holy hundred miles batman.

So this Saturday I ended up working one of the rest stops at the After the Bridge Run Ride, which is, as the name implies, always the day after the Cooper River Bridge Run. There are three levels in this ride including the 30 mile, the 73 mile, and the 100 mile. (I learned that when they are 100 miles, they are appropriately named "century" rides.) This ride was put on by the Coastal Cyclists and was sponsored by the always generous Charleston Bicycle Company and benefited local bicycle advocacy groups like the Holy City Bike Co-op and Charleston Moves that helped to man the rest stops. There were around 500 riders this year from all over the Southeast and I think I made about half of them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The combination of perfect weather, friendly people, and cool bikes (tandems, recumbents, and trikes) made for a fun and interesting day. Click HERE for more pics. I really want to try and ride a tandem but I am honestly afraid I couldn't stop giggling long enough to pedal... I saw one pair that even had their names on the tubes below their seat... so cute. The recumbent bikes kind of scare me but I am still interested in taking one for a spin. Although I can never see myself signing up to do 100 miles in one day, I do like the idea of spending the day taking a long ride in the country, the sound of my breathing and the wheels cutting through the air hypnotizing me into a comfortable groove. I am actually reading Lance Armstrong's autobiography and it is teaching me so much about competitive cycling and the dynamics of the biking world...plus I find his extremely honest writing style appealing. The title "Its not about the bike" pretty much sums it up. Like Lance, biking has changed my life in more ways that just how I get from place to place and it makes me so thankful that I decided to go car-free.