Teardrop Metric Century......

This is the second year of this bike ride, and it takes place in my hometown, so it's a sentimental favorite. It's also a favorite because it's a good ride. The route is good, the rest stops are good (really, if you have something to eat, something to drink, and somewhere to go potty, you're pretty good), and the routes are well marked. It has just enough hills to be challenging, but it's not so bad that you want to hurt somebody as soon as you get back to the beginning.

It's a little pretentious for ANY ride to call itself a metric century. A century ride is 100 miles; a metric century is 100 kilometers, which equals 62 (or more, in this case) miles. Really, I don't think it's that much more impressive to say you rode a "metric century" as opposed to "62 miles."

The "teardrop" part of the route name is more interesting. It's because the shape the route makes on a map. I think I posted a picture of it last year, but here it is again. I think it's cool-looking.

Rozmo and I did the ride together today (alas, no Katydid). There were only about 150 riders (I'm guessing here, registrations were a little over 100 last night), so it wasn't one of those where you had to worry about huge numbers of riders. We only had to worry about being last (we weren't - close, but not last). The last rest stop was only 4 miles from the end (I have to wonder why they do that), and when we got there it started POURING. I didn't mind the rain for myself so much; it had been pretty hot. But I was worried about my (new) camera and my (new) iPhone, and I wasn't on top of things enough to take a plastic bag with me. (Note to self....)

It's that time of year when we have an organized ride (or two) almost every weekend, and I like it that way. I get a big chunk of mileage in one day, and I don't have to ride by myself. Score.

Now.... GO DAWGS!