15.0mi

Our little cycling clutch took off for its weekly ride tonight: Greens Bottom [MM 45.7] to St. Charles [MM 39.5]. This is a short ride, pleasant with no big hills, and plenty of cool, shady areas along the trail. We didn’t have to pick up one of our partners atop the Page Extension Bridge tonight, so no big climbing there either.

We took off, and I was amazed at how well I was keeping up with my pair of ridemates. Ordinarily, it’s me bringing up the rear — albeit less far behind than I used to be! — but tonight I was able to lead a bit, and was able to keep to a pretty fast pace for me. We fought a horrible headwind coming around the Family Arena, but unlike my last big headwind, I was able to keep a decent pace — 11 or 12mph. A quick thirty minutes after we left Greens Bottom, we were in old town St. Charles.

I’ve been to St. Charles a ton, but never on a bike. It’s a sleepy, bricked, main street town, with loads of shoppes and lots of folks wandering around shopping for this and that. Susan knew of an ice cream parlor, so we pedalled up to the storefronts, and had a cone of ice cream before heading back to the trailhead. Now that’s high living!

About two miles shy of the trailhead, I crossed 400 miles in my quest for the Katy Trail Challenge. Susan was nearby, and she and I geekily high fived as we rode together before I zoomed off in my exhuberant, triumphant run to the trailhead. To say I was thrilled is an understatement!

So, just over 400 miles in two months of riding — 90mi of that has been in the last week. As we sat on the bench last night outside the ice cream parlor, we counted about twelve weeks left of good riding weather. With that much time, I might have an outside chance at crossing 1000mi this year. That’d be amazing, especially for my first full season cycling.

My cycling clutch told me that when I cross 450mi next week, I had to bring the beer to celebrate after Wednesday’s ride. Sounds like a deal to me! 🙂