Get On Your Bikes And

A few days after I turned fifty we had a party. Lots of people, good food, etc. But the big thing for me was the run. I wanted to have a birthday run from my workplace to my house. Unfortunately, most of my workout pals were on vacation (as were a lot of other people, what I get for being born in August), and then I started to notice the hot weather, and I thought, nah, we’ll make it a bike ride. So I made up flyers announcing my Only Annual Invitational Birthday Commemorative √50 Mile Bike Ride and plotted a route from work to home that was exactly 7.07 miles in length (the square root of fifty, if you haven’t had your coffee yet), and sent out invitations noting the bike ride was optional

The bike ride is optional and is not a race unless we change our minds and race anyway because sometimes we’re like that and it will take place rain, smoke or shine whether it’s a warm 110º or a bracing 95º and should take less than an hour

and waited for the acceptances to come in.

Everyone had an excuse. There were probably thirty people who came to our house and ate Miz Liz' excellent cooking (and brought presents wrapped in wine bottles, yay!). But for my bike ride, only the very hardest of the hard core: My younger son (the older one had to work), and my neighbor. My neighbor’s a crazy mountain biker type and the three of us had a good ol’ time. I plotted it out on myfavoriterun.com ...


which is how I got it to go on sidewalks and bike trails and across country and still got the distance right, and we rode down hills and under bridges and across creeks and along railroad tracks and stopped on the new bridge to enjoy a view of the old bridge ...


and went down and around and under and climbed the most ridiculous hill, walking and pushing up an unofficial trail carved by shortcutters up and down the escarpment that falls off the boulevard towards the lake, and from there were well positioned to cross my favorite old bridge ...


and onward, home to guests and beer and barbecue and beer ...


and a bouncy house. Yay! Good times for all but I still think everyone without small children was a weenie that they didn't get on their bikes and ride.