The Magic of the Line

I have recently noticed that a line has been painted across a trail I frequently ride. For all I know, it has been there for ages. This is a trail I walked frequently before I began to ride my bike, but I notice different things when I am out walking than when I’m out riding. Life moves faster on my bike and I tend to likewise move quickly through thoughts. When walking, my brain meanders a bit more, turns thoughts over and around a tad longer.

Don’t you feel the itch to speed up?

Anyway, this weekend I realized that I have begun sprinting across the line. I see it looming up ahead and have to pick up the pace.

I must sprint to it, resistance is futile.

This is the magic of the line.

I pulled off the trail to watch others to see if this was a common thing. Now, this isn’t any sort of scientific observation with statistical analysis, but it was interesting. I didn’t notice any distinction for the cruiser bikes, hybrids, or joggers. But, the line definitely seemed to matter to the cyclists on road bikes who sported more of the “serious” gear. Maybe one of them drew the line knowing its pull on other kindred cyclists out for a little speed and distance. Maybe this is just the trail version of sprinting for county/state lines so often done on group rides. Maybe they’ve just marked the trail for some maintenance work.

Whatever the reason, it’s just fun.

Follow-up Bike DC – A Tale of Two Rides

I received an email from the event organizers about what happened. I’ve copied below in fairness to them, so that you can each take from it what you will.

Bike DC Participants,

From the comments we have received since Sunday’s Bike DC, it is clear many of you had the great experience those of us who plan and produce this event had hoped you would. Equally clear however is that many of you did not. There were three things that contributed to the unfortunate situations that impacted some of you.

 The first factor is the growth in the number of participants. This was by far the biggest Bike DC yet and some of the routing that had been adequate with a smaller ride, was unsatisfactory for this larger group. The good news is that we can make the changes necessary to accommodate a larger field.

 Second was the road construction near Iwo Jima. That project grew dramatically in scope late last week, seriously impacting the ability to get thousand of cyclist through that section. As the magnitude of the problem became apparent, National Park Service and Arlington police made tactically decisions on how best to keep the situation from becoming dangerous. I cannot argue with any of the decisions they made.

 The third and by far most significant factor was decisions made by DC Police. Unfortunately the Washington police officer assigned to this event for the past several years left work on medical leave late last week. Those who were left to oversee the event made some unfortunate decisions. They spontaneously re-routed the approach to the finish line, sending riders onto streets with live traffic. They re-opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge to motorized traffic while thousand of cyclists were still in Arlington. Though both of these errors were eventually corrected, they should not have occurred.

 I apologize to those of you whose ride was impacted negatively. I wish you all a full summer of safe and enjoyable bicycling in and around Washington.

Rick Bauman

Event Director

Bike DC

While I do appreciate that the organizer took the time to try and explain what happened, the email leaves me a little flat. The organizers seems to accept no responsibility for their actions/inactions in all of this. Each of these problems could have been addressed and minimized, if not avoided, with good event oversight. It may well be that they made good faith efforts to do just that and it could have been much worse. But, I take little comfort in their ability to correct and avoid issues in the future because they have not demonstrated any attempt to address them this year. Don’t just tell me what other people messed up, tell me what you did to correct the situation.

If many more people registered than ever before, did they make any adjustments in the final days to better manage the flow of riders? Did they scout the route in the week before the event to discover things like the construction and plan accordingly? Why didn’t the marshals communicate the detour to each other and help with the re-routing as there were marshals on-site? Did they communicate with the new police liaison in the final week to make sure that this person who was less familiar with the event had all the information needed and understood expectations?

I want to like this event. It has great potential to get people in the area on bikes and provide a spectacular ride. I remain skeptical.

A tale of two rides

I participated in my first organized ride today! Bike DC is an annual event that let’s you ride on the normally very busy streets of DC and see some great sites. It is a popular event and, I think, maybe a victim of its own success. They offer a long(er) ride of 24 miles and a family fun ride of 11 miles. The longer ride includes out and back loops on Rock Creek Parkway and the George Washington Parkway. Both are roads I’ve sat endless periods of time stuck in traffic. The novelty of this race was big for me.

I signed up ages ago when I thought it would be no problem to train for the longer ride. This was before my back went haywire and I suddenly developed major spring allergies. So, I decided to play it safe today. If I felt great, I might add the second optional loop. If I felt badly, I had a couple of points I could bail and go home. So, up earlier than I usually am during the work week, I bundled my bike onto the metro and headed for the starting area. I must say, it was mighty convenient to be able to metro in. Thanks metro!

This was a tale of two rides. Parts were very good, but parts were so bad, I’m still shaking my head in disbelief.

