30 Sense

30 Days Mileage Counter

Bike: 572.6

Car: 490

Train: 8

And so we've reached day 30 of #30daysofbiking. I hardly knew ye. As of 8:30AM today, I completed the challenge:

You know, technically a photo of my bike locked up doesn't mean I rode it...

Just as on Day 1, Day 30 included a trip to the Strengthening Health Institute. My culinary talents were called into action today:

Despite popular wisdom, helmets are not knife-proof

Those of you who know me know that I love to cook. If this were a food blog, I'd have several good stories to share. Since it's not, I won't, but you can trust me when I say it was awesome. I did take some great food pics which will eventually see the light of day on the SHI social media accounts...

So, I spent most of my time inside today, but I snuck in a ride to Center City during a break to pick up some supplies for the school:

Again, I could have strapped my bike to the back of a car and just placed it here - the grand illusion

Grand total for today was 10.4 miles, which means I came up just 27.4 miles short of 600 for the month. I out-rode my car by over 80 miles (another goal met). Not too shabby, eh?

#30daysofbiking has just flown by. I owe an extreme thanks to Todd for telling me about it. I was leery this whole thing would become like work, but the opposite has been true. I've looked forward to each day in this adventure. It's been so much damn fun, and I've been realizing that a lot of you have been enjoying it too, even if you're not participating. I've been floored by how many random friends have mentioned to me that they've been following along, including three more today - one of whom I literally just met today.

It wasn't always all sunshine and rainbows (in fact, it rained quite a bit), but the good moments were extremely good. Here are a few of my favorites:

• April 10: Bike-Apella - Meeting up with family in Glenside to see Straight No Chaser
• April 13 & 14: Flower Power Part 1 & Part 2 - Delivering flowers to Wash Cycle Laundry customers
• April 16: 300 - A trip to Valley Forge pushes me over 300 miles for the month!
• April 24: Takin' it to the Street Art - Finding the graffiti mecca of Philadelphia
• April 26: I Just Biked 500 Miles - Self-explanatory, plus moving 225 pounds on a trike

Many other moments that didn't make the cut were still awesome. Obligatory attempt at social engagement: did I miss anything you enjoyed reading about?

To give you a further sense of what I did this month:

• PA is 283 miles wide, east to west. I rode more than twice that distance.
• That distance would have required nearly 2 tanks (or 32 gallons) of gas in my car at 20 mpg, costing approximately $70.
• The SEPTA TransPass I used every day during the Winter costs $91/month. I took the train to work every day from November-March. This month, I took it once.
• I wrote 33 blog posts, as many as my previous 7 months combined.
• I have no idea how many photos I took - it's a lot.
• And just because, I did all of this on a plant-based diet - grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, beer, and coffee.

I'm gonna take some time in the next couple days to look through some more things my friends did, because I know I missed a few things here and there. There are a lot of amazing stories that came out of this, and I know I'm not alone in that.

A friend at SHI asked me today, "What am I gonna do without a daily blog to read?" I didn't know what to say. I was flattered, of course... I told her that I had actually decided about a week or so ago to keep this going as long as I can. #365daysofbiking actually began on March 28th for me. Who's up for some more riding?!?!?!?

I'm not going to guarantee a blog post every day. This thing is a lot of work some days. I'm not going to guarantee success, either, but it's worth a shot right?

Thanks 30 Days of Biking. It's been more than I could have possibly imagined. Cheers to many more.