more than i shoulda ride

When the weather is predicted clear with temps up to the mid-40's F in January, I feel like I gotta do a ride, and Jeff H was leading the "Back by Lunch" from Cranbury today... it was to be a fairly flat 45-miles-or-so at a pace in the 15-16mph range, so I thought it would be just the thing.

It turns out I was a bit tired; I could really have done with it at about 35 miles... but, of course, that's not the way things go on a group ride, generally.

Other than Jeff, I was acquainted with Rick and John, and there were two others, The Other Jeff and Steve, who I met (I got the impression they ride together). The Other Jeff and I got talking about the Hill Slug rides; he lives out in that area and doesn't like driving so far to ride starts. The Slugs, with their "amicitia quam celeritate" philosophy, might be a good fit for him.

We did this route, over some roads that were new to me and which I liked; Jeff's come a long way with his routing. It was pretty much straight down to New Egypt and back. I was actually glad, on the way back, that on or two of the guys seemed to be tired, too: I could slow to keep at their pace and look like I was being friendly when I was just being tired myself.

Some pics, at the start and at the Wawa in New Egypt. There's some fogginess on the left of some of the pics that I'll have to investigate (it may just be something getting in the way of the lens).

In other news, that's over 100 miles by the third day of the year (I did a short ride on Jan 1). It's an auspicious start.

Here's wishing good days to you. Hope to see youse on the road (or anywhere else, come to think of it).