of it is on the streets, so there’s a ton of stopping/starting at intersections, riding over bumps and potholes, looking (usually in vain) for route markings on the pavement, etc. If we’d ridden yesterday entirely on greenways or highways, I probably could have done 120 miles without a problem. Next year, while I might do a long-distance ride for charity again, it’ll probably just be a ride I organize on my own, maybe NYC to Philadelphia or something.
Below are some of the phone-cam photos I took yesterday. Click the thumbnails to go to my Flickr photoset.
