I actually don't know if this is her birth date but, if not, it has to be close to justify riding in our cold and windy conditions! So let assume it is that day for purposes of literature! For reference, I plan to my birthday ride in July when it will be much nicer conditions - I didn't see where in the rules your birthday ride has to actually be ON your birthday.....so as long as you don't do more than one a year, I think that suffices to satisfy the rules.
Our birthday girl and another ride leader laid out a 65 mile route for the day. We started in sun, cold, and windy conditions. The first hills re-affirmed my lack of hill climbing prowess and established that I was clearly the weakest link in this chain! Fortunately we had an early coffee stop at Issaquah Coffee after only about 10 miles. A good place for a break today although it was early in the ride - we had sun, some warmth, the buildings kept the wind off of us, and the day looked quite promising.....except to the south where the dark rain clouds were clearly hovering. Fortunately again, we were heading north....with a huge tailwind!
After 10 more miles, we reconvened and and elected to shorten the ride as it was getting colder and all the way back was going to experience some kind of headwind (like in the 15+/- mph range). Off to Kirkland for another coffee stop at the Urban Coffee by Juanita. While some of us wanted to sit outside, the cold winds drove us back inside as we didn't seem to have the protection we had earlier.
At this point, one of our other ride leaders took over the uncharted route and took us back to Bellevue and our starting location in Newcastle by the I-405 freeway. Her local knowledge really helped us. Some of the headwinds we experienced I was able to dodge by "surreptitiously" drafting a stronger rider - I lead enough rides where I am the point of the spear into headwinds....it was very nice to sit back and enjoy some assistance!! No guilt!
And while the ride overall was dry, it changed the last few miles as the heavens finally opened up on us and gave us a good soaking. We were close to the end so no one really minded at that point.
A good ride. We ended up a little short of the numerical mileage target but did hit the numerical kilometer target. I was okay with that.
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