Hey everyone,
Our first training ride took place this past Saturday--Fort Lee is not entirely beautiful at 6:30 AM in the rain. We awakened early and made the trek to our designated meeting point; Meredith bravely rode up while Naomi decided to try her luck on the subway. Unbeknownst to us, our coach had canceled the ride due to inclement weather at 7:15--after the time we were both well on our way to NJ. So we intrepidly trekked onward, determined that if we had woken up at 6 AM, suited up in our ridiculous cycling/inclement weather gear, figured out how to get across the GW bridge and basically dedicated our day to the training ride, we were going to train, dammit.
Upon arrival, several other Team members were also there. While we would like to believe they were similarly tough, it was probably that they hadn't received the cancellation email. Whatever. We were immediately treated to a flat-fixing clinic, in which everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, including the coach popping a new hole in the tire as he attempted to change it, even though it was never flat to begin with. Basically, we learned that if we ever get a flat, the way to fix it is to flag someone who knows what they are doing down.
For the actual riding portion, the coach divided us into groups--I know what I'm doing and I'm not scared; I sort of know what I'm doing and I'm sort of not scared; I have ridden a bike before; and omigod what the hell am I doing and I'm really scared (official names are something like Titanium, Gold, Carbon and Helium). Meredith set off in the Titanium group, and Naomi was relegated to a parking lot to learn how to ride (well, mostly stop) with her feet clipped into the pedals.
Meredith reports that she rode out with about seven other riders who were all able to maintain a steady 17 mph pace and make it 30 miles round trip to Piermont, NY and back! In total, Meredith rode 51.16 miles on Saturday (3 years of spinning classes were not a waste of time!).
Naomi reports that the bruises on her knees are settling in nicely and wants to thank the nice woman who JUMPED out of her car to ask if she was alright after witnessing the spectacular fall Naomi took attempting to stop at a stop light that was also on a downhill as her foot was accidentally clipped in. She would also like to thank the random cyclist and his wife who took pity on her on Riverside Drive and rode with her for 20 minutes until they found an entrance to the West Side bike path. In total, it took Naomi 2.5 hours to ride about 20 miles. The coach assures her that things can only get better.
Fundraising update:
Meredith has nearly reached her March 16th goal of $1125; $245 is all she needs to meet it, so PLEASE give generously!
Naomi is thrilled to have raised $2200 and is extremely grateful for your support.
However both of us have a long way to go, so please give whatever you can before our ride!
At the top of the page are links to both of our fundraising sites; if you would prefer to send a check, please get in touch with either of us by email (meredith.uhl@gmail.com or nmages@gmail.com).
Thanks for your support so far--it means a lot to us and we promise to post pictures from our next ride on Sunday (the combination of rain and nerves on the first ride deterred any efforts to document it. But it happened!)
Thanks again,
Meredith and Naomi
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