Coffeeneuring, ride 1

Monday, October 15^th, the day of my very first coffeeneuring ride. I'm jumping on the bandwagon just a teensy bit late, but theoretically with plenty of time to complete the challenge. You can find this year's rules at http://chasingmailboxes.com/2012/10/01/2nd-annual-coffeeneuring-challenge-7-shops-6-weekends/.  For the official record, my regular “weekend” days are Sunday and Monday.   

Due to both fitness and time constraints, I knew I had to keep this ride on the short side, so all told, I clocked a very modest 12.65 rather hilly miles.  The route I chose should have yielded some pretty decent landscape photos; unfortunately, the rather dull day did not produce the spectacular shots that I had hoped for.  Besides, in my opinion, the fall foliage around here is already past its peak.  Even so, it was a beautiful day to be out!  I chose “Dave’s Diner” to be my coffeeneuring rendezvous.  It is not the first time I’ve stopped at this diner on a bike ride and I’m sure it won’t be my last.  I ordered a small cup of pumpkin spice coffee and a homemade blueberry scone.  The day was mild enough for me to sit outside and enjoy both.  The coffee was the perfect drinkable temperature right out of the carafe (I don’t like my coffee so hot that I have to wait ten minutes for it to cool down so that I can drink it).  And the scone – it was just sweet enough, with excellent blueberry flavor and a tender, slightly moist texture.  Perfect.  I can’t wait for next week!

Great idea - coffeeneuring!

While reading through my blog list, I came upon this post which led me here.  Although I am late to the game, I am totally, enthusiastically, IN!  There are logistical difficulties, not the least of which is that I am way out of shape, but what better way to get back into things than with a little unofficial challenge of sorts.  This is going to be great!  I'm hoping for my first ride today, with my write-up to follow. 

It all works out

I almost didn’t ride my bike into work today as it was cold, damp and dark when I was starting out. However, the afternoon forecast called for 80 degree temperatures and lots of sunshine. I figured I’d regret it this afternoon if I didn’t ride in the morning. So I wore an extra layer and off I went. These days I’m back to starting out with the headlight on as it’s still quite dark when I’m setting off. I was rewarded by one of the most beautiful sunrises of the summer. And of course, my afternoon ride had perfect weather as well. Was it ever worth it!

On a separate, sobering note - I was saddened to see today that Randy Pausch lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. If you haven't listened to his "Last Lecture," here's the link. God called an amazing person to heaven today. RIP, Randy.

How I spent a day standing on a street corner….

in rainy, 50 degree F weather! After rushing home and preparing a quick dinner on Saturday night, I hit the sack so I could be well-rested for my big day in downtown Syracuse. The Syracuse Race Weekend continued on Sunday with a criterium. I left the house around 8:00 for a planned 8:30 arrival on-site. I checked in with the marshal coordinator and received an orange vest and flag. I also received a two-way walkie-talkie which would be used for communication, since many of the marshals were about a mile away from the start/finish line. I had brought the pop-up canopy with me, as the weather was supposed to be rainy. While walking to my corner, the sun actually started to peek out and it seemed like it was promising to be a very nice day. I was having an inner debate about whether to put up the canopy or not. Upon arriving at my designated corner, there was nobody around to help me with the canopy anyway, so I figured my decision was made. Shortly, however, a spectator arrived with a camera and she looked like she was going to hang out for a while. I asked if she would mind helping me set up the canopy and she agreed. I made sure to tell her that she would be welcome to use it if it started raining later in the day. Well, somehow we got our signals crossed and she wasn’t raising her corner pole at the same rate that I was raising mine. I heard a “snap” and next thing I knew, an edge support was broken. About this time, one of the racers from our club was arriving and he helped me get the canopy set up the rest of the way. I will have to check out the company web site and see if I can get a replacement pole. Being that it was only the second time I’ve used, it, I’m rather disappointed. Lesson learned…I should have waited for help from someone I knew. Oh well.

