Monument to Monument

Adventure #2 of the weekend: the Monument to Monument Ride!

This morning Meghan was going to drive in to meet me and Alex for the almost century ride from Baltimore to DC and then back to Baltimore.  A few minutes away from my house Meghan realized she forgot her helmet at home and needed to head back and get one for the ride.  We all decided to meet up about 35 miles into the ride because that is where I was going to meet up with my B&B mentee. 

At 0820 a group of about 60 riders headed off.  Alex and I were ready for the adventure and surprisingly awake (9 hours of sleep will do that to a person).  

The group powered through lights down to the bottom of the hill and at mile 1.7 we were stopped by a train to only be stopped again by the same train a few miles later.  Ride out of NOLA anyone?

The first bit was fairly flat, but around mile 10 the hills started to pick up and you know me and hills (we do not get along particularly well).  Between no training for the ride and still missing a pint of blood some were harder than others; I caught up on those downhills.  Thankfully there was a 7-11 stop at mile 20 and after some blue and a cliff bar I was good to go. 

Twenty miles later we met up with Casey who is going to be on the ME2SB trip this summer.  Girlfriend has already raised over $5100, but feel free to throw some cash monies her way - Affordable Housing is a GREAT cause people (and tax deductible)!  The Met Branch was smooth sailing.  One of the best parts about riding or driving into DC is when you crest the hill and see the Capitol or Washington Monument in the distance.  You know you have arrived.  If you follow the yellow line it points tot he Capitol (easy to miss in the photo if you are not looking for it).

The Monument is still under construction which put a damper on the photos, but it did not stop us from taking some anyway.  Also a dance video was taken, but no one would join me so it was lone dancer, party of one. 

This was taken by another rider, but I loved it so much I am posting it here.   

From there we headed off to lunch and waited to hear from Meghan.  Apparently she was kicking butt and not only had she found a helmet, she drove back to Baltimore to the start of the cue sheet and caught up with sweep.  GET IT GIRL!!  We met up at Union Station, snapped a picture to prove we were there and headed back to Baltimore. 

We kept getting split up due to different styles of riding.  I prefer to be towards the front because that means I can see what is going on and if a biker goes down I only have to worry about getting around one or two other people instead of eight or ten.  Meghan is a bit more conservative and takes the turns a little slower so she hung out in the back.

We found each other at the 7-11 and headed off with four other gentlemen.  With everyone taking a turn pulling, we ended up making GREAT time.  One of the leaders turned around about 10 miles from our end destination and asked if this was the longest ride we had ever done.  The two of us just laughed and admitted that we had spend the summer cycling and neither of us had put in major miles since our wheel dip in the Pacific Ocean.  Needless to say we got some street cred for that!

After some photos at the Baltimore Monument Meghan and I parted ways.  All in all the day was a success ... 107 miles round trip, 6 liters of water, 1 new B&B friend and a afternoon with two good friends.  Meghan and I did decide our next trip would be more relaxed as the last two reunions centered around a half marathon and then this century ride.