five boro bike tour (year 2)

oh that determination & diarrhea

sunday morning, i was this close to deciding not to join the 5boro bike tour. it wasnt that i just had an oral surgery few days prior. surely i was a day past the no strenuous physical activity requirement. nor was it the fear of not finishing or any possible accident. having finished last year's in one unbruised piece, i knew i was going to finish just as safely. nor was it the fact that the old roomies had backed out of the tour and that i was going to ride alone. coz i knew some 30K were riding too and that was company enough. it was something bad. really bad. a terrible horrible case of diarrhea. those bloody post-surgery antibiotics i was taking had wreaked havoc on my stomach and boy was it bad.

but me being the stubborn person i am and the forced thought that if lance armstrong could win the tour de france with one ball, surely i could bike the roads of new york with a bad bowel. and bike the roads did i. it was a real fun bike tour. the weather was much better than last year. and the organization of the event was much better as well. no 3-hour wait to ride the staten island ferry back to manhattan this time.

brooklyn to staten island over the verrazano-narrows bridge

we started out in battery park, southernmost tip of manhattan. biked through central park up to harlem to end up in borough 2, the bronx. borough 3 was queens, over the queensborough bridge. past queens was brooklyn. through closed off highways, we eventually ended up over the long steep intimidating verrazano bridge to head to staten island. and it was that point, that the happy realization that im actually fitter this year hit. instead of last year's inner voice of "i will not walk my bike over this bridge. i will not walk my bike over this bridge," it was "wow, im actually on the passing through lane this year."

it was a great fun ride. sure i needed to take a dump 3 times in the different rest areas but hey at least now i can cross off "bike 42+ miles of new york city with a bad case of diarrhea." from my lifetime things to do. and last i checked lance armstrong has that to still tick off his list. not that ive seen his list of things to do, of course.

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rewarding myself with a nice yellow jersey

having felt id earned it, i ate a nice heavy polish platter at the end of the ride. more importantly i had treated myself to a nice adidas yellow brasil jacket—something id been wanting to buy but never had a reason to justify so. well, obviously i cant wait til i finish that 5k run in central park in a month. a kickass soccer suit only deserves some kickass new sneakers.