5 Borough Bike Ride

So, I headed into Manhattan last weekend with a few guys from church to do the Bike New York 5 Borough Bike Ride. Good times were had by all.

We got into the city on Saturday afternoon. We stayed at the New York Youth Hostel, upper west side. Walked around for a long while after we got there, and managed to put back both a plate of pasta at the hostel’s carbo-loading supper, as well as half a small wood-oven pizza (with whole wheat crust!) at a great restaurant down the street Saturday night. We also walked up to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine Absolutely amazing, but an odd vibe. Even though it’s an active church, it felt like I was walking through the Cloisters more than the church. Then, there was this bizarre statue outside. It had something to do with peace, but I just kind of liked that everyone was standing on a scary looking crab. And the avenging angel’s pretty darn sweet – ought to be a comic about him.

Sign 82 that I’m getting old – we were all in the bunk beds by about 11 – woke up early in Mystic, spent the morning with wives and kids, drove into the city. Supper and a couple drinks were about all we could swing with any hopes of having a good time the next morning. Our roommates showed up about 11:30, banging the door open and shouting “Hey, who wants to party?”

Yeah. Sorry ’bout loosening up half your spokes, buddy. Hope you can get that $500 wheel fixed.

Somehow, the roommates beat us out of the room. Four flats before we got underway. Which would be almost noteworthy, ‘cept all five guys in our group ride on a pretty regular basis. One of them was a southeastern Connecticut thorn that obviously was a Red Sox fan with a beef against the Apple.

My favorite was flying down Broadway all the way from 103rd street to the Battery for the start. The roads were nigh-unto deserted, and the whole trip downtown, we kept picking up more and more cyclists. Somehow, it had a Critical-Massy feel to it, kind of an utopian thought of a world without (many) cars. We stopped at Starbucks somewhere above Times Square, and I got the joy of riding one-handed in traffic with coffee. Dumb? Yep. But somehow it just felt GOOD.

The actual ride itself was pretty darn uneventful. 35,000 cyclists were pretty well behaved, and the ride marshalls were pretty good about making sure traffic was spread out. There was a bottleneck about 55th Street that was a nightmare, but there was kind of a chicane going into Central park that could have been really hazardous with 35K folks coming into it at 15 miles per hour.

Actually, that’s an idea for next year – do away with the bottleneck and set up stands there at Central Park South.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. It pretty much mirrored the Marathon course, with the exception of taking FDR instead of First Ave, a detour to Astoria Park in Queens, and using an expressway on the harbor as it went south to the Verazanno Narrows bridge.

Sure, there were things to complain about, but overall – it was a nice spring day, a great crowd, and a nice way to see the parts of New York that wouldn’t generally be considered “sights”.

The thing that had me chucking most of the day was thinking how much more I enjoyed doing the Marathon. At least the first 18 miles of the Marathon. While it’s nice riding on wide, smooth pavement, the Marathon’s great ’cause you’re actually going through neighborhoods. THe crowds are phenomenal, as opposed to the folks caught by the bike tour, who seemed much more aware of being inconvenienced.

And the whole experience of running with 35,000 other people is much more pleasant that riding with with 35,000 other people. It’s not that there were jerks on bikes (actually, the crowd was the most pleasant of any large ride I’ve ever done), it’s just that it takes a lot less thought to keep from running over someone than it does to keep from riding into them. A big part of that is the speed differential – there’s a lot more time to think while running 8 minute miles and overtaking someone who’s running 10 minute miles than there is when riding 20 miles per hour and overtaking someone riding 12.

Again, I loved the ride, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat (or more accurately in about 51 weeks). But the marathon – Man, I’ve got to do another one soon (like next spring).

Professional pictures of me…