I wanna wake up in a city that never …

jeanne, michelle and kiersten

jeanne, michelle and kiersten

The first weekend in August was a weekend that had been planned since May! 

My friend Jeanne started triathloning about three years ago and now she does the 70.3 category — half ironman!  So her saturday training ride are consistently about 5o miles. 

Michelle and me decided to head to NYC for a weekend and bring our bikes and ride with Jeanne on Saturday morning with her tri team.   (Go Terriers!) 

Ok, so neither Michelle nor myself are triathletes, but we still managed to do a decent job.  🙂

 Jeanne lives on the east side about 20 blocks south of central park.  We left her house at about 7.45am and then rode to the park to meet up with her team.  From the park we rode north, through Harlem, over to the west side and then up and over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey.  We got onto 9W and rode through NJ back to NY and into Piermont where we stopped for fluids, to share a bagel and banana, use the facilities and then head back.

As we neared Piermont I got concerned. 

We flew down a series of large hills and I started to fill up with the dread of knowing that “what goes down, must go up”.  [The last several miles into Piermont spans about four significant downhill sections. ] 

Heading out of Piermont, I mentally prepared myself for about 20 minutes of riding up the series of hills.  I’d classify this part of the ride as BIG hill for about five minutes, followed by BIG AND NASTY hill for about 10 minutes followed by two more BIG hills for another 10 minutes.  Jeanne (being a stronger rider and this being her training route) was ahead and waited in the place that she said signified the “end of the crazy hills”.  HURRAY!

 [I was truly humbled, though, when we passed two pacelines of speedskaters cruising along the road.  For as bad as the hills were on bikes, I cannot even fathom the effort to do it on skates!!!]

 At this time it was about 10.30 in the morning and we continued to ride along back to the GW bridge.  The bridge is a fun part of the ride … you snake along windy sections of sidewalk along the mile-long bridge as well as dodge pedestrians and other cyclists along the narrow walkway.  On the NY side of the bridge the sidewalk twists very tightly before spilling onto the road below.  Headed toward NJ it’s uphill and very manageable to control speed, but on the return it’s downhill … imagine … you’re dodging two-way traffic on a narrow footbridge that’s headed sharply downhill and then has a full u-bend along the sidewalk.  My hands actually hurt from squeezing my brakes.  I was sweaty and a bit nervous and my hands actually slipped off the brakes at one point.  YIKES.  But, I am the girl who loves roller coasters and skiing off cornices … so this really was FUN.

 We got back into the city and now we’re riding the city streets again, but it’s not 8.30am this time, it’s 11.30am and busy.  We followed the road along the west side/Hudson River for a few miles before passing the park and then getting onto a bike path that spans the west side.  We got off the path when we hit 54th street and then cut across town all the way to 1st.  Jeanne was a great leader and she cautioned us that crossing Fifth was the only really hard part.

 It was crazy and I felt like a total bad-ass fighting with taxis and cars along the skinny/crappy roads. 

 I am happy to report the 50 mile ride was great, we all got home happy and satisfied with ourselves, washed up and went out to eat a big lunch!  😀

Leave a Reply