Distance: 66 km
Time: 2:31
It’s kind of strange. Today’s ride put me over 500km for the Rapha Festive 500—530km total—but I’m not feeling any particular or special sense of accomplishment. It’s not even that there’s one more day for the Challenge and therefore one more chance to add to my total distance that I don’t feel as though I’ve reached any sort of conclusion. There’s really never any sense of an ending, is there? I originally thought that I’d do a long effort tomorrow to try to break into the top 100 for total distance, but seeing as how some people have gone absolutely batshit crazy, I’m not sure it’s worth it or if I even care. Maybe I’ll go for a long ride tomorrow and maybe I’ll just take it easy; I’ll just have to see what I feel like.
It’s kind of ironic that I wrote recently about the meaninglessness of miles and here I am engaged in a Challenge that rewards reaching a specific distance goal. But as I mentioned in my first Festive 500 post, motivation can appear in many forms, and having something other than the training plan to get me to go out and ride at the end of December was definitely a welcome change and infused a sense of adventure in my riding that I sometimes lose sight of. The photo above sort of represents every ride I do. I leave Baltimore City by heading north on Falls Road, and return home heading south on the same road. It’s what I’ve done each day for the Festive 500, what I’ve done for years before the Festive 500, and what I’ll continue to do after the Festive 500. Riding a bike is an awesome journey.
Just the facts:
January 8, 2012
55.59 Mile in 03:04:22
