Monday, September 12, 2011

Little Bike Great Highway Big Hills Giant Race

August 26 was Little Red  Bikes' first road trip.  First stop was the SF airport to pick up Emily. Neither one of us had picked up a passenger at SFO. First pass around to find SWA terminal,  I left a little paint from the right bumper curbside at Southwest terminal. Nothing like the sound of bumper on curb to get the blood pumping and people waiting at the curb to notice your arrival.  Todd jumped out and I fully expected him to hand me the bumper parts. He surveyed the damage and started looking for Emily so I figured it must not have been too bad.(Two little scrapes near the bottom of the bumper) 
Circle two, still no Emily and Todd got back in the car. Circle three, jerk to the right does not let us into the right lane to return to the terminal so instead of heading to the airport, we're headed back on the freeway. Circled through San Bruno, then somehow made it back to the airport. Third time was the charm. Emily was waiting at the curb. Horray.
I'd had more than enough of driving and Todd had had more than enough of my driving. His turn. Of course, the online driving directions I printed out and taking a wrong turn got us lost. We hadn't bothered to put directions in Garmin while we were driving to the airport. Emily is the Garmin wizard and soon we are on our way. Fortunately we were on the right route before the fog became so thick we could hardly see in front of us. We made it to our hotel in the Sunset District.
All three of us participated in the Giant's 1/2 Marathon in San Francisco on Saturday morning. That's 13.2 miles starting at ATT Park, past The Ferry Building, Fisherman's Wharf, through  Golden Gate Park to Fort Point under the GG Bridge and back again. The race ended in ATT Park running around the infield. What a thrill to look up and see the stands, the giant Coke bottle, the scoreboard  from the player's view. Not such a thrill to walk up to the steps to the food level after walking at a 13:45 min pace for 3:02 hours.  My legs were cooked.
I was rewarded with a too small t-shirt, Tim Lincecum bobble head doll and no medal. They were out. Picked up my free bananas and whatever else was left to eat. Early birds get the worms apply to food and bling after races.
Back to the hotel to soak our aching feet in garbage cans full of icecubes and water. After a shower and lunch came time to ride the bike. Time to test  Little Red Bike along the Great Highway and hills in the Sunset district.

One look at the traffic on the Great Highway, Hwy 1, convinced me Sat afternoon at 2:30 is not a good time to start riding.  The safe route is the side road, La Playa, that parallels the highway.  That is my route.
Not only did I want to attack the hills on the little bike, I again wanted to test the theory walking muscles are different from riding muscles. I rode on La Playa, then went up a hill that didn't look too steep, rode on a parallel street, then went up another hill and continued the progression for a few miles.  Even though the muscles are different, the fatigue level from the walk is still there  I loved the downhills. Little Red Bike did great. Zippy on the hills, no problem changing gears.
The ride was too short but proved to me it is going to be a great addition to vacation toys.

Sunset District hotel and restaurant recommendations can be found in the Impromptu Eats and Sleeps blog coming up next.
Enjoy Bev

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