Wednesday, May 27, 2009

7 Hills of Kirkland


For the last few Memorial Days, I've done the 7 Hills of Kirkland charity ride - yesterday included.  It's usually the only organized road ride I do all year.  It's for a good cause, I can ride to the start from home, and now after a few years kind of a tradition for me.  I've watched this ride grow over the years, now capped at 1500 riders.  Mostly recreational types, but a few race teams as well.

They have 3 ride options - 40, 60 and 100 miles.  All pretty hilly as advertised.  I go for the 40 miler, with about 3000 feet of climbing. Taken at a fast clip (for me), just enough for a holiday morning.  For the second year in a row, coworker and riding pal, Phil Caple came along for the spin.  We're pretty evenly matched riding wise, so a fun ride - without anyone feeling like they're holding up the show or getting totally hammered keeping up.

I felt kind of crappy when I woke up, but rode anyway - then felt okay after a few miles.  Nose was running a bit towards the end of the ride, then after getting home was wacked with a nice head cold - that put me on the couch for a few hours.  Lucky, just a quick deal and I feel almost normal today.

The ride itself was awesome - perfect weather, little to no traffic, fast pace to keep things interesting, some suffering on the climbs and best of all - big brownies at the end.  The 7 Hills crew traditionally serves strawberry shortcake at the finish, that I usually give to my kids - as I did yesterday when they met me afterwards.

No pictures from me - ancient Nikon digital camera too bulky to carry in a jersey.  Tried to take a few shots after the ride and discovered after 9 years, camera finally died - ready for the big landfill in the sky. R.I.P.

Picked a up a new Canon today to replace it.  Smaller, lighter, full of megapixel goodness and even a HD video mode.  Looking forward to adding more riding pics to the blog.

Stay tuned for future two wheeled nonsense with actual photographic proof.


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