So it has been a few weeks since I participated with Melissa and my parents in New York City's Five Boro Bike Tour. The best way to sum it up was mostly a let down.
The day started very early in Queens with loading the bikes, and gearing up for the event. Then heading to the Long Island Railroad to have the easiest way to the city without paying a whole bunch for parking.
We made our way from Penn Station down the west side of Manhattan till we got to where my parents stayed for the night, Millennium Hilton. If you have never seen or stayed at this place it is right next to the World Trade Center/Ground Zero. This is the first time I had been to the World Trade Center since probably mid 1990s. It was great seeing the plans posted on the fences there, as well as construction taking place.
We came to find out that the starting line was right in front of the hotel, which worked out great for my parents. The only thing is we wished we knew this before hand so we could have planned for a later arrival time to the start.
Here is where the day started to suck. the race was suppose to start somewhere around 9 a.m. At about 10 a.m. we were actually moving. Once we were beginning our trek up to Central Park we thought this was great. Cruising along the wide open road, enjoying the sites. Then we got to Central Park
In Central Park the roads narrowed, went slightly up hill, and split then merged shortly after. This all caused a huge back up and one of our first parts of standing/walking the bikes. We continued to walk then bike a little, then slow down, then stop, then try to restart, only to be stopped by volunteers letting traffic go through the course.
We got to the first rest stop which was a huge Cluster F**k. The one amazing thing was that my uncle was doing the ride as well, and we were hoping to find him at some point during the ride (The problem was that there were thousands of people there and it wasn't very likely that we were going to find him at all during the ride). By some dumb luck we ended up 20 feet from each other near the port-o-johns.
After starting out again after filling water bottles and getting a little food, we made it maybe a mile or two on the FDR before we were stopped yet again because of letting cars dictate our ability to ride on these roads. 10 more minutes of walking the bike and then we were able to start climbing to ride the bikes on the bridge to Queens.
***This brings me to a complaint. The bike ride is suppose to be 42 miles, this is not a short ride, even when you are riding leisurely. So get out and ride, and be in some sort of shape to ride around and not be in the middle of the road and have to stop when there are people surrounding you. Melissa was almost taken out by a guy who couldn't make it and without looking or moving to one side, just stopped his bike.***
After making the decent off the bridge we are sent down a helix where there again is a stop and walk, also this is apparently the place, through no fault of our own, where the bike tour cut a few miles off of the ride. Since they couldn't start on time or properly control traffic we got screwed out of most of Queens.
Then after this go through the slums of Brooklyn (no sites worth seeing), then only a highway where it was just moving along to get to Staten island, got stopped up again at another helix, where we got to another rest area. This rest area was poorly stocked and didn't have water. The only water available here was from a fire hydrant (If we are spending the money get some proper water for all the people you allow to be at the tour).
Then we take a quick trip over the bridge to Staten Island. It was quick since we weren't allowed to stop on the bridge for any pictures. Then to the fake finish. It was fake because we had to still ride 2 miles to get to the ferry.
The nice parts were riding with the family and Melissa, seeing some good sites, and running into my uncle.
My suggestion for anyone reading this that would consider doing it would be to avoid trying. This is not well organized. It would be better for the company to have staggered times to ride, avoiding a lot of the clutter of people. Also cutting down on the amount of entries would help.
Anyways, once the tour left Manhattan it wasn't much of an event.
I'm finished with my rant, but the pictures are up on Facebook. There is a link to my facebook page to the right of this blog. If you want to add me as a friend to see the pictures go for it. I should accept shortly after the request is sent.
I also wanted to update the spring/summer races:
April 18th: Earth Day 5k (Silver Spring, MD) Finished 25:34
May 2nd: 5 boros bike tour (New York, NY) Finished with sunburns/tan lines to show
May 8th weekend: Trip to NY Lots of Fun!
May 12th – 16th: Agee/Spampinato wedding (Cincinnati, Ohio) Whole lot of fun, Congrats Agee's
May 29th weekend: Trip to NY
June:
June 12th-13th: Bike MS ride (30 miles on Saturday, 50 miles on Sunday)
Raising money for Multiple Sclerosis
July:
July 4th weekend trip to Philly!
July 10th: Caribbean Sounds 10k (Rock Creek Park) possible, not definite
July 17th: www.total200.com double century bike ride! 200 miles - 100 miles out, lunch, 100 miles back
August:
August 14th – 21st: Brigantine Family vacation (Brigantine, NJ)
September:
September 4th: Open Water Swimming races in Connecticut (3 mile, 1.5 mile, .5 mile)
Septemver 12th: Parks Half Marathon, Rockville, MD to Bethesda, MD
September 18th: Run Geek Run 8k (West Potomac Park)
October 10th: Boo! Run for Life 10k (West Potomac Park)
November: TBD (Vacation in Ohio for Thanksgiving hopefully)
December: TBD (Queens, NY for Christmas break)
Somewhere I would like to do a shorter triathlon (June –August time frame)
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