About a month ago, I was appointed to the Advisory Board of the NW Bicycle Safety Council, the stated goal of which is to get people more comfortable about riding bikes. My specific areas of responsibility are working on some way for volunteers to sign themselves up for events, and outreach/safety fairs to the local Girl Scouts (this one came about because I looked at the schedule and saw all the Cub/Boy Scout events... Where's the GIRLS?. This is what happens when I open my mouth.)
I volunteered to work the Beaverton Safety Fair at the local mall (and a few more events later on). Our part is free helmets and fitting thereof. Rode over to the mall (very close to home), encountering fellow Rando James B enroute :-) He went off to ride, and I went inside to learn what to do. First order of business was coffee and doughnuts. Then getting my official polo shirt, and training on fitting helmets. And, promptly at 10am, I had my first (wiggly) customer. Steady business until the end at noon.
Most of the children were K through, um, maybe 4th grade. One very wiggly young man had to have his parents get the fitting lesson; they could take care of it later. I learned all about their bicycles, and where they liked to ride and... (keep em talking, and they don't squirm so much). Great fun. At the end, we gave away 125 helmets.
Next day was the Monster Cookie Ride, a metric century from Salem to Champoeg Park and back. Caught a ride with Susan and Jeff. We got there so early that we stopped for snacks at the Mc D's in Salem. Caramel latte for me. Then off to the start, where we were STILL early, but the registration had opened. Line wasn't long, and we were on the road by about 8:10am. I was riding Lemond, with a stated goal to go as fast as I could. Which I did. It was sunny, but never got very warm. Cookies and fruit at the first stop, cookies and my hummus wrap at the second stop, and more cookies and fruit at the third stop. And on-bike snacks in between.
I was feeling very zippy at the start, but by the time we got out of Keizer, I was down to steady state riding (blaze of glory all done). Every time my speed dropped below 17, I'd kick it up again. Mostly solo riding. Sometimes I'd chat with other riders, but I didn't see anyone I knew once Jeff and Susan went on ahead, except at rest stops. Ran into a former co-worker (and former Portland to Coast race team member); we caught up. Chatted with some Portland Velo folks.
There was meant to be a tailwind heading back, but it never quite materialized. Got back to Salem anyway :-). Susan was going to be running after she finished. We all had keys to the car; no worries there. Visited with Edna, and we were interviewed by the Salem paper. We were even mentioned in the article :-)
Found Jeff; he'd left his key in the car, so he was glad to run into me. Before and after, I ran into LJ, Dean, Dave E, Matt D, Einar, KRhea, Scott, and Linda. KRhea wanted to know if I'd ridden to the start and was I riding home. "For you, that's a fair question!". Next year. Maybe. Susan reappeared, and we decided to go find some lunch before heading home. Siri helpfully suggested some restaurants, and off we went.
Results for the day: 60.6 miles, 3:37 riding time, 16.7 avg mph. Yes, for me that is very fast :-) Especially over that distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment