A perfect day for a ride
Published 11:19 pm Friday, May 20, 2011
The weather couldn’t have been any better for a bike ride Friday as thousands in Snohomish County took a break from their cars and rode their bikes to work. The turnout for National Bike to Work Day was one of the highest in five years , and the weather (high 60s, no wind) had to be a factor.
My decision to ride to work wasn’t a hard one. I ride to work occasionally but that isn’t saying much — I live within a five minute coast from The Herald, so really driving my car to work is appalling in its own right. After getting some chores done around the house, I left around 11 a.m. and coasted down Grand Ave. to Grand Avenue Park, where I snapped a quick picture with my phone. Then I rode the rest of the 15 blocks to my office. I didn’t even break a sweat.
But with many people huffing and puffing their way to work Friday, I knew that wasn’t going to be enough. So in honor of bike to work day I decided to take the long way home. After work I rode up Rucker Hill and met my wife and kids at Forest Park. It still wasn’t a huge ride, but it was a great view of the Cascades from the top of the hill and it was the perfect end to a great day.
Here’s a quick recap of the trip in by my fellow employee, and editor of the Snohomish County Business Journal, Kurt Batdorf:
“I rode my trusty, crusty Specialized Rock Hopper ex-mountain bike to work today, but I freely admit to making it feasible with a 30-mile bus ride in the middle.
“My bike’s mileage computer says I covered 10.53 miles in 48 minutes, 21 seconds at an average speed of 13 mph. Four hours later, my middle-aged legs tell me I’m out of shape, and they also say they I should expect them to take longer covering that 10.53 miles getting home.
“I almost didn’t ride today because my efforts after work Thursday to replace ancient mountain bike tires with road tires resulted in a broken plastic tire lever and two flat tires less than an hour later. Operator error? Defective equipment? Probably a little of both. Installation of two other new road tires with matching inner tubes seemed to work, but it was already 10 p.m. and all I could do was hope the tires would still have air in them when I had to leave at 6:10 a.m. Otherwise, I would’ve had to swipe the rack from my wife’s new bike to use on my new-to-me 1999 Trek mountain bike, which is even less suited to the road than the old Rock Hopper.
“Weighing on me too was knowledge that I had to catch that last southbound bus to Everett, or it’d be a long ride back home to get the car and drive to work in shame.
“Now that I’ve made it to the office and picked up my Bike to Work Day swag at Everett Station (thanks, Community Transit!), I’m thinking I could do this more than one day a year. The fact that the weather’s spectacular today may be coloring that sunny, optimistic view, but still. There’s no good reason I shouldn’t do whatever I can to exercise more than my fingers, and riding to catch the bus to work is a pretty good start.”
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