Marathon Bike Ride

Got invited by my running buddy ES to do a bike ride more-or-less along the course for the Waterfront Marathon, to be led by her biking "coach" AL, who is one of those riders that seems to love to help newbies get into the sport, be it through tons of friendly advice, or actual mechanical help, as in ES's case.

I did a few extra clicks riding in from my house, but we started at Queen and University, made our way slightly west and south to the Waterfront Trail, then breezed across past the Humber Bay Bridge. Well, ES and AL breezed; I chugga-chugged. I am not experienced enough to tell if it's my lack of leg power or my lack of shifting experience that makes me so slow on this supposedly fast bike. ES was riding a sweet road bike, but not clipped in, and with less biking time, and she was easily going alongside AL, while I had to fight to keep them in my sights!

There is one optional steep hill on the Trail that I totally bypassed on the way over, while AL flew across it. He gave me some climbing advice on the way back, and I dropped the gears, stood up, and tackled the hill fairly easily. Yes! We continued across to the portlands, past Cherry Beach, across to Tommy Thompson trail, then back up to Lakeshore and Queen East. After we turned around, we got stuck in a bit of afternoon Beaches traffic, and I managed to finally wipe-out from not clipping out of my pedals, as promised earlier to my friends. Thankfully, I fell with one arm on a pulled-over bus, so it wasn't so bad.

On the way back across Queen, we stopped at my local bike shop Velotique so I could replace a Camelbak hose I destroyed while cleaning... ES was like, "will they let our bikes in?" LOL - They have bike racks inside for customers! She got a couple of endcaps for her handlebars to complete her new bike. My two ride mates continued being much faster than me despite my best efforts. I must have a lot to learn. We finally got back to our starting point and high-fived!

Route Link

We found a nice brunch place at Queen and Bathurst called Niche, which had a bike-friendly fenced-in patio so we could dine with our bikes. AL invited us to a great full-day ride to Niagara that he does with friends each year. 7hrs of riding + 3hrs of f'ing around along the way, then taking the Go train back. I'd love to do it, but the weekend they're planning it for, I will be at a sweet triathlon training camp!

--Distance: 55K in about 4 parts
--Duration: a bunch of hours altogether, but the marathon course took about 2hrs.