Castle Island

Remember when I put "buy a bike and ride it" on a zillion of my seasonal to do lists before I actually did it? I've been making up for lost time and riding the heck out of that bike lately...even though the front gear doesn't shift properly so going uphill is significantly less than enjoyable.

I knew I wanted to go on a longer bike ride today, and I prefer to ride on some kind of scenic bike path whenever possible, so I mapped out a few options before I left the house. Because I'm crazy, I chose the longest loop. Eighteen miles, from Quincy along Dorchester Bay and then Boston Harbor to Castle Island, and then home again. I brought my T Pass with me because if it all proved to be too much, I could bail around mile 11 and hop on the T to get home.

And yet I knew when I left the house that I wouldn't do that, that I would be too happy riding my bike to "cheat" and take the T part of the way home, no matter how tired I was. And I was tired! I stopped halfway to wait in the looooooong line at Sullivan's and get a frozen yogurt (you need to fuel for a ride that long!) and I climbed up the hill and found a patch of sunny grass and enjoyed the view while I finished my yogurt. I had plenty of water with me, and even with a headwind all along the beach in South Boston, I wasn't ready to stop riding when I got to the peninsula with the JFK Library and UMass Boston...so I just kept riding. My quads were killing me, my butt was sore, and there was no way I was getting off my bike yet. I took another short break around 15.5 miles, once I got back to our old stomping grounds at JPII Park, then made my way home.

And collapsed from exhaustion.