Bicycle Day

First of all, thanks for the calls/texts/cakes/wishes on my birthday.  I had a good day and a delicious and towering cake.  I'm now 23.  Seems like a decent number.  Oh and my apologies for the dead phone for most of the day!  It died before I woke up and I didn't realize until 5 or so.  

Today was bicycle day.  If you are unaware, this marks the day that someone first knowingly ingested LSD.  That someone was Albert Hofmann.  He went on a bike ride afterwards and reported some difficulties.  You can read all about it, like I did, on wikipedia.  

In celebration, a Cornell student named Dave (not me) organized an alleycat bike race.  There were five checkpoints on campus, and I volunteered to work at a checkpoint.  I think we had a total of 15 or so riders, everyone from serious looking roadies to urbanite fixie riders to some mountain bikers.  Also volunteering at the checkpoints was Alex.  Alex had lots of hair, wore hiking gators and lots of clothes, and was always chewing a stick.  His bike was decked out, too, with a variety of wares and goods.  He looked, by all approximation, like a bum living on his bike.  Sure enough, this was a good assumption.  He had worked as a bike messenger in NYC, but these economic times are tough on bike messengers, and he's been living on the road for a while.  He solicited us for "any help we could offer" for his return trip to NYC.  I wish him luck, living on a bike would be a hell of a trip.

So the racers were off a little after noon.  I was working the checkpoint at the clock tower, which was somewhere in the middle of the race (racers were allowed to pick the order of the checkpoints).  Ultimately, Colin took the win with Matt an immediate second.  Both were on mountain bikes...word!  

Dave had even arranged for lots of bagels and cream cheese arranged on a table for after the ride, and gave out bottles of champagne for first, second, and DFL (dead fucking last).  All in all, it was a well organized event.  Many props to Dave for putting it together.  With a few more checkpoint volunteers the race could be a little longer, and I'd definitely be interested in a race like this.

I left on a road ride around 3, planning to do about 50 miles.  I think that's about my cap for now, especially after mountain biking like 4 of 5 days prior.  the ride was fun, although I got off my intended route and had to ride back to Ithaca on a state route as opposed to a small country road.  The length did not change, though, and I'm glad I was able to get through 50 miles with few complaints save a sore backside.

There's rain coming.  Fortunately Tim Reissman has some work for me and the rain ought to give me the chance to do some maintenance on my jump line and maybe even build a pump track at Shindagin.  Shoveling dirt is pretty good strength training.