The Other Half and I are spending the next week in Virginia Beach with his family. On Saturday, his old high school will be celebrating its 50-year anniversary, including a reunion for anyone who graduated from there before it moved to a new building. We drove down this past Saturday and will be driving up the Monday after the reunion, giving us a ten day period during a time of year when we aren't pressed to "make the rounds" from dawn to dusk, and two entire Sundays -- making it possible for me to join a local cycling shop for its weekly ride.
One good reason for joining a shop-ride as an out-of-towner (do call ahead first!) is that -- at least in theory -- it gives you a better idea of how cars behave in the presence of bicycles. (The theory breaks down when the rides are huge and at times when traffic volume is low.) It also forces you to get exercise when you are on vacation. It's important for me because, without a driver's license, it provides an additional mode of mobility in case both The Other Half and his parents are unable to get out for some reason and an errand needs to be done.
Yesterday morning we got started a bit late, in part because I couldn't find my bicycle computer (speedometer/odometer/ride timer), which left me flying half-blind. While I use iMapMyRide+ on my android phone, it has a number of tracking issues; plus, it keeps ticking off the time at traffic stops, recording a much slower speed than the computer, which only records while my wheels are rolling. At any rate, we rolled up just in time for me to say hi to a couple of the folk, introduce myself and explain I'm here on vacation, and then we're off and about.
It was obvious from the start that the pace was a lot higher than I was going to be able to keep up with. This scared me a bit since we went down roads that are usually much more heavily-travelled by high-speed motorists. Fortunately, there were two other cyclists who rode at about my pace and the ride had several gathering spots to pick up us slower riders. (This is known as a "no-drop ride".) Amongst the faster riders, I saw a 2011 Tour de Cure fundraising jersey. While we were stopped, looking for a tail-end Charlie who had apparently taken a shortcut, I went to thank him for riding for us. He saw my own Red Rider jersey and said he should have worn his -- he has type 1 diabetes. We introduced ourselves (hi, Matt-with-two-"t"s!). Both of us wore red Road ID (interactive version) bracelets -- his in the "sport", mine in the "elite". During the next leg, he went slow enough to pace me, and we conversed about our respective Tours de Cure, fundraising efforts, and so on. He was a bit surprised at my jersey since the Red Riders for his mid-April ride received the same jerseys as they had in 2010, rather than the black-trimmed, shadow-printed jerseys most of the June Tours distributed for their 2011 rides.
Further along, I found he grew up in Jamaica, NY, which is right next door to where I spent 20 years after graduating university. Neither of us have been back with bicycles since New York started its major push to add bicycle lanes and cycle tracks to many of its major thoroughfares. Still, it's a small, small world.
On the last leg, I was pacing one of the other slow riders and learned that he had been trying to get his wife to ride, to no avail. He mentioned that at one point he'd ridden with a diabetic cyclist who "smoked" him. He obviously hadn't heard of Team Type 1... Well, now he knows there's a whole professional team of cyclists with diabetes, and that I actually get to meet them when they come to town once a year.
The Other Half was waiting for me when we got back, which gave me the opportunity to give Matt my card and ask if he followed Team Type 1. (I knew there would be a reason to bring down one of my new/spare Team Type 1 water bottles!) Since we'll be here through next Sunday, I'll have the chance to pass along some Team Type 1 love to another fan.
Seventeen miles before the temperature got scorchingly hot, and some great interaction to start off a holiday. Could I ask for anything more? Yes, I could: an end-of-ride blood-glucose reading lower than 142. I still need to figure that out.
