On Saturday, July 13th I finally got the opportunity to get some time in the saddle. I signed up for the
Pedal for Pets 99 a few weeks ago and ride day was here. I hoped to find some of my riding buddies when I got to Senoia for the start of the ride at 7am. The ride was not a mass start so some people left before 7am. The shorter distance rides were advertised as having an 8am start time but many of those riders started with the 99 mile route riders. I think I would have preferred a mass start at 7:30am with all riders.
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| Registration at Senoia United Methodist Church |
I ran into some of my riding buddies in the church parking lot on my way to registration. Even though I had already registered I still needed to check-in. I ran back to my car to get my bike and gear ready for the long day. As I took my sweet time a large group of thirty or so riders rode by. Several of them were my guys. I hoofed it to the street and hopped on my bike. I decided to check the parking lot one more time for stragglers. There weren't any that I knew, except a platoon of about eight
Beck Cycling guys. I knew I didn't want those guys to hurt me so I hauled butt to catch the other group which by now had ridden well out of site. On my own I passed person after person, almost took a wrong turn, but the group stayed beyond my reach, until the Beck guys showed up. John in their group, who I have ridden with before (see
Naked Lady Ride), invited me to join in. I did and the ten miles whizzed by until the group I was trying to catch were right there before me. It was pretty cool that as we passed them I was doing my brief stint at the front. "Yeah, I pulled these guys the whole way" I thought to myself. Shortly after we passed the group I trailed off the back and only reconnected with a few of the riders at a rest stop.
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| Greg, John (in the back), Steve, and David (l-r) leaving a restspot |
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| Riders at a reststop in Grantsville (I think) |
Fortunately for us the rain held off and we had cloud cover all day. I like the route for the 99 mile course. The only thing I might change is the color of the road markings. They were white paw prints with small white and/or blue arrows. Unfortunately almost everything else someone wanted to identify on the road was also marked with white paint.
Thanks for reading.
