Today I rode in my first bike ride since Hotter N Hell last year in August. It's hard to get motivated to ride when the temperatures are so cold, plus, I don't really travel with my bike, my car is not exactly bike friendly. So usually, meaning, this year and last year, I ride the Tour Dallas ride, maybe a few other rides a century ride in late Summer or early Fall and then focus on running or getting ready for the yoga championships. This year since I set a goal of 24 events, I probably will do more rides than last year, I will miss some good rides while I am at Bikram Yoga Teacher Training so hopefully when I get back I will still have time to get in at least 3 or 4 rides.
Tour Dallas was a good one to start out with, it is an easy ride through Dallas and around White Rock Lake. My friend Emily asked me last year if I wanted to ride with her and it was such a great ride, we decided to do it again this year.
Check out those AWESOME arm warmers!
I wore my arm warmers I bought for the Butterfly Boogie and boy an I glad I did! Wow, my arms were so cold riding to the start and for about the first 10 miles, I was REALLY glad I had them. I thought I was going to look silly, and maybe I did, but I did see at least 2 other people wearing arm warmers. I always feel safer, less silly, when I see people doing what I am doing, don't you? :)
We saw more bikers down this year and at two of the spots, EMS was there helping. There is a spot within the first few miles were you have to go over the light rail tracks and last year people were shouting "tracks!" so you knew they were coming up and to slow down. This year no one seemed to be doing that but I knew they were there so I slowed down. Some poor lady thought got caught in the tracks and went down, then right behind her some guy couldn't turn fast enough so his bike basically ran over her, over her bike and then he fell down. Amazingly, they both got up and seemed fine.
At another point we saw a man getting into an EMS truck and what looked like his friend lying in the grass, that was just before the lake. Then as we got to the North side of the lake there was another EMS truck and a lady was on the side of the road with EMS techs helping her.
I think it was because the roads were so bad, there were A LOT of potholes and other road hazards to deal with and if you weren't paying attention, well, there you went, down on the ground. Emily and I were discussing the road conditions when she mentioned these might have been the BEST streets they could find when they mapped the route. At that I had to laugh and then I was HAPPY they had picked these roads because geez...if these were the BEST roads, I hate to think what roads got marked off the list as too bad for the ride!
Even with the potholes, which you have to expect when you ride on the road, it was a great ride. Cool to start out and it warmed up just enough to take the chill off. And thanks to all the officers that stopped traffic and made sure no one got run over, there were certainly plenty of opportunities with all the drivers not paying attention.
Off now to go spend time with the family, I won't seem them for 9 weeks so I better get my fill today!
