So there is this crazy bicycle "race/ event" which is sort of a tradition here in St Louis -- the Moonlight Ramble. I've heard of it since I around the time I first started dating Jim but I had never actually done it before. Until this year!
Basically what happens is that the race starts in Forest Park (it used to actually start downtown!) and participants can choose between a 9 mile or a 19 mile adventure. (and I think we all know that Dianna is always going to choose the onger option!) I am sure that there are people who are actually "racing" but 99% of the folks in this event are just riding their bikes and having fun in the middle of the night! You don't even know the actual course until the night of the Ramble (it's a big secret!). So we bought tickets, along with our good pals/ neighbors Bill and Laura, and met up with their friends (Liz and Dan) to take this adventure on! The best part? Meeting new people and doing something crazy like going for a bike ride at midnight. The worst part? Standing around with our bikes waiting for the event to start for almost an hour! It honestly started to feel like almost 12 AM in the morning pretty quickly! (Oh -- Did I mention that this event starts at midnight?) Because of the 10,000 participants, we didn't make it to the start line until close to 1 AM -- and then we were off! The 19 mile course took us east to downtown from the park (to Jefferson) and then on Market and onto the Forest Park Expressway (and then eventually back to the park for the finish line). Even though it took forever to get started, I do have to admit that it was pretty cool to be biking along a closed to traffic Forest Park Expressway in the middle of the night! The weather was warm but not humid! (I did end up with like a million bug bites, though!). Next year's plan will also include getting a light for my bike!
By the time we made it home and into bed, it was close to 4 AM. And then Stella woke my up at 8:30 AM to go outside (even though we took her out before heading to bed a few hours earlier!). I couldn't go back to sleep when I came back from taking her out so I did a little work. Eventually, though, I managed to go back to bed (where Jim was soundly sleeping!) and did my best to not screw up my sleeping schedule.
Especially since today was the first day of the Fall 2010 semester! Everything went well, though, and who knows? Maybe the Moonlight Ramble was just what I needed to kick off what might be a challenging semester!
PS: Thanks to Liz for taking the pictures that you see above! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment