King Challenge, 25 of 30

Roads like these

I had a late night on Friday, attending The Lion King on Broadway at the Boston Opera House with Mike and Chip, so getting up early Saturday morning to drive to New Hampshire was a challenge within a challenge. Still, I didn’t want to bail on the King Challenge Ride, (a charity ride for brain injury recovery), so I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 to hit the road.

I chose to ride the 30 mile route, (60 is well beyond my endurance level at this point), and planned to ride alone. The only other riders I knew, Vanderkitten Jen M. and Suzanne D., were positioned up front with the lead pack while I settled in comfortably near the rear. It was a lovely ride on country roads, passing farms and orchards, stables and barns, sparkling streams and brilliant foliage. It’s truly a gorgeous ride.

Around mile 12-14 I lost my ability to change gears. Either one of my inner cables broke or my derailleur was damaged. I’m leaning towards the former. I tried to manually move the chain to an easier gear to help with the hilly terrain, with no luck — I was permanently stuck in high gear. After two miles of riding single-speed, I checked the gps map of the route and decided to cut my ride short by taking a right on Exeter Road at mile 15.5 instead of a left, essentially trimming five miles off my ride. That’s ok. I was happy with 25.

Back at the start and the post-ride after-party, I ran into Jen and chatted with her briefly, (Suzanne was out on the 60 mile route), but I felt a little awkward hanging around and decided to just head out. I grabbed a veggie burger, changed out of my cycling clothes, and left to find coffee.

It was a lovely day and a great ride for a great cause. I’m tired, though.

Foliage along the Exeter River