From: pamela@keps.com (Pamela Blalock)
Subject: January 1 Century
Keywords: century, fun
Organization: KEPS Inc.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 20:46:45 GMT


Several years ago, I began my own tradition of starting out the New
Year with good intentions by doing some long ride on New Year's Day.
Of course at the time, I was living in the south, where the weather
was usually a little more cooperative. My first couple of year's in
Massachusetts saw me spending 3 hours or more on my trainer, but last
year I decided to venture outdoors. It turned out to be one of the
nicest winter rides all year. Despite a very cold start in the
morning, the temperature rose steadily throughout the day. We saw lots
of New Year's resolutions out walking and running in the warm sunny
afternoon, and even spotted a couple of lunatics running in shorts.
(BTW, warm on January first here means above freezing!)

I didn't get any takers for a century to the coast this first day of
1993, so I decided to ride into Boston and join the Charles River
Wheelman's annual ride around Boston, and then head back home for
hopefully a 100 mile day. Last year's ride had around 125 riders, and
this year's was expected to be equally popular.  This way I'd at least
have some company for 20 or so miles, and get so see a lot of riders
who don't normally venture out for winter rides, and at least one that
was making a trip all the way from California just for the ride! (OK,
maybe the ride wasn't his real reason for coming east :)

I had originally planned to ride from my home in Lowell to Bedford on
my usual round-about commuting route, then pick up the new Minuteman
bike path in Bedford, and ride along it to Cambridge, where I would
follow Mass Ave into Boston and onto the meeting point at the Boston
Common. I decided that since I say it can be done in my article on
first centuries, to prove that a century could be completed on a
mountain bike, and chose to use my commuter. It's a mountain bike with
touring tires, lights, rack, and small saddle bags. It's also much
better suited for city riding than the vitus with 20cm tires.

It wasn't easy to crawl out of bed at 7AM thanks to my next door
neighbors who decided to greet the new year repeatedly for each time
zone until the wee hours of the morning. (But I got them back with a
little loud music myself when I got up ;)

A glance out the window to my thermometer showed that the temperature
had not dropped very much overnight and it was still above freezing.
But, since I knew that the ride in Boston would be slow, and would
involve some standing around, and since it was supposed to get colder
throughout the day, I dressed in my usual cold weather gear.  There is
still an awful lot of snow piled up everywhere here, so the roads get
quite wet due to melting snow, so I also wore my rainpants to stop any
water the fenders did not.

This ride was my first test of my new Hotronics footwarmers, and I was
a little disappointed that it wasn't colder, but not really. I plugged
in the batteries, filled my Camelback, grabbed a couple of powerbars,
turned the stereo off, and rolled out at 7:45. The streets were empty.
The ride past work was incredibly pleasant with no traffic. I found
the end of the bike path in Bedford, and started on my way into
Cambridge, only to find a short while later, that the snow and ice
made it impassable, even on a mountain bike. The shady parts of the
path still had a couple of inches of packed down snow (ice). The path
was built on an abandoned railroad right-of-way and therefore has a
lot of shade. After a little walking I came to an intersection, where
I abandoned the path in favor of clear roads. Once I figured out where
I was I had to rethink how to get to Boston. I finally decided to
follow route 4 through Lexington and toward Belmont, where I picked up
Trapelo and then Mt. Auburn Street on my way down to Memorial Drive.
With so few cars, I stayed on Memorial through Cambridge, until I
reached Mass Ave. where I crossed the Charles and headed down to the
Common.

I saw a few bikes and riders when I reached the Common and then looked
at my watch and was shocked to see that it said 11:00. The route in
ended up only being 35 miles and I didn't think I had ridden that
slow, but I decided that walking through the ice must have taken more
time than I realized. I then remembered that I had not worn this watch
since fall, and it was still on daylight's savings time. This was
confirmed by another rider who told me it was a little after 10:00am.
I then began to wonder why there were riders here already, since the
ride didn't start until 11:00. "Oh no, " they said, "The magazine said
10:30." Apparently Bicycle Guide had listed the ride and posted an
early start time.

I took the extra time to ride around the Common and check out the
remaining displays from the First Night celebrations.  The mildest
weather in years had brought record crowds to Boston the day before
for entertainment with ice sculptures, murals, dance, music, and
parties. A few other people were also taking advantage of daylight and
smaller crowds to view the sights.

