My First Marathon

I picked up my bike yesterday and was assured that they recalibrated the derailleur and I'd have no more problems, so jobrotha and I set out this morning on a ride. We decided to hit the B&A trail that goes from Glen Burnie, MD (south of Baltimore) to Arnold, MD, near Annapolis.

We'd done the trail once before and I like the fact that it's paved, relatively flat, much of it is shaded and you can and the at-grade crossings are mostly traffic free.

So, met up and set out about 9:30 after jo had a chance to ogle over my new wheels.

Things were going well until the chain came off again at about mile three! This time, I quickly stopped pedaling and pulled off the trail. No problem to fix, but now I'm pretty much relegated to the middle nine gears.

From where we parked to the southern end of the trail, it wast 12.67 miles. We completed the southern "lap" in under 55 minutes, an average of 13.8 mph. We took a 5 minute break at the end of the trail and then back in the saddle. One other nice feature of this trail is that the park office is dead center at about mile seven. Very convenient for facilities and help if you need it. There are a number of business that back up to the trail that have set out tables for coffee, diners, etc. There's really a lot going on here. As jo sped ahead, I pulled off for a quick visit to the head and then we finished up the ride.

This morning, my youngest asked how far we'd be going. I told him about 25 miles. He asked why we wouldn't just go 26, "you know, dad, like a marathon." "Don't know, son, we'll see." Anyway, we got back to the lot where we were parked and about 25.4. What's another 8/10 of a mile. So there we were, my first marathon complete in 1:53, an average of 13.9 mph.

For comparison, we rode this course on July 8. I was riding my hybrid and we averaged 11.1 mph, and I recall a very difficult final 4 miles or so. Not so with the new Trek. It was a great ride, even with only nine gears!


I'm having trouble remembering why I liked running so much!

L'Chaim!