Sunday, September 14, 2008

Manhattan Perimeter with Ed Defreitas

I rode sweep for Ed Defreitas on his "Manhattan Perimeter" ride. Ed had described the route as "mostly flat" and we had FOUR flat tires at the start. One of them got a flat again as we made our way up through Battery Park. He bailed, I pointed him in the direction of the nearest bike shop and off he went.

As we headed up the West Side Greenway, a jogger stepped in front of one of the riders as we approached Chelsea Piers. The jogger was unhurt but the cyclist went down. He wasn't wearing gloves and got a gash on his palm to go with the general contusions and scrapes. I gave him first aid supplies from my kit and showed him how to apply the band-aid to the wound. He and his friend bailed, headed for the ferry back to NJ.

The ride continued the rest of the day without incident. Our lunch break in Isham Park was a very pretty spot.
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Folks ate their lunch sitting on a park bench in the shade.

This was the culmination of Ed's Perimeter series. The original plan was pizza afterward. It was way too hot for that. When we stopped for water at a playground on the lower Manhattan East Side Greenway, Ed declared that we would do ice cream instead. Off we went to the South Street Seaport at a leisurely pace suitable to the heat of the afternoon. The ice cream was Haagen Dazs and the store had a teudah so I got to have ice cream with everyone else.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Buffalo

We met up with our group at Riverhead LIRR station. My buddy Mike Moses drove out to Riverhead with my wife Golda and my daughters Shira and Hannah. They were joined by 5BBC member Pat M. . Golda went to see about tickets for Atlantis Marine World and the others joined us for a nice slow ride for a few miles, mostly on country roads, to visit North Quarter Farm and its buffalo.

As ever, the disparity in athletic ability -- at least for cycling -- between Shira and Hannah made pace a bit tricky: Shira rides at least 2-3 mph faster than Hannah, and when that is 6 vs 9 its quite noticeable. I kept the pace down to 8 and made sure to keep Hannah in sight as best I could. Hannah was mostly happy as the center of attention with 4 large men forming a safety cordon around here, offering her praise and encouragement as we went. Nonetheless, by the time we reached North Quarter farm just a few miles away from the station Hannah was quite tired.

After our brief tour of the farm, I stayed behind with Hannah and Shira while Rodney and Jesse escorted Mike and Pat back to town. Hannah rested, ate a Larabar and drank some water.



The girls took turns posing for pictures, first with the buffalo and then with Daddy, while we rested.



We waited a little while for Mike to come back with the truck and pick up Hannah, but then Hannah felt strong enough to slowly ride back towards town. We got perhaps a quarter of the way and then Mike found us. The girls got into the truck while Mike and I loaded their bikes onto the rack. I declined the offer of a lift back to town. With the bikes loaded, I waved goodbye to Mike and my girls then took off. I went all the way down into the drops and pedaled as hard as I could to go as fast as I could.

At 26 mph, Mike and the girls pulled alongside. The girls were very excited and happy to see me riding so fast and for a moment or two Mike drove the truck at a speed to pace alongside me. Then, with all 3 of them laughing, they took off while I continued to push as hard as I could to go as fast I could while the conditions permitted as I headed back to the Peconic waterfront in downtown Riverhead to meet them.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Riverhead run

A noticeably strong headwind blew against us as Jesse Brown, Rodney Millard and I cycled up CR 101, Patchogue-Yaphank Road. I barely kept in front of Rodney at 17 mph; at times, he was out in front.

We made our right turn at Long Island Avenue and the wind was gone. What a relief! Sure, the pavement on CR-101 was in better shape but now the wind was blocked by the trees. Jesse and I rolled on and Rodney zoomed ahead out of sight. As we approached our turn, I saw Rodney waiting for us at the light and called out for him to make a left then a right. Zip! He was gone while Jesse and I cruised on, chatting at 17 mph .