600

30 Days of Biking Mileage Counter: 644.8

Today marked the culmination of my second consecutive #30daysofbiking attempt, and what better way to finish than with an epic birthday celebration ride? None.

If you followed me last year, you may remember the ride I took with some friends in celebration of my friend Todd's birthday. He's got this cool tradition of riding his age in miles every year on or close to his birthday, a tradition I've since decided to start for myself. He turned 59 a couple weeks ago, no easy ride to complete even for a veteran cyclist.

Noted event coordinator that I am, I helped him organize the ride this year. We originally had about 10 people say they were interested, which dwindled down to 6 by the time this morning rolled around. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 9:30AM, we met behind the Philadelphia Art Museum and set off on the Schuylkill River Trail bound for Valley Forge:

It's tough to ride 6 guys on 4 bikes

Unfortunately, Todd's bike fell victim to a flat tire early on, so he and my friend Elliot had to ride back to a nearby bike shop to pick up a new tire. That set us back about 45 minutes, but with every curse comes a blessing. We met this woman riding along the trail who was about to embark on a bikepacking trip. She needed some assistance with her tire, and she told us all about what she was doing. She gave me the name of Adventure Cycling Association, the website she used to plan her travel. Definitely worth a look if you're interested in touring (I have aspirations of doing this one day). We ended up seeing her further out on the trail on our return later as well.

Anyway, after Todd was patched up and ready to roll again, we continued on. His friend Jay had to drop off about halfway up due to time constraints, so we were left with 5 by the time we got to Valley Forge to stop for water and snacks:

And sits

The ride there was quite nice. It seemed to be an ideal day for a long ride, with overcast skies keeping us relatively cool, and low humidity keeping us feeling light. After we turned around, we began to face a much fiercer headwind (why the ride out was so pleasant, no doubt), but we still reached our next way point pretty much on schedule, Conshohocken Brewing Company:

I think this is the 22nd brewery I've visited this month

In case you're not familiar with Conshy either through this blog or from your own travels, it's a very bike-friendly place, as are many micro breweries. In fact, I've been here twice and I don't know if there's another entrance other than the one you see above, which is within spitting distance of the SRT:

I don't recommend trying to spit over all these bikes, though

Strangely enough, the overcast and 70-degree weather (which is ideal for riding) seemingly deterred a lot of riders. This bike rack is usually packed at 1PM on a Sunday. I didn't mind, of course. More room for us and less time waiting for service means more time to ride.

After a few tastings and some light grub, we were back on our way. The wind seemed to pick up a bit more as we got closer to center city Philly (more on that later). I felt fine up until about mile 48 or so when atrophy started to set in, but we did survive long enough to make it back to the fountain. No after picture. We were all a bit bushed, and I still had about 5 miles to go to get home:

I burned 75% of my recommended daily calories

As you can see, I didn't quite make it to 59 in one ride. Todd did make it to 59 combining his extra couple miles to go pick up a new tire and his rides to and from our meeting place at the Art Museum. I did, however, add 6.5 miles riding to and from dinner after I got home, which got me to 58.5 for the day. Close enough. Hey, it's not my birthday...those 6.5 miles were quite arduous, with even fiercer winds and darkening skies. I feel a storm may be coming. We got our ride in just in the nick of time. :)

I'm not going to lie and tell you I'm brimming with energy right now, but today was seriously a lot of fun. You learn a lot about someone when you share a long ride together, and there were a couple first time encounters that I think will lead to friendships, at least for me. The more you ride, the more cycling friends just seem to come into your life, right? I also like that we had a wide array of age groups represented, including my friend Jeffrey who joined me for my birthday ride last year and is more than twice my age!

If I didn't mention this before, Todd's also the guy who inspired me to do the 30 Days of Biking Challenge last year. Interestingly enough, I crossed 300 miles for the month last year and 600 miles for the month this year on his birthday rides. I can't thank him (and everyone who rode along) enough for all of the memories that 30 Days of Biking has produced. This was the best possible way to end an epic month that shattered all of my expectations once again. Cheers to many more birthdays, and of course many more rides...