My non-number number

Good:  The start line was a mob scene. You had to pick up your non-number tyvek number sheet (what are they called when they don’t have a number?) at some tables scattered around. To keep them from getting backed up, they had safety pins and zip-ties at other scattered tables. This kept sign-in running smoothly. I liked that you had the option of pinning on your non-number number or attaching it to your bike. I saw a good mix of both, so others seemed to like the choice too.

Many hundreds of people waiting for the start

Bad:  They had a staggered start with the longer riders heading out first and the family fun riders starting only 30 minutes later. There were a loooooot of people there. This just wasn’t enough spacing within the group. And, we’d later see it caused some bad mixing when groups wound up back together. I assume that was accidental mixing. I hope it was accidental. I think they need to add some more staggered start times. Even self-enforcing would spread people out more. The fun ride wound up with kids on training wheels mixing with weekend warriors.

Good: The ride started smoothly. I hung back a bit to let the crowds funnel through the starting gates. They’d narrowed the start line since there was a left turn shortly after. This was smart. The turn was onto Pennsylvania Avenue and we had the whole road to ourselves. Even with the uneven riding skills and lots of swerving, you had room to pick your line and ride without problems. Bonus- we rode in front of the White House. I would have stopped for a picture for this story, but I didn’t want to get caught in the bunch that had stopped. Besides, this area is open for crossing every day and it was more of a novelty for the people who had come in from the outer areas/suburbs.

The first rest stop. Emphasis on stop.

Bad: Shortly after this nice open stretch we came to the first rest stop, only 2 miles into the ride. Not the logical place to put a stop, but it is also where one of the longer side loops came back in and made sense for them. Plus, it was where we’d end the day. So you’d figure most people would ride through. You’d be wrong. They stopped. Many didn’t even bother to pull to the side and just stopped wherever they were in the street. This eliminated the benefit of hanging back as I came around the corner and met the stopped pack. I quickly walked my bike through the mess as I knew I wanted to be away from the masses since we had a narrow street coming up. Unfortunately, the longer rider group was also hitting the rest stop at the same time. Any benefit of the staggered start was erased. There were a few folks in full kits trying to prove they should’ve gotten the last minute call up to the Giro instead of Navardauskas weaving in between the kids and cruisers. Collectively, they earned the prize for knuckleheads of the ride.

Good: The narrow street was the entrance ramp to I-66 that would take us over the Roosevelt Bridge. It was just really cool to be riding on this otherwise forbidden road. Great vistas along the Potomac River. But, again, I didn’t want to get caught in the bunch.

Bad: This was supposed to take us on a loop to the Marine Corps Memorial and then out on a highway to a loop around the Air Force Memorial. Instead, the marshalls brought us to another stop. As we stood there, more and more people gathered behind us. There were murmurs of a crash, but I never found out if that was true. Then, they told us to make a u-turn and head back.

Stopped and about to be mis-routed

Really bad: Up until then, the course was easy to follow with cones blocking some roads and marshalls directing us at key intersections. Here, they sent us back the way we’d came against the tide of riders behind us. Where we’d had 2-4 lanes to travel, now we had 1.5 (a shoulder) to share with people riding the other way unaware that they were about to share the road. I saw many crashes. There were a lot of wheels touching taking people down. Others were trying to keep riding when it was clear you needed to get off the bike and walk.

Even worse: Because we’d been detoured, the roads weren’t marked and there were no marshalls. What seemed the natural path actually put us back on open roads in the middle of traffic. Now we were sharing one lane with confused drivers. A lot of people come into DC for this ride who aren’t familiar with the roads. This was not a good mix. My group came to a stop light and figured out we needed to make a u-turn in order to head back to the finish.

Still worse: So hundreds of riders with more coming up behind executed a u-turn on open roads. I went on the sidewalk for a bit to avoid the carnage. We then hit a hill.

Some of the cool cargo bikes

And the worst: There were many cool cargo bikes, trailers, and tandems on the ride. The downside is that when going slow uphill, these just don’t have the agility that a regular bike does. Crashes galore. Many involving kids. Also, my first semi-crash. A dad was trying to steer his young son (maybe 6-7 years old) through the mess. They were coming up along my left and the dad swerved towards me. I didn’t see what triggered it, but I also didn’t see anyone else riding past him. The dad’s swerve knocked his kid’s handlebar into my back fork. Kid tumbled, dad tumbled, and I miraculously got my feet down before I would have tumbled. Everyone was ok.

A few meters later, we came on the finish area. I pondered all of the places I’d planned as contingency bailout spots in case my back wasn’t happy and was at a loss to explain why I hadn’t taken any of them. I’d planned to head back over the bridge and ride home, but that meant going back into the chaos. I rode a few blocks over and hopped on the metro instead.