Since it was almost time for the first race to start, I turned my attention to my marshaling duties. Primarily, this meant being aware of pedestrians who may try to cross the street while the racers were approaching. This might seem to be a no-brainer, but when the riders are approaching speeds of 30-35 mph, the general public underestimates how much time they have to get across the street. Luckily (?) the threat of rain and the cool temperatures kept many people from attending the event.

Included in the day’s events is a kids’ race, which is quite well-attended. Participants included kids from a local program – B.I.K.E. Syracuse. In a nutshell, it’s a program which uses bicycling as a way of introducing disadvantaged kids to positive role models. Volunteers with the program spend Saturdays going on a bike ride with the kids and spending valuable time with them. These kids provided me with my most memorable event of the day. Before the kids’ race started, there was a group of older, un-chaperoned BIKE Syracuse kids who were approaching my intersection. I knew the riders would be approaching soon, so I asked the kids to please wait where they were until the riders passed. The kids immediately stopped and waited (even though they could have made it across, I felt it was in everybody’s best interest to have them wait). They didn’t question my decision, didn’t act rude or put out and we even talked a little about the race and how much they were looking forward to participating. What a refreshing breath of fresh air!! Gave me hope for the future, it did!! As a result, I have decided to name BIKE Syracuse as my “charity of choice” for the B-Fit B-Day challenge. Who knows, if I get really adventuresome, I may even do some Saturday rides with them.

Pictures taken by the local newspaper (The Post Standard) can be found here. Look in the middle column under sports photos, then 14th Annual Race Weekend.
Pictures taken by a fellow corner marshal can be found here. Hope you enjoy!

Syracuse Race Weekend

Our cycling club organizes a stage race every year in May. It consists of a road race on Saturday morning, a time trial Saturday afternoon/evening, and a criterium all day Sunday. Usually, I participate in the fun of racing, but this year I decided to help the club by volunteering. I started Saturday morning at the registration desk. Thankfully, with the advent of online registration, this job has gotten much easier. Participants who choose to pre-register enter their appropriate category and payment online and then we just have to check that they are currently licensed by USA Cycling and hand them their bib number.

After registration closed, I rode (via car) with a friend to the northernmost part of the course which features a long climb. This is the established area for team support personnel to hand off extra water bottles and food to the riders. It's also a good spot for photo opportunities because the riders are going slower up the hill. After we saw most of the riders pass through the feed zone (some categories did two loops of the 33-mile course), we rode back to the starting area. There was about a two-hour delay before the first riders in the time trial were to go off, so we killed time mingling amongst the riders and chatting. Then the rain came. Thankfully, my parents had gotten us a 10'x10' pop-up canopy, which we set up directly behind our cars. It was great to be able to hang out comfortably out of the rain! I would have loved to get a photo of that, too, but it was raining too hard! Being that I had no official duties for the time trial, I was able to go to the start line and get some shots there. I watched a few of the riders in my boyfriend's category, then left the site and booked for home.

Bike Commuting

I love riding my bike to work and back. It gives me a purpose for exercising and appeals to my frugal nature by conserving gas, mileage on my vehicle, etc, etc. I started bike commuting with my very first full-time job out of college and have continued off and on ever since. That first commute was about two miles one-way and pancake-flat. My current commute is 19 miles one-way and fairly hilly. There are logistics which have to be given some thought. For instance, at this time of year, the morning ride requires far more layers of clothing than the afternoon ride (an average temperature difference of 30 degrees between the rides). I take lighter-weight clothes in the day before and leave them at work so that I have them for the ride home. I also take a couple of outfits to work at the beginning of the week so that I don’t have to carry a backpack. The drawback is that I can’t make bike commuting my only means of transportation. I have to rely on a car one or two days out of the week. Of course, if I was a true die-hard commuter, I would find a way to give up the car, but I’m too much of a wimp to voluntarily ride in the rain. Maybe with gas prices rising, more people will consider bike commuting. Sometimes riding two days a week doesn’t sound like it would make a difference, but now I fill up the car every other week instead of weekly. Very gratifying indeed!