Moonlight Bike Ramble Report: Sunday, 10/26

I’ve wanted to do this event actually for a year or two. Having signed up for MS150 hastened the decision to make participation a reality this year.

Bill Dwyer, Beth Whitehead, myself and others did the Montgomery County Midnight Bike Cruise last August; however, the presenting organization – the Montgomery County Food Bank – didn’t continue it this year because of safety concerns in The Woodlands. (Which leads me to wonder how the city of Houston could allow this and make it pretty safe and The Woodlands can’t? Beats me.)

It was Bike Houston’s 36th annual event and it consisted of rides of either eight (8) or 20 miles. Seriously, why stay up in the middle of the night to ride eight miles? I didn’t even take my new bike because I didn’t know which streets we’d be going on and how lighted they would be.

I got down to the George R. Brown Convention Center and quickly realized that I was in another world. And one that I will I’m sure becoming more and more accustomed to. I registered and went through what we runners commonly know as “packet pickup”. Got another T-shirt! Yoo hoo!

There was one familiar person: Peter Manry of Other Brother. He was playing his usual tunes and having just a grand time – as Peter always seems to do. He told me that he would be at the turnaround spot on Allen Parkway for the Houston Half Marathon later in the morning and playing music there. I told him that I would probably be riding the course, but that was up in the air.

I waited around for almost 90 minutes before things began to get underway at 2 a.m.! You read that right - 2 a.m. I have no clue as to how many bikers there were, but there sure seemed to be a lot. On the street in front of the GRB, where the marathon used to finish, it went from about the middle all the way back to the Hilton Americas. Just full of bikes. They had a costume contest and a most creatively lighted bike contest. I even saw one girl dressed with a Penn State jersey. She said that she was from State College, Pennsylvania. I felt at home.

They started to let the bikes go at about 100-200 at a time. We went north to Rusk, made a left, and went to La Branch before making another left. And, of course, we hit about every single stop light all the way down to Alabama where we would make a right hand turn to begin our westward journey.

We took Alabama to Edloe. And it wasn’t until after we crossed Shepherd that you were able to get a little speed going or even a really decent rhythm.

Turning left onto Edloe meant that we would go over the Southwest Freeway. Yikes! That meant climbing a bridge! I think I’m going to have to learn about what gear to be in when climbing. I have a lot to learn. That was pretty darn hard, but the scary part came when I came flying off the bridge and needed to make the right hand turn on to Westpark.

My brakes will stop on the neighborhood cruiser, but they screech. And did they do so very loudly as I made that right hand turn. I was actually concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to keep from going into the oncoming lanes of traffic. But it was almost 3 a.m. so there weren’t too many cars around, thank goodness.

Ahh, familiar territory. Mile 14 of the marathon course and that meant the Westpark overpass. Now my bike has a 1-2-3 on the left handle bar and a 1 through 6 on the right side. Well, I had it in 3 and 6 so that I didn’t have to peddle as much, but I’m thinking that I shouldn’t have left it in those gears when I tried to climb the overpass.

I made it about three quarters of the way up before it was a pain to make it to the top. I actually wished I was running it. (I’ll forget that comment, I’m sure, come January.)

We went all the way down to Sage and made a right. This took us past Warren Moon’s favorite place when he lived here as the Oilers quarterback: the Men’s Club! Just beyond the Men’s Club, we turned right, by the Galleria parking garage, and back east to Post Oak, which we followed all the way to the Loop 610 Feeder Road.

There was a big rest area in that shopping center on Post Oak on the right that you run by when you’re doing the marathon. I stopped briefly, but still on the street, to drink some water and then started going again.

After making it to the Loop 610 feeder, we turned right on to Memorial.

When I was about at the mile 21 Houston Striders water stop, I had to get off and take a butt break for about a minute. I looked at my watch. I had been at it for about an hour, 20 minutes.

It was fun going down Memorial telling people that we were four miles from downtown as we passed by Tri On The Run. I figured most – not all - of this crowd wasn’t exactly the marathon types (or triathlon types either).

The last adventure was the Allen Parkway underpasses. The answer? Peddle like hell on the downhill to minimize how much you have to work on the uphill. I think I made it about 85% on both of them before I had to peddle. Not too bad.

Then near-disaster struck. Right around where the Hashers are in mile 25 of the marathon course, my chain came off. I couldn’t get it back on so I thought that I might be walking it all the way in. For some reason, on the second attempt, it popped back on. Relief.

I finished biking it on in getting back to the GRB in about an hour and 50 minutes.

They said it was supposed to be 20 miles. I have no idea if it was or not. It was just a different experience. I’m thinking that I would have been done a little bit sooner with the road bike, which would have been just fine. However, I didn’t want to drive all the way to Spring and back before the half marathon or try to keep up with it during the half marathon.

Good experience. Will I do it again? Perhaps sometime with Waverly, for fun.

Next: Houston Half Marathon report