Firefighter 50 and Fun with Friends

Skidz in all his morning glory

First off, thanks to Skidz Shanley for fronting the registration so I could do this ride. My funds were a bit miscalculated from vacation. Anyway, this was the first charity ride I had ridden since 1997 at The Chesapeake Bay Bike Tour. I was really looking forward to doing this because there was a bunch of us from the Aviation Velo Club going and it was all good and funny people; the kind of people that your just like to call your friends. Trace, Bob, Daniel, Jim, Matt, Paul and John are great guys to ride with. We have all gotten faster as a group so we stay relatively close. We have being doing hills on...oh wait-Guess what day it is, guess what day...it...is...Hump Dayyyy Yeahhha! ok, sorry for that. Anyway, it has really helped everyone get a wee bit stronger and perfect for this type of ride.

How much climbing?

I had never ridden any of the roads out in the Westminister area. It was drizzly and a bit on the chilly side, but it didnt last long and it became almost perfect conditions. Originally, we had discussed doing a 15-16mph casual pace; that quickly went the way side. This was a 53 mile course with nothing but rollers-a few of them of the steepish sort (hmmmmhhhaaa-evil laugh). The first 5 miles saw 600 feet of elevation; wake up call! The course was backroads and two lane highway type stuff. There was minimal traffic. The rest stop was plentiful and a much needed stop. I was pleasantly surprised with the course. It was full of climbs, fast descents and again, very little traffic. 

We were together at various parts of the ride, but branched off as well. I think we may have ridden faster than we really wanted, eh maybe not. I averaged 19.1 for the ride with a KOM and 2 top 5's to boot. We managed 3,254 feet of elevation;the hardest coming at the end...whew I say. 

Bob "radar" Novotny rode with us and is just getting into the road deal-poor chap. This was his longest ride on a road bike by about 30 miles. He did really well and finished about 15 minutes behind us-not too bad. 

The ride ended with a great pit beef and all thesweet tea you could drink! This was Big Jim's rather macabre looking sandwich (I think it was still breathing). We got a chance to sit and talk a bit while we ate and just really had a good time. I (who never wins anything) won a nice Bontrager floor pump; no Daniel, I did not switch tickets! 

All in all it was a super great time and is definitely on

Yep, this good

the to do list for next year. I hear they are adding the Cotoctins to extend the loop (hmmmmhhhaaa-evil laugh) again. Hopefully we can get together and do some more rides together and do some of that weird male bounding, thing.