Harpeth River Ride, 98 miles

This was a great ride. Lots of organization and volunteers. Even had a live band at the finish where pizza and mexican-type food was served.

My brother and I did the 100 (more like 98) mile ride. We stayed together the entire route. I saw a few friends there - Mark Smith, John, Wes and Larry.

Mark rode the 100 miles. I never saw him. He finished the whole deal in five hours, twelve minutes. 5:12 that is. This was not a flat ride. There were some tough hills.

My brother and I finished in 6:25. That included a total of about 45 minutes of stop time. A lot of time. Not nearly as much as last week though.

This ride passed through areas of relatively untouched landscape - some really backroads. Excellent landscape for a bicycle ride. Oh, that reminds me - we went down the road where I had my crash about 6 weeks ago. I heard a dog bark as we approached the place.

Lessons:

i. Again I am reminded I don't like wet cotton. I decided not to wear wool, thinking it would get too hot. But for me, that means wet cotton. Maybe the Rivendell searsucker would work well.

ii. I could use more padding on my right hand. I wore two gloves today as I have since I started riding again.

iii. If there are only three or four food stops at the E'tape, I need to carry more water.

Two weeks and two days 'til the Etape. Hard to believe. John and I regularly wonder out loud if we really want to go. I can say, though the ride was great today, my mind wonders, do I really need to be doing this - I mean, spending all this time riding.

After the ride today, I went to the annual meeting of the Stones River Watershed Association in M'boro. There I heard two great presentations, one on amphibians in middle Tennessee, and the other on what we can do as SWRA members, citizens, government employees to make a real difference in water quality of our water resources. By Brian Miller and John McFadden respectively. Very knowledgeable folks.

Total miles to date: 1028
My brother went over 2000 today !