Yeah, I got some of you guys pretty good. This morning, I partook in the Washington Area Bicyclist Association‘s 50 States ride, which I happened to be the absolute last registrant for after seeing a random (hadn’t previously known it existed) post about it on Facebook. It’s a casual event that takes you on a winding route through our nation’s capital en route to riding on each of the 50 state-named streets. Yes, they all exist. It takes about 65 miles (my GPS crashed and I missed a mile) and 6 hours to “visit” all the states. The event is unsupported (no police or street closings) so it’s not really for the faint of heart or someone not used to riding city streets, but it was a great adventure. Met some new friends, got 65 miles in, and can now say I’ve been to each of the 50 states 😉

Click here for the Facebook gallery of what I did get. With all my starting and stopping for photos, I surely finished in the fastest elapsed time, but with all the starting and stopping at traffic signals and such, managed only 14mph. Definitely not a ride for someone looking to go fast.

Will I do it again? Possibly. The beginning was actually pretty painful as we made our way through the heart of downtown. I did get to see a large amount of the city that I’d not before seen or even knew existed despite having lived in the area for 27 years. I can even be quoted as saying “This is a pretty nice area” in a part or two of Anacostia. However, six hours on a bike is a long time, and I have now seen all those unknown parts of the city… Do I need to see them again? Or should I do a century and not face replacing my brake pads next year? Great event, really well organized (as much as one can manage when sending 500 bikers off for 6-10 hours on the streets of DC) and I’m glad I did it, but I think you know which way I’m leaning unless I can lure some folks out with me.