Today I did the Soldier Ride, as part of the Wounded Warrior Project. It started 3 miles from my house, at the Old North Bridge, and basically just looped around Concord and Carlisle for 30 miles. All roads I could ride in my sleep.
It was inspiring to see the disabled vets riding, some with some very cool looking hand cycles, trikes, and recumbents. Some were on regular bikes, too.
The start was a little hairy... the police lead us out for the first mile, with the vets in front. There were about 200 people and I do not do well with that kind of closeness to other riders, who were across both lanes of the roads. As I was going around the rotary in Concord center, I happened to glance left and some guy was about to ram into me. I kind of swore at him and got a "sorry."
After that, though the vets stopped as they rode at a slower pace, and the rest of us went on and spread out. We were up near the front and I knew I couldn't sustain that pace. After climbing the only real hill in the ride, DH was ahead of me and "didn't know" I had fallen back. I am recovering from a sinus infection and did not feel too great. At one point, I went by the turn to my neighborhood and was tempted, but I tried to focus on what the vets had gone through to keep me going. Met up with DH at the rest stop, where I realized I still was with the "pretty fast" riders. We slowed a little after that.
There was a nice boxed lunch at the end, but no real activities, etc. Some people did 60 miles by doing the loop twice, but it was already a kind of ho-hum route for us, and I was ready to go home.
A total of 37.5 miles and a very good cause. Although I did not like that Curt Schilling, who gave an introductory speech, had to inject some politics into the day, in his speech. Why do Republicans think they have monopoly on patriotism?
