Holiday Rides
Monday morning, I received email from a friend inviting me to come along for the Jingle Bell Ride that same evening, sponsored by our local Bicycle Sport Shop. The ride started through Austin's Trail of Lights, wound up through town to the elaborate light displays on 37th Street where there were snacks and hot cider, and then wound back, including a circle around the capital and down Congress under some more excellent lights.
It was popular. I haven't been able to find anyone reporting an official number, but a local bike shop owner who was counting told us he was at 730 when we passed. And we were definitely not near the end of the pack. That's a hard number to believe but we've no reason assume a mistake. The rider were of many ages, some very young participants too young to reach pedals were pulled behind their parents in little screened-in trailers. There were a good number of tandem bikes.
It was fun to ride with a large group at night with headlights and blinking tail lights everywhere. Many people were wearing Christmas clothing. One guy in our group had red antlers. His wife had big, bright, striped socks like you'd expect to see in Dr. Suess. I wore green with a red scarf, which was an excellent choice as the night was cool, probably in the 40s (which is more significant when biking than when walking).
After going not even a third of the official course, we stopped at a red traffic light. One of the ride's escort police officers announced that because the huge popularity of the ride had overwhelmed the police support, the ride had officially been cancelled and that, assuming we obeyed all traffic laws, we could continue under our own auspices as bikes are always allowed to do. Was he serious or joking? We couldn't tell at that moment. It soon became clear that we'd lost the police presence and he had indeed been serious. We became an unintentional Critical Mass ride.
Everyone continued and there were still refreshments at 37th Street. Near the end of the ride, one of us got a flat on Congress, so we fixed that under the Christmas lights.
This was the first large, organized bike ride in which I've participated. I've been told it only gets less crowded.
Similarly, on Thanksgiving, I participated in my first organized road race, the 5 mile Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot, along with 1579 other people. I was also told that that, along with the crowded Capital 10K, such runs only get less crowded.
Three of us ran together for the first four miles at a pretty leisurely pace before splitting up for the final mile effort. It was chilly: I broke out some layers that I usually use for skiing and the wind was strong in some places. At the end, a bunch of us had mimosas out in the sun on the top floor of a parking garage next to the race...it's good to have friends that have such enterprising friends. :-)