Today was the day of the Staten Island Bicycling Association Pumpkin Patch Pedal, and Laura OLPH and the Hill Slugs regularly do the 100-mile route. This year, some of the Slugs decided not to go: one is recovering from an accident; another said that the Slugs pace had gotten too fast for him. After my recent illness, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, so yesterday, I went on Ira S's flat ride from Cranbury to see how I did. As I frequently do, I parked in Cliff H's lot to add a few miles; as is completely predictable, I got lost on short addition I had done with Cliff, and a few times by myself, early in the summer!
In the lot, I met Jeff X L, who suggested I come along on the B+; I told him of the illness, and how I only do a B+ ride once or twice a year to see that I can (I find I get too competitive on the faster rides; they're not as much fun for me, and I do competitive, unsafe stuff). He's planning to do two marathons this fall, and he told me about running and training, neither of them topics about which I know anything. Good luck to him.
We had 23 to start on Ira's ride; I swept. We did this route (it includes the meandering, getting lost miles on the way from Bagel Street, where I often buy breakfast, to Cranbury, and the direct route back). On the way back, three riders broke off and went their own way home. The key for me was that I didn't feel whipped after this ride, as I did last week after Ed C's Murder Ride.
On the way home after the ride, I yielded to temptation and bought a bag of corn chips. Now, my idea of a serving size for chips is one bag. If the bag is a lunch-sized bag, a 6-oz bag, a 12-oz bag, or larger (if such a thing exists), the serving size is one bag. Someday, Frito-Lay or somebody is going to make a garbage-bag size of potato chips, and my life will be in danger from that day forward. That said, I had eaten quite a bit of the bag, and noticed something wonky, but, given that I am rarely plagued with stomach upsets, I let it go. More on this below.
Now, The Excellent Wife (TEW) has excellent parents, as you can probably imagine, and they will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this week. Last night, we went out to a Polish mass (they are primarily Polish speakers), during which there was a ceremony for them (and I love them dearly; I can definitely put up with being clueless for an hour or so at a Polish mass for them), then out to dinner at the Krakus Restaurant in Wallington (a town so Polish that the Southeast Asian fellow who runs the convenience store speaks Polish). The sisters had been having a to-do about who was going to pay for what, and how, but my gruff-but-amazingly-generous father in law forestalled the problem by going to the restaurant early that morning and arranging for payment in advance. Hrmph. I should ever be as cool as he.
After we got home, I had some stomach upset, and wound up stuck in the bathroom, having, shall we say, ejecta from both ends. I got about four hours sleep before it was time to get up to go to the Thompson Park in Jamesburg for the Pumpkin Patch Pedal.
By that time, the weather prediction, which had been 40% chance of rain, had improved. I had been looking forward to this ride all summer (it was the only organized century I planned to do this year). I decided to go with the Slugs.
Five of us went: Laura (of course), Mike M, Ed C, me, and we picked up Mark H (who had been planning to ride with his regular partner Neil C, but Neil stuck to his pillow this morning; he's apparently had a medical problem all summer). Here's the route. Not a bad pace... And I'm proud to say, I think I could have done better. Though the rain threatened much of the day, it was a great day, with hints of autumn, and crisp air. (If you want more details, wait for Laura OLPH's post; she's much better on that kind of thing than I.
Then home to a quick nap, a good dinner, and TEW. Time to do the chores and get ready for work tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment