Bo Bikes Bama is...
"When Bo Jackson first biked across Alabama in April 2012, he was on a mission to help his fellow Alabamians recover from the tornadoes that devastated their state the previous year. Now, Bo Bikes Bama has become an annual tradition where Bo and hundreds of others unite to ride for the future of Alabama and all her citizens."
Read the story, here.
I actually signed up for the ride on April 6, which left me three weeks and five days to 'get ready'! So on Sunday April 12 I rode 17 miles outdoors. Only 45 more miles to worry about! The next weekend, Sunday April 19 I rode 30 miles. Only 32 more to worry about... Then on Saturday, April 25 I (wisely it turns out) rode 56 with Kathy in Boyce, Virginia. After that ride I felt pretty confident I could tackle 62 miles in Alabama!
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| Is STEB ready for #BoBikesBama? YES! Thanks for the push, Kathy aka RBud! |
Well, I was definitely ready for the ride. There were some hills on the ride, but nothing like I'd tackled in Boyce, where I think I'd only ridden two times before since 2009.
The ride started and finished on the campus of Auburn University. Which, part of my incentive to do the ride was a visit to my younger son, Patrick. Turns out he won't be graduating till August 1, and I had not seen him since early January when he returned for the Spring semester. So it was nice to be able to fit in a long weekend visit with him!
Patrick and his roommate were nice to put up with me and my weekend activities. Especially because they were both prepping for finals that are THIS week. So of course, I got them groceries (well those were for Patrick) and Pop-Tarts (for the roommate) and pizza!
Anyway, back to the ride. There were a number of celebrity riders (Brian Bosworth, Lance Armstrong, Ken Griffey, Jr., Picabo Street, among others) and of course, Bo Jackson! The really cool thing was that Bo also went to Auburn and won the Heisman Trophy - his statue and John Heisman's bust (Mr. Heisman coached at Auburn!) are in front of Jordan-Hare Stadium!
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| Almost ready to ride! |
The ride started at the Auburn Arena and went out and off campus in a big counter-clockwise loop.
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| The official start line! |
The main area besides Auburn we went through was downtown Tuskegee - which was really amazing. They had a festival that day: the George Washington Carver Commemorative Festival and everyone there was so friendly as we rode through.
The first half of the ride seemed to be more downhill as I had much better speeds than the second half. But there was one good climb in the first half and a couple of really good ones in the second half - especially after the final rest stop.
UPDATE: Here is a link to Lance Armstrong's strava data.
Speaking of rest stops: there were three! I don't recall whether or not the first one at mile 15 had a theme. But that did not matter - because Bo himself was hanging out taking pictures with the riders:
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| Thank you, Bo! (Even though I have short arms!) |
But the second stop at mile 35 was 'Cinco de Mayo' themed at a church that welcomed the ride and riders:
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| Thank you, Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church! |
The third and final rest stop was at mile 52 was all about Auburn. They had music on that was the marching band and included the fight song:
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| Thank you and War Eagle! |
All in all, the ride was a lot of fun and for a really great cause. The volunteers and organizers were very nice and helpful. I had a ride question ahead of time and the organizers got back to me ASAP! I would definitely do this ride again - even if it did not include a visit to Patrick! Please consider a donation to Bo Bikes Bama, here, to support the funding of community storm shelters across the state of Alabama.
The day after the ride, I again joined Auburn Masters Swimming for practice! If you remember, in January 2014 Carol and I had the opportunity to swim with them the day after the Auburn Half Marathon. This time I was in the outdoor 50 meter pool. Long course is hard! Thanks for letting me drop in again, Auburn Masters Swimming!
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| AUsome sky! AUsome pool! |
Walking to the pool I saw this on the ground from the ride the day before:
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| Thank you, Bo Bikes Bama! |
In case you missed it, Team Rabbit was pretty bad@$$ over the weekend! Read about it here!
Here's an article (on AL.com) with some great pictures on the Bo Bikes Bama charity ride!
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| AU Coaches and AD supporting Bo Bikes Bama! Photo Credit: Julie Bennett / jbennett@al.com (I hope I got the credit right!) |
Next Up: =PR= Trail Series at Burke Lake
2 comments:
What a fun race!
It was a blast, Kim!!!
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