Starting Time 7:09 AM
Finish Time 12:48 PM

Total ride time was 4:32:51, 66.20 miles, average 14.56 mph
Total time stopped time 1:07:04

Well like I learned doing the long distance motorcycling it’s all about staying in the saddle. Not that this was a race, heck Gordon and I were just grateful to finish after being punished by headwinds the last 10 miles, but if we hadn’t enjoyed ourselves so much at the rest stops… And honestly the rest stops were great. This was my first organized biking event and it was incredibly well managed. Plenty of food and refreshments at each of the stops. Plus live music – that’s what tied us up, we were just enjoying ourselves way too much.

We’re already looking forward to doing this again next year, but we want to do a full Century in 2012. We have high aspirations.

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A few weeks back a guy from the BROL forum reached out to me and asked if I’d like to ride the Western Maryland Rail Trail with him.  I’m trying to get in the miles in preparation for the Seagull Century in October so I said sure.  Unfortunately my training buddy Gordon couldn’t make it.  I met up with Ray and a number of his friends from KICK – Kent Island Cycling Club at the south end of the WMRT in Big Pool, MD.

The weather was looking like it would be questionable.  There were ominous clouds to the west of us and I’d caught a weather report for Cumberland that was calling for thunderstorms.  During the ride Mary got an emergency message on her phone that Loudon County, Va was having a severe lightning storm with high winds.  The weather for us was thankfully quite pleasant and only a tad on the warm side.

All in all it was another enjoyable ride on the WMRT and in the process I got to meet a great group of people.

I’d ridden the B&A once before by myself but this morning I met with two of my DF friends with the intent of taking the trail and the MD 450 all they into Annapolis.  We met up at the north end of the trail off of Dorsey Road in Glen Burnie and got off to an early start in order to beat the majority of the traffic.  The B&A trail goes thru old town Glen Burnie and thru a number of neighborhoods so it’s quite popular and by 10:00 AM can start getting a bit congested in spots.

We aimed for a 6:30 AM meetup and were on our way at 6:44 AM.  I lead Gordon and Keri along the beginning of the trail at a leisurely pace as the trail initially winds it’s way thru the woods south of the BWI airport. Once past the first few miles the trail heads directly south along what was once the B&A Short Line Railroad and the pace picked up.

Heading into Annapolis for the first time was a bit challenging once we got off MD 450 (Baltimore Blvd) and headed down King George Street towards the Naval Academy.  King George St. is an older narrow road and while the traffic was thankfully quite light the cars are parked bumper to bumper all along both sides of the road.  The possibility of getting “doored” was very much at the forefront of my thinking as I made my way into town.  Keri didn’t like being on the street at all and opted to ride down the sidewalk which of course caused it’s own set of problems, but thankfully we all made it to the wharf in one piece.  We took a good long break sitting along the docks.  It wasn’t the most picturesque view of the harbor but it was still a treat since I hadn’t been down there in years.

The ride back up to the trail was thankfully uneventful and we all did fairly well getting back up the hill, except for Gordon throwing his chain and having to tackle that greasy job.  Definitely a ride to do again.