You may think I’m referring to the famed Daytona Bike Week  www.bikeweek.com/ but that’s not the case.

Wednesday we did a short bike at Starkey Park of 24 miles. We took it fairly easy, but there was enough wind to make it into work. On Thursday, which is normally a run day, Jean set up a ride over at San Antonio with Larry Reade (from Buffalo and lives near us in Club Wildwood), Joanie (a good biker in Jean’s age group from Buffalo), Bob St. Pierre (a 75 year old biker from Buffalo that I can barely keep up with) and a friend of Joanie’s named Randy Anderson. Randy has a place at Bellaire in Michigan and will be there when we have our mini bike camp at Diane’s at Torch Lake.

Anyway, it was supposed to be an easy ride of 40 or 50 miles but, as you can guess, Jean, Joanie and Randy took off right out of the gate. I stayed in my usual place a couple of hundred meters or so back, and that’s the last we saw of Larry and Bob. Jean waited for me at every turn so I wouldn’t get lost, but I was the one with the map and I knew where I was going. Joanie started getting tired at around mile 35 and the pace slowed a little the last few miles, especially on the hills. We ended up doing 45.98 miles (not 46…45.98) and felt good but a little tired afterwards.

Friday Jean and I decided to go out to Starkey Park and do an easy 22 to spin our legs and help the muscles recover. About halfway out to the Suncoast, a guy around our age rode past us without saying a word. You can imagine it was more than Jean could stand, so she came by me saying something about experimenting with cadence and took off after him. She caught up with him and rode to SR-54 on his wheel.

He stopped at the picnic table, we looped through the parking lot and away we went. We got back to the spur that goes to Starkey Park, turned and headed for the car 6.5 miles away. A mile or two down the trail, the guy came by us again. This time Jean didn’t say a word and took off after him. She caught up with him quickly and rode on his wheel for a mile or so. Then she went around him and he stayed on her wheel for a while. I caught sight of them about a mile from the trail’s end and they were riding along chit-chatting. He is from Germany and stays down here at Heritage Pines (you know where that is…up on County Line Road). Sound like Jean?

Saturday I had a stress test and the good news is that my heart seems fine. I’ll explain. Jean set up another bike ride,  again out at San Antonio. This time it was with Larry Reade, Joanie, a friend of Larry’s named Cindy and a friend of Cindy’s named John. Of course Joanie, Jean and John took off, not really riding that fast, and I took up my usual position. We never saw Larry and Cindy again. Larry is around 72, has been a champion biker all his adult life and has had some health problems this year. I think he rode with Cindy because she isn’t used to the longer distances yet and doesn’t ride very fast but I think it kills him not to be a part of the lead pack.

It was the same route we rode on Thursday, but Joanie and Jean didn’t remember where the turns were and John had never ridden San Antonio before, so they waited for me again. Our plan was to ride around 60 miles, so we added a 6 mile out and back to Trilby. We got to US-98 and did our turn-around which would give us about 58 total. We just got back on Thursday’s route when John’s front derailleur lost a bolt, fell onto the chain and he couldn’t ride it back in. His legs had started to cramp because he wasn’t used to the hills (he’s a flatlander from Tampa) so the breakdown was probably good for him. We were 12 miles from the car and told him we would ride in and come back for him.

We took off down Packing House Road (just so you know where we were) and met back up with CR-41. We went up a hill and started flying down the other side. I was going 34 mph when a pick-up truck went by and two boxes flew out of the back. They were sturdy boxes about the size of beer cases and they bounced along in the far lane.

Just then another box flew out and bounded down my side of the road. I touched the brakes slightly to see where the box would end up, but I was going so fast the bike started to shimmy (is that a real word or just mechanic lingo?). I got off the brakes and was catching up with the bouncing box. It came to rest 6 inches from the side of the road, there was traffic coming behind me (I heard a car hit one of the boxes…it sounded like an explosion) so I couldn’t swerve left, so I chose the 6 inches between the box and the gravel shoulder at 33 mph.

My heart was pumping but it didn’t explode, so I guess the stress test was a success. I was shaking like a leaf for a couple of miles afterward. I knew if I hit the box, I would go down and, at that speed, it wouldn’t be pretty. I caught up with Jean and Joanie and told them about the mishap. Joanie prescribed a couple of beers to calm my nerves when I got back home. She isn’t a doctor, but she did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I’m starting to look ridiculous (here’s where you can add your choice of A – What do you mean starting? B – At least it’s an improvement. C – Don’t always put yourself down, you idiot. or D – That’s not true. You look like a fine upstanding young man…that one’s for Mom).

I got back from the bike ride and took a shower. As I stood in front of the mirror naked (a scary sight) I noticed that the tan on my legs is great but only goes from my ankles to just above the knee. The tan on my arms is also great but goes from my wrists (I wear bike gloves) to just above my elbows. My face is tanned, but it’s white from the middle of my forehead on up (shows off my bald head), I have a wide white line across the bridge of my nose where my sunglasses go, and a wide vertical white line down each cheek where the chin strap covers my face.

Oh well, there’s plenty of time to lay in the sun to even things out.

Just (Dodged Another Bullet) Jack