BtWD

Friday was Bike to Work Day, and with only a little bit of trickery I managed to take part for the first time.

I used to ride to work almost every day, when I worked at our DC office.  The company has a small exercise space and locker rooms there, and the garage has a bike rack.  Ironically, my current home office in Alexandria is built on top of a very large gym, which is just finishing a long refurbishing.  Too bad it ain't free, or I'd bike to work there, too.

So I haven't ridden to work since I left the assignment in Southeast DC.  Sarah is working at that office now, and she mentioned that she was thinking about trying biking to work, and asked for pointers.  That was pretty much all the excuse I needed.  Since we are working on the same project, I knew I could "hot desk" for a day at that office without much trouble.

I got up a little early so I could ride to Paul & Sarah's to meet up.  The ride in went really well - I know every inch of that route along Four Mile Run and up the Mount Vernon Trail.  We went to the WABA pit stop at National's Park.  Bagels, bananas, swag.  We didn't stick around long - who knows, we may have missed our names being pulled for the raffle.  We did see some Coasties we knew, who told us there was a CG-only pit stop at HQ - apparently the Commandant is an avid cyclist.  They were quiet adorable with their new baby and their matching USCG jerseys.  Pretty sweet.

The weather held, though it was a little sticky on the ride home in the afternoon.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed riding to work - it feels like I'm getting away with something.  And I enjoyed riding with someone, since I almost always do solo rides.  I was very impressed with Sarah - she was flying right along even though she was riding a much heavier mountain bike.  I was also sorry I didn't get to see Jane  in action - it sounds like she did extremely well, especially considering 1) it was her first bike commute, and 2) she hadn't been on most of those trails before.  So kudos to both of my new fellow bike commuters, I hope they both keep riding.  And this may have convinced me to get the cheapest possible membership for the gym at work, just so I could start back up myself.