Today is exactly one year since I rode my first long ride: the 220km Around the Bay in a Day. It was a lot of fun despite the pre-dawn start and remains my longest ride. I have a photo taken that day by a roadside photographer which shows a fat man on a green bike battling along at the 70km mark. I'd been sick for the fortnight beforehand and off the bike, so I really struggled for the last 20km, but just managed to finish. I put the photo on top of the fridge to remind me of a pretty good day out in the company of thousands of like-minded souls. (Usefully, the photo also helped me realise my seat was a few inches too low.)I missed the ride this year, mostly because I forgot the entry cutoff. Paying $100 to ride on public roads doesn't seem the good value, particularly if you don't get the free jersey for entering early. There were also some niggling annoyances which turned me off a repeat performance. The finish was a real anti-climax: something like a finishers' certificate would have been a nice gesture to recognise all work people had done towards completing the event. And then there was the 90 minute wait for the ferry in the middle of the ride, more than enough time to thoroughly warm down.
All the same I was chuffed to see the finishers filtering through the city tonight, pedalling towards home, tired but happy, as dusk fell. Well done to them all.
Image from flickr.
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2 comments:
I got a free jersey this year even though I registered late. They were handing them out the day before.
Also the ferry wait was 20 minutes this year.
Really? Damn. So I could have had a free jersey after all. It's shame, because the one from the year before finally fell apart just this week!
I think the wait for the ferry is very dependent on when you arrive. I tend to arrive with the masses. The photo I saw in the Age showed very long queues - the same as I experienced last year. I just don't have the patience I'm afraid. Maybe next year.
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