After a while I wandered back over to join well over 100 cyclists for
our annual event. Cathy Ellis, former women's RAAM winner appeared on
crutches with a full knee brace, as a result of a hiking accident on
Christmas Eve. I'm sure she grew weary of repeating the story after a
while. 

It's often hard to recognize friends under all that winter clothing
and with different bikes, but as face masks are removed, conversations
begin. It wasn't at all difficult to pick out Richard Mlynarik as he
towers over most other riders, especially after he called my
(non-tandem) bike a puny little bike. (I've noticed that I'm starting
to suffer from something I call tandem riders syndrome. This is when
you do a lot of tandem riding, and other people begin to think that
you can't ride a single. I can, I can ride a single!!!)  Richard asked
why I wasn't doing a century, but I let him know I was 1/3 of the way
through.  Unfortunately, I didn't see him or his tandem partner,
Laura, again all day. I've been trying to steal Laura away to ride on
my tandem some. There were lots of tandems in the crowd.  I saw a
couple of Santanas and a Burley. Near the end of the ride, I noticed a
stokerless tandem heading away from the bakery. We all wondered out
loud when the captain would notice that his stoker had gone back for
more coffee.  Osman and Judy had brought their big bike up from
Tennessee, and now was my chance to finally get a draft of off Osman.
(Osman has to be the thinnest person I know, and I regularly tease him
that he has to put panniers on his bike to provide a descent draft.)

I walked over to speak to David Iwatsuki (I'll find out if you read
more than a screenful now), and then realized he was taking a picture
of the mass of cyclists behind me. I think he now has a picture of a
non-recognizable blob of winter clothes and ski goggles ducking out of
the way.

Eric, our fearless ride leader began passing out detailed maps and cue
sheets. A few brief speeches, including one guaranteeing that everyone
would get a little lost, were made and we started to roll out. It was
quite a site to see all those bikes pour out onto the mostly deserted
streets of Boston. I decided to stay near the rear, and avoid having
to look at the cue sheet. Of course this means that I have no idea
where all we went. Despite working downtown for two years, I only know
the area right around my old office and some major landmarks. I did
recognize Charlestown and the Constitution, since I had been there
just a week before on our Christmas Day ride. I skipped the tour this
time. I later recognized the Science Museum in Cambridge. By this
point we had broken up into many smaller groups. We would come to an
intersection and try to decide where to go when we'd see twenty
cyclists roll by, so we'd follow them.  We eventually headed down to
Castle Island before the featured stop of the day at Freedman's
Bakery. I enjoyed hot chocolate and a cream cheese brownie as I sat
inside and chatted with a few riders I hadn't seen during the ride.
With 125 riders, you can't all ride together!

I checked my watch, now that I had corrected the time, and decided I
better head toward home, if I didn't want to do too many miles in the
dark. Another rider, Paul, was riding back to Arlington and asked if
he could join me for a while on my way back. We passed through
numerous turnoffs to Arlington in Belmont and Lexington, but he
decided to ride out into the suburbs with me. I still had quite a few
miles to do since my route in was 5 miles shorter than expected. I
decided to head up through Carlisle and then out to Westford, before
heading back. Paul finally turned back in Carlisle. The days are
rapidly becoming longer, and while I turned on my taillights at around
4, I didn't need a headlight until after 4:30. Wasn't it just a few
days ago that it was dark by 4? How many days until DST again??

Of course with darkness came cold, and at this point I discovered
something about my new footwarmers. When they say the charge is good
for 8 hours, they mean 8 hours, no more. The battery was gone and soon
my feet were chilled. I realized then, that I should not have turned
them so early in the day, when I really didn't need them.
Fortunately, I didn't have too much farther to ride, and my shoes
keep my feet fairly warm to begin with. I'm really quite pleased with
their performance, although I'll try to keep the 8 hours in mind when
using them on long rides.

As I approached Chelmsford, I realized I still needed a few more
miles, and I knew exactly how to get them. I was hungry and ready to
go inside and thaw for a while, so I decided to head down to my
favorite suburban Chinese restaurant, the Manning Manse, for some
take-out sesame chicken. My feet warmed while I waited for dinner and
did not get too cold again in the remaining 5 miles home. I then ate
what I normally consider dinner for 2 in one sitting. So much for that
resolution about losing 10 lbs!

Well that's one down. Here I go again!



-- 
Pamela Blalock                                    pamela@keps.com
KEPS, 164 Lexington Road                          1 down, 11 to go
Billerica, MA 01821-3984                          how many days til spring?