Adopt-A-Bike Ride

The Adopt-a-Bike and Special Needs Bike programs provide bikes and helmets to low income, disadvantaged and special needs children and adults who would not be able to own a bike otherwise. Started in 2002, it has grown each year and as of 2010, SBW has provided over 2000 bikes and helmets to various community groups within the tri-county area.

I’m pleased to announce that we had well over 250 cyclists during this past Sunday’s Adopt-a-Bike ride.

For those who wished to participate in the actual bike ride, they had several distance and speed choices to select from. Myself, I chose one of the slower groups to ride with.

With our group being the next to last to leave, we didn’t leave Markham Park until ten minutes after the first and fastest group departed. And because of our later start, we and the group behind us were the only groups of cyclists that ran into a moderately heavy rain storm.

Notwithstanding the danger of riding in the driving rain, I thought the drenching felt heavenly compared to this past summer’s relentless heat and humidity. One downside of the rain, however, was the wet roadways.

Riding directly behind the cyclist in front of you, their rear tire constantly threw road water into your face and chest. Seeing out of my sunglasses was next to impossible.

Anyway, the rain ended and we continued on with our Sunday journey wearing wet biking shorts and drenched jerseys.

The strong northerly wind was another factor, one that our leaders wisely conquered by changing the course. Instead of heading south in the beginning of the ride, which would have forced us to ride north into the wind during the second half of the ride, we started out riding northbound. Thank heavens for wise bike leaders. As it was, we glided along nearly effortlessly the second half of our 37 mile ride. Thank you Allan and Deanna!

Despite the inclement weather in the beginning of the ride, we still maintained a 16 mph pace throughout the entire 36.3 mile course.

Map and stats of ride   

To replenish some of those lost carbs and calories, after the ride the bike club had a nice layout of bagels, donuts and fruit. I enjoyed one of each and seconds on the donuts.