I woke at 4:15, late actually, and raced downstairs, got my stuff and rode to the LIRR station in RVC where I went into the city, picked up the 2 and got to 110th St. There it was a short walk across the street and I was at the starting line by about 5:45. It was kind of packed, I'm not sure how many people were there, but everyone was super psyched, despite the early hour.
The route was to take me south through Manhattan and then through 4 of the 5 boroughs and then back to Central Park that afternoon.
We went south down the west side of Manhattan and to be honest with you I was a bit timid. The pace wasn't very quick anyway as it was dark to begin with, but then it lightened up and there were a lot of bikers around me. I normally am not skittish, but with the injured shoulder, I took it easy. We took a nice easy pace south all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and into Brooklyn.
The hills going up to Prospect Park kept everyone pretty slow. The Bridge was slow too. Actually, one thing that was interesting was that the bridge speeds were VERY slow. It was mostly single file and people didn't want to take them very quickly. Anyway, we got into Prospect Park and that's where it finally opened up. I broke 30mph, did a nice 24m pace on one mile and I was loving it!
That was where the first rest stop was. I grabbed a PB&J bagel and took off again. Brooklyn was more hilly than Manhattan, so the pace kind of varied. The lights were never with us so that also slowed things down. But I was feeling a lot more confident in my shoulder so I was willing to push it more. We got to the harbor and I got a really nice shot of the Verrazano Bridge.
I kept going along the southern edge of Brooklyn and since we were on a closed path, the pace slowed again. But it was an absolutely beautiful morning. It was about 70 degrees and perfectly clear with a light 5-8mph breeze out of the NNW. I was so happy I decided to do this. Still no pain from my shoulder. We made our way into Coney Island where I saw the famed Cyclone in all it's glory.
We then turned north, snaked through Brooklyn a bit and had another rest stop in Marine Park (30 miles in).
I then moved on after topping off my fluids and headed to Flatbush Avenue and then south along the Gil Hodges Bridge. I should point out that the day before a tornado touched down in this area (Breezy Point) and I was sure the ride officials would route us away from the area, but we were fine. Very little debris on the ground where we were, which was a little east of where the twister hit. We then hit the winds in Rockaway Beach and I rolled into my old hometown.
Way back when, I lived in the above building. Only until I was about 7, but I still remember running around the playground between this building and the next. And if I remember correctly, my nursery school was in the building across the grounds. But apparently I was too pretentious for Queens and my family moved out to Syosset, on Long Island. Still, this was good enough to get the Barenaked Ladies song in my head.
No, I didn't break into the apartment, so I just kept riding and this song was in my head for the next, oh about 40 miles. It's a little slow for biking, but I really like BNL. They had such a pure sound and such a love of music about them. My wife and I saw them in Baltimore once and we genuinely thought they were having fun on stage. This has a couple of different shifts in the song where he sings about the apartment in almost an angry tone. Then it goes into a section that is much quieter and more somber, where he continually asks the new owner why they changed some of his favorite memories and then it almost explodes right into the same riff as the beginning that is fast and a little more angry again. The transition between these two sections is actually a good motivator on the bike as it gives me a change to hold on to and pick up the intensity a bit.
We then headed north from the Rockaways and across the Cross Bay Bridge towards Ozone Park.
The ride took us through some not so picturesque sections of Queens and then we hooked up with the Greenway again. Enter Forest Park and the 55m rest stop. Before I got to the stop though there was a nice downhill (which was good because it was a fairly decent climb up to the park). There were two gigantic divots that were the length of the road and I feared they would wreck my rear wheel because it was a downhill and I was going about 25mph. Luckily I was able to avert any damage.
My shoulder was great, but the hills before Forest Park, especially that one going into Hillside Park were wreaking havoc on my arthritic knees. I took some more Advil and after awhile the pain subsided. From Forest Park, we headed east (kind of) and along the best part of the Queens Greenway into Cunningham Park. It's very hilly, but a beautiful ride.
From Cunningham Park we go north to Northern Boulevard and for some reason we skipped Flushing Meadows Park. That was kind of disappointing. There was a very interesting set of bridges that we went over though that took us over Queens Boulevard I believe. That was tough negotiating some of the fences getting to the footbridges though and I can only imagine what the recumbent bikes on the ride had to do.
I was following someone on Northern Boulevard about 60 yards back and they blew right by the turnoff onto the path that goes along the Cross Island Parkway. I was pretty sure we had to go there, but I kept following them. Mistake. After close to a mile, I decided to stop and people who were following me (sorry!) stopped too. We all pulled out the cue sheet, realized our mistake and then went back before we went too far and got into Nassau County (Great Neck is NOT part of NYC!). The ride along the CIP was really nice as we could see Bayside Marina on the right side. I was blowing by just about everyone as people were starting to get tired as this was about 70 miles into the ride.
We passed the Throgs Neck Bridge and then headed near the airport and into the World's Fair Marina. This is where I ran into trouble last year with a broken spoke, but luckily I made it through no problem this year.
We kept heading west into Astoria and then into Astoria Park where there is a big rest stop. And this was the best picture I took all day:
That's the RFK (formerly Triboro) bridge in the foreground and the island of Manhattan in the back. We went over that bridge and into the Bronx where we made about a 7 mile climb into Van Cortlandt Park. Funny thing happened in the Bronx though, and this is where the BNL song left me. We got over the RFK bridge and because we were 90 miles into the ride, there was a lot of separation between the riders. I had one guy with me and we stuck together which was important because we didn't have the pack to follow anymore. It was kind of hard to see the markers on the street and with a lot of street fairs going on in the Bronx that day, we were afraid we were going to get lost. Eventually though we found a larger pack and we made it to the park.
By the way, it is NOT fair that the bathrooms were being cleaned right as we got to the park and we had to wait. Not fair at all... :-) I picked up after topping off my fluids again and made the trip over the Broadway Bridge and back to Manhattan where I finished my 107 mile trek around NYC.
It was such an awesome day. My second longest ride ever and much more challenging than the Ride to Montauk (109m) earlier this year because it's definitely not flat. I strongly encourage everyone to try this ride, at any distance!
Vitals:
| Distance: | 106.98 mi |
| Time: | 7:52:20 |
| Avg Speed: | 13.6 mph |
| Elevation Gain: | 4,158 ft |
| Calories: | 7,054 C |
Not nearly as fast as I wanted to go, but it was an awesome day nonetheless!
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