Friends go riding

What can I say? It was a perfect day to be off! I stopped by and had a donuts with my pal Kevin at the radio station. That was part of the deal in order to get him to help me with the church media system. Trust me, I rode it off! The system installed a lot easier than I expected. One small glitch but no one will know it Sunday.

Finished up and stopped at the house for a light lunch and checked email to be sure Chris was going to be able to ride. Yep, we're on! I meet up with the boy (see photo below) and he then tells me David, Jo and Marianne are coming along.

First thought was a happy one! I couldn't wait to see them. Been too long and I've never gotten to actually met Marianne but I read her blog and her name is always used in nice ways so I knew she had to be as nice in person as she was cyber. (HA) Sure enough, as friendly and down to earth as it gets.

Jo (Tri-momma)

David and Marianne praying for non-sharp straws.
It was a funny story about their tri-bike straws.

Dwonn, the master himself

Dwonn and myself.

So we head out down the river trail toward downtown. Plan was that I was going to ride all afternoon until the sunset (I did) but we would keep it slow. I was thinking to myself, Ok, I am riding with an all Ironman crowd. Slow to them is what??? 25mph? We really did keep it around 15mph. Thanks guys, I really appreciate that!

I got to ask a lot of questions and they were a huge help. Today my confidence went through the roof for the ride! It was because I rode with friends!

After Jo dropped to go get her daughters at school, David soon dropped to head home and Chris, Marianne and I headed over the BDB and rode the Little Rock side a while.

Chris rode from home so when we got back to BDB he was heading home. There are several good climbs he has to make to get to his house. Marianne and I rode back to Cooks Landing where her car was. I got to ask a few more questions then farewell.

I rode by to my car and dropped off the camera and hooked the Ipod for company to carry me the rest of the afternoon. North side a couple times then back over to the LR side the the north side a couple more times. The trail was packed from about 3:30 to 5:30 then everyone disappeared. I watched the sun going down behind the hills and called it a day with 5.5 hours under my belt.

It was a great ride. Just a couple of little things I need to make some adjustments here and there. My right wrist began to be a pest toward the end. I'm sort of wondering if it was from holding the handle bar too tight due to the wind? The other small issue was my right bad toe was being a pest. Neither issue were painful but just pesty stuff that takes some of your fun away. The toe I think was a toenail that just needed a little trim. We'll see tomorrow.

All in all it was just a great spring day!

Life is good.... when you have great riding friends!