«

»

Apr 27 2011

Ride Report: Marymoore to U-District, April 23

After riding the South Lake Washington/Bakery Route this past Saturday (4/23), Kary and I decided we still needed some extra saddle time so wanted to catch the Marymoor Ride at 2:30pm. As we left our house to ride there, we saw Melanie down the block leaving her driveway on her bike so we caught up with her.

We arrived at Marymoor parking lot by the tennis courts and saw Steve and Frances on their tandem. A short time later, Jon and Karen arrived with their tandem. Eddie, Jane and their kids came with their trailers hooked to their bikes and ready to go. Nancy was running late from a meeting so we waited for her and she arrived not too much later. Our first stop was at the rest stop about 5 miles from our starting point. All of a sudden Curt and Devon arrived on their tandem bike. Frances and Karen were so happy to see Devon they all exchanged hugs (how cute!). We had a total of 4 tandems, 2 singles with 2 trailers and 2 single bikes.

We rode to our next stopping point at Woodinville park, about 8 miles. Eddie dropped off Jane and kids and continued to ride with us on his single bike. We thought we could ride a little longer since some of us needed to go to other appointments which would be about 5 more miles but Melanie and Nancy wanting to ride at least 25 miles total (their goal was to ride 25 miles that day). That meant we would have to go 4 to 5 more mile so we all decided to keep going. The trail was pretty busy during mid-day with lots of strollers, joggers, skate boarders, and other bike riders. Because of that it was difficult to keep a steady pace but we averaged at around 13-15 mph. Melanie asked me earlier how fast do the riders normally go during the STP, I think her next goal was to ride around 16 mph. She was determined to stay at that pace so she led us the rest of the way to the Kenmore area which was our next turn around point.

Once we reached the Kenmore area Jon, Karen, Steve and Frances had to make an appointment so they sped back to the Marymoor parking lot. Wonder how fast they were riding back?

The rest of us rode back following Melanie and Nancy who wanted to take the lead. Did you know they had us going over the speed limit? It’s 15 mph on the Sammamish Trail and we were going a little over that. Kary told them there are police who do give out tickets for bikers who go over the speed limit but they kept going at their own pace with no worries. :D

As we reached near our starting point, Melanie, Kary and I continued to ride back home whereas Nancy and Eddie went back to the parking lot to their cars. We pretty much reached the goal of riding 25 miles total! Yay!

We all had a nice time in the sun with lots of people walking and lots of riders also enjoying the sun. We even saw a jet ski in the river! Until the next ride….

–Gail

1 comment

  1. blueneck

    Excellent ride report. I don’t have any data for how fast Frances and I were going. I remember stepping on it after leaving. We were going at a pretty good clip. We almost crashed on one of the bridges and if I was solo, I would have but I told my stoker to keep peddling and that avoided the fall. As we zoomed along, a guy in a blue jersey passed us and said something like, “Thanks for the ride”. Only after he was five yards ahead did I realize he had been drafting off of us. We sprinted a little to try to catch him, but he was going pretty fast and for some reason, I was getting tired. A ways after that, another guy in a blue jersey passed us and I tried to catch him for a little while. It was only later that my stoker told me he had been drafting us – when my stoker looked back, he just grinned. After the “grinner” passed us, we spotted two tandems ahead and I tried to catch them. It was hard work, but we passed them and took the lead for a little while. Then they passed us and then someone else whizzed by and it was Jon and Karen! We followed them and the other two tandems back to the start point. This was the first time where I pretty much used up the tank on the Sammamish River trail, but my stoker said she had a lot of fun. Thank you for setting up this ride!

Comments have been disabled.