BTWD, Vol. 5

Last Thursday was Bike to Work Day in the Bay Area, and as I do every year, I dreaded it. The ride is long and blustery, mostly flat, and largely boring. But since this would be my fifth year in a row participating, I couldn't bail. And I didn't. I slept terribly the night before, anticipating the early alarm, but I hauled myself out of bed in the dark and made it down to meet the rest of the riders in the Mission only a teeny bit late. Hundreds of people making their way down Mission Street at 6:30 a.m. is slow going, so it was easy to catch up with the pack.

I quickly identified the man who was going to make this ride worth it for me, and stuck to him as closely as I could. He was dragging a trailer with a speaker loaded onto it, and blasted the Beastie Boys and Daft Punk for the entire ride. My knight in shining spandex.

As I find every year, the ride keeps getting easier. I know the route now, which helps - I know where I'm going to bonk if I don't stop to stretch and eat a bar, for example - but I'm also getting stronger. I'm riding less these days than I did a few years ago, but my fitness level is up, and I felt like a badass the whole way. It's hard not to feel great when you've got views like this one.

It didn't hurt that there were some characters on the ride, including two hulking dudes on a Barbie-pink tandem road bike. Every time they road by I did a little cheer in my heart.

When I rolled onto campus after 45 miles and 3.5 hours, my ass was sore but my spirits were high. The greeting party gave me an extra big cheer for being the 100th person to ride in from San Francisco, which seemed auspicious.

I also saw our CFO's nipples as he changed into an official BTWD tshirt, so that was something too.