Ahhh, What A Weekend!

Friday night was the traditional Lehigh Towpath ride, Brian H and myself, followed by dinner at Which Brew. Early night because I had a pretty big day coming up.

Saturday was "The Running of the Dogs," a race put on by Team Bulldog at Kittatinny Valley State Park; it was set up in a fashion very similar to 24 hour racing, except teams were two-person and rode together rather than 4-man relay -- the race was only three hours long too, which was good. I rode it with my friend Bob W, and we raced as a Men's Sport Vet team, but we did it on singlespeeds. He was on a 29"-wheeled Karate Monkey and I was on my 1x1: one gear and no suspension and my whole body was exhausted by the time we were done. We got in five laps though, or 25 miles, within the time limit, and came in 3rd (third place out of four teams that is, but we were the only singlespeeders in our category). We were happy; we didn't really go out there to be full-on competitive, which is a good thing because Bob was so much faster than me we that were a rather mis-matched team -- teammates had to ride together, and Bob spent a far greater percentage of time riding easy, while I played catch-up, than the word "race" might imply...

Saturday night was a quick trip to Bethlehem, for appetizers and cocktails at the Starfish (nice, but expensive), then wings at Brew Works (much more reasonable). In between the race and the cocktails was a nice long nap.

Sunday we got together again, Bob and myself with Doug and Lori and Brian, plus two of Bob's Allamuchy friends, for some trailwork at Allamuchy. We did about four hours of work, putting in waterbars and diversion ditches to keep the heavy rains from eroding trails, then we got on our bikes and rode about ten miles. Doug and Lori were on the tandem: and it was her first real experience riding (as opposed to say hiking) at Allamuchy, and it was a great day for it too. We had a blast, though Brian tweaked his derrailleur and had to leave early.

After that came a huge outdoor lunch/dinner in Hackettstown, then home and another nap. I spent the last hour of daylight reading Blood Meridian on the porch.

Tomorrow will probably be a rest day, or maybe the gym. G'night.