Bike DC has been going on for years. I know the Rock Creek Parkway loop was new. Maybe that threw them in terms of placement of the rest stop and not keeping the groups separate. I don’t know. Instead of an 11 mile ride, it wound up being only 6.5 miles. We missed two cool memorials and a section of highway I really wanted to ride. Despite its potential to be a great ride, unless I hear that they’ve made major changes, I won’t be returning. I’m still interested in some group rides, but I’ll stick to smaller and better organized ones.

Cycling the mean streets

I’ve mentioned that I live in an urban area — Arlington, VA to be precise. It used to be part of DC until DC returned it to the fine folks of Virginia. Had to do with the abolition of slavery and equal representation in Congress. Thanks for the donation, VA, but no thanks. All things considered, a fine place to live. I am steps away from the metro which makes my commute into work very easy. Actually, I’m only 5 miles from my office and occasionally walk home. I’ve considered easing into bike commuting, but have so far encountered several obstacles.

Probably the biggest obstacle is that I’m pretty darn scared of cycling on the mean city streets. These are crazy busy streets, especially during rush hour when I’d naturally be riding. (Aside – I don’t care how many snazzy ads you put up, WMATA, you have not and will not be reinventing rush hour!) DC and Virginia are separated by the Potomac River. A lovely river to ride along – or on if you are lucky enough to have a friend with a boat – but a natural moat separating the two. Here’s the thing, according to the fine folks who put up great factoids on Wikipedia (after getting said factoids from official U.S. Census records), 22% or over 150,000 people commute into DC from northern VA for work. Sure, a bunch take metro. But a lot drive cars. And that moat needs to be crossed and there are only a few crossings. So, whatever route I might chose would potentially also be the choice of tens of thousands of other people.

Not my idea of fun.

But, I still need to deal with riding on the streets at other times. Driving to a trail just won’t always be possible. Lovely long summer days mean I could ride outside of rush hour. I haven’t been doing it because I’m still scared. I mean, I’d have to cross 6 lane crazy roads that are officially highways. I’m looking at you Route 50 trying to sound all friendly by calling yourself Arlington Boulevard. I don’t like crossing that baby in a car!

What’s a girl to do? Enter the good people of Bike Arlington, my county’s wonderful program to encourage more people to ride bicycles. Yep, actual government money being used to make this place better for biking. They brought the Washington Area Bicycling Association’s Confident City Cycling class to my neighborhood last weekend. They ran through some laws, some safety pointers, and then a couple of drills. I could’ve used some more time with the drills, but it was all helpful. Then they sheparded us on a ride out through the mean streets. Yeah, we took a lot of quieter side roads but that was also part of their point — pick a route that makes sense for a cyclist. We also crossed Route 50. Not so scary when you have people showing you when and where to position yourself. Sure, riding with a whole bunch of other people makes you a lot more visible to cars and I’m certain my first foray on my own will still be a bit scary, but not so scary that I won’t do it. So thank you to the Bike Arlington instructor, the volunteers, and the other participants. See you on the streets!

Powering through

I took a long weekend and went to visit my family in south Florida. I was very excited to hang with my nephews and niece. They are ridiculously cute. I packed remarkably light and made it to the airport with no problems. Then I settled into my window seat. And felt a little twitch in my back. The same back I have dutifully rehabbed and had resumed full activity levels, including several great bike rides. By the time I headed down to baggage claim…

Oh, did I mention they made me check my carry-on bag at the gate claiming the plane was too full and they didn’t want to delay take off while we all tried to find places to stash our bags we are allowed to bring on the flight? And then I got on the plane and there was plenty of room but they’d already stowed my bag in the cargo hold. And then it wasn’t brought to the gate with the strollers and other things gate checked. Nope. In order to avoid delaying everyone else, they were just going to delay a handful of us with a detour to baggage claim. Yeah, that.

…and couldn’t stand fully upright. Greaaaat. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when I threw my back out in February, but it wasn’t good. And if it continued to progress, I wouldn’t be walking the next day. Did I mention how ridiculously cute my nephews and niece are? And I wouldn’t really be able to play with them. I’m calling foul.

Some ice, some Alleve, and some care in my movements kept the worst at bay. By the next day, I felt stiff but pretty good. But I still could not carry my 3.5 month old twin niece and nephew. Phooey. I did get in some good cuddles as long as someone handed me the little cuties once I was already sitting. And steady rain kept the 2.5 year old inside and saved me from wanting to run after him. Still phooey.

My brother’s chiropractor was able to squeeze me in and that was a huge help. I got off the plane feeling close to normal and decided to power through. I put on walking gear, headed over to the trail and put in a glorious 4 miles. It would have been really, really easy to just sink into the couch and mope. With ice on my back. Instead, I watched the rowers get ready for their next race while I powered through.