54 Mile Loop around Lake Washington, No Sweat!
This is Me and the Bird at mile 20, all smiles. We stopped to throw down an ewey goowey energy gel pack.
This cute little 1 oz. Package is chock full with calories, sodium, potassium, carbs, a bit of sugar, Vitamins C & E, and a smidge of calcium, this one was Tri-Berry. Awesome! They are nasty and just about make me gag, but they have a surprisingly wonderful effect on my body. I’ve tried several flavors and I will keep trying more. I’m glad I don’t like them, otherwise I’d be sucking them down like candy, and I don’t need to be doing that, now do I? They are a nice addition to power bars. Something about having to chew through a full, dry, hearty, thick nut bar doesn’t sit well on a long bike ride. These lil’packs of energy might not taste good to my mouth, but it does a body good.
Birddog likes it. He'll inhale any flavor he can, yum yum, yak.
Our ride was great. We started at about 3pm, biked north on the Birk Gilman trail, hooked over and up Juanita Drive into Kirkland, our old stomping grounds. Strange thing happened in Kirkland too. We were biking along and all of the sudden we were passed by a super speed racer whizzing by us on his bike. It ended up being our friend Seth. He's one of those crazy extreme bikers and FAST! A quick Hello and he was off.
We continued on our route, strange route too, and almost ended up on the 405 highway in Bellevue. Oops, reverse, back on the right path. At about mile 30 I bonked. I wanted to be off my bike and back home already. I was out of water, the fountains at the park we stopped at were all shut off, I choked down a power bar, I was tired, and just drained of energy. I was ticked-pissed and wanted to cry.
Birddog to the rescue, I don't know how he does it, but he makes everything OK. It's his smiles, his silly jokes, and his good attitude toward our adventures. A mile or so later, we came up to the "real" rest stop just as a Spirit of Washington dinner train tooted by. I started waving at the passengers in the rail cars, my arm falalling back and forth, I managed to get a few waves in return. My spirits were lifted and Birdy grabbed my water bottle and dashed to the drinking fountains. I peddled ahead, he will always catch up to me, and feverishly chugged down the precious water when he returned. We continued around the Boeing small plane field, and at about mile 38 I got my second wind, thanks to the flat roads and talking about rock climbing in New Jersey this summer with our little nieces!
The rest of the ride was good. The day was warm, mostly sunny with a few clouds, the headwinds didn't slow us down too much, traffic wasn't terrible, I didn't get any flat tires, I was able to preserver despite my emotional breakdown to our long ride ahead. We went through the I-90 bike tunnel, for me it was the first time, very cool. I kept the mileage count down and before we knew it at mile 52 we were in Pioneer Square downtown Seattle at 7pm.
A good ride I tell ya and Thank Goodness for the Bus Gods, bus #2 saved me from the ride back up to Queen Anne hill.
We'll do the ride again real soon. This time I'll bring more water and more food, not just those delicious gel packs.
