My first bike race – Race4Hope

I was excited to be in my first bike race this morning. Officially called the Race4Hope, it was the second annual race to benefit cancer research and is a held in memoriam for Dick Shaffer.

It was a beautiful day for the race; mostly clear skies and just a slight breeze, temperature probably in the mid-50’s. I’m not sure how many participants there were just yet as I have not received the official race results, but I estimate there were in excess of 125 riders. I’ll update my blog with the exact numbers once the results are released.

I was pretty happy with my ride… my time was 1:19:57 for the 23.42mi distance. That translates to an Average Speed of 17.6mph, and a 3:24/mi pace. I even had a small cheering section at the finish line…Linda was there to document the finish and here are the photos she took.

Please…no comments about my big fat butt. Thanks

It’s for the birds

This year we started seeing Baltimore Orioles in our backyard. It’s the first time we’ve seen them. They are beautifully colored with a very distinctive song. We soon learned that Orioles like to visit the hummingbird feeder to partake of the same sugar water that Hummingbirds drink. So I bought a feeder that is specifically for Baltimore Orioles. It looks similar to a Hummingbird feeder but is a bit different in how the sugar water is “presented” to the bird. Well, the Oriole just doesn’t get it yet and continues to feed on the Hummingbird feeder. I guess I don’t really care as long as the Orioles stick around. They are so cool.


As for our Hummingbirds, they are totally amazing. It is somewhat of a miracle to me that they return every year on the same day, plus or minus a day or two. Every year! This year was no exception. We try to remember to have the hummingbird feeder outside a week or so before they are “scheduled” to return. This year we put the feeder out on May 2 and within 5 minutes there was a Hummingbird feeding at it. As if he was waiting for us…dumb humans, I’m hungry. What took you so long!

How sweet it is

The air that is. My bike ride today was a long one. I rode from my house to Skaneateles, around the Lake and back home. From Skaneateles to almost Borodino, the air was just sweet as could be because of all the Lilacs and other assorted blossoms and flowers (lots of tulips). Another perfect day of weather: the sky was blue and cloudless and the temp was just right. There was a persistent breeze that I had to head into for about a quarter of the ride, but all was good. This is one of my favorite “long” rides. For me, any ride over 30 miles is a long ride so by that standard, maybe this is better catagorized as a really long ride clocking in at just a hair over 60 miles.

Great biking weather

I could have sworn (whoops, pastor wouldn’t like that) that I heard the weather guy say it was going to rain today. It actually turned out to be beautiful with a mild breeze but some nice breaks of sun on an otherwise semi-cloudyish day. The temperature was just right for biking so after I got my work out of the way (funny how easy it is to get work out of the way when a bike ride is called for) I hopped on the bike and headed for what is turning out to be one of my favorite routes. I like this route because for the most part the roads are in good shape and with light vehicular traffic. And this route has some challenging, shorter climbs. Give the route a whirl one of these days…see if you like it.

Back to my old stomping grounds

I had some work to do today for a client of mine in Ithaca. The weather was pretty nice so Linda and I decided to spend the day together in Ithaca. She walked the commons and picked up some goodies for an impromptu picnic for later in the afternoon while I was working. I finished a bit earlier than I had anticipated which enabled us to do a few extra things.

One of our first stops was at a really cool B&B called “City Lights B&B” on Mecklenberg Road. It’s a really unique place with some beautiful gardens and incredible views of Cornell University and Ithaca College. If you’re traveling to Ithaca and need a B&B for your stay, check out City Lights.

After our visit to City Lights, we headed off to Taughannock Falls. This is a great time of the year to view the falls since there is a good amount of water flowing in the Spring. The sky wasn’t very colorful but the falls were just gorgeous and I got there at a good time of day for lighting on the falls.

The day was topped off by a visit to the Cayuga Lake Creamery for the best ice-cream ever. I’m going to have to ride a lot of miles on my bike tomorrow to burn off all the calories I consumed today… but it was so totally worth it. Burp!

Here are some photos I snapped of the day…