Cell phone? What cell phone? My Ride for Heart

This morning we went out to bike the Ride for Heart. LotStreetWiz signed up for the 75 km route but wisely registered me and Andie for the 25 km. I’ve only been out twice this year on the bike so 25 km is quite enough for an early-season ride. We got started late, The ride, not a race, has thousands of people attending. It starts down near Toronto’s lakeshore at Exhibition Place, then goes east across the bottom of the city on an elevated highway called the Gardiner Expressway, then up the Don Valley Parkway. 25-km riders turn at the Bayview/Bloor ramp. 50-km riders go up to York Mills Road, which is almost up to Highway 401 (which runs more or less across the top of the city) and back to Exhibition Place. 75-km riders go up to York Mills Road, down to Bayview, then back up to York Mills road and back all the way to Exhibition Place.

Andie and I started out late, so we jumped in at Dundas Street, near the south end of the Don Valley Parkway, then cycled north. We went under the viaduct to the Bayview/Bloor ramp, where LotStreetWiz was waiting for us, as he told me via text messages. From there, we all turned south and went back to Exhibition Place.

At one point, he and Andie went ahead, while I tagged along behind at my own speed. Just when I was climbing the ramp back up to the Gardiner Expressway, my cell phone rang (I thought). When I got to the top I looked at it but I had no calls nor messages. Because of my recent problems with cell phones and water, I was carrying it in a small, sealable plastic bag, a zip-lock baggie. I continued, passing and being passed, among cyclists, parents with little kids, middle-sized kids weaving all over the road, bikes with trailers, tricycle bikes, recumbent bikes, fast guys and people slower than me, at least one with a hand crank and someone with an artificial leg. Everyone can play! Parents of small children were often stopped, waiting for their children to rest. I wouldn’t take a small child on this ride.

When I got to a point overlooking Fort York, the original fort nestled in the underskirts of downtown, I stopped. LotStreetWiz and Andie must be at the finish by now and I wanted to send them a message. I carefully snugged my bike up against the curb and stepped up on the curb myself, took off my backpack, and got out the phone in its baggie. I took out the phone and tried to open it. It slipped. It fell. It fell off the damn Gardiner Expressway, flat open, and landed in the middle of a lane in a small road below. No traffic. I shrugged on my backpack, jumped on the bike, and pedalled for the nearest exit — which happened to be against the flow of cyclists. I went the wrong way down an entrance ramp, slid the bike under the gate closing it for the Ride, and back up another ramp to Lakeshore Road. Around Lakeshore to Spadina, across Spadina, and back onto the little side road where I’d last seen my phone. No phone. No pieces. Nothing on the sides. It was probably broken anyway, but it seems that someone picked it up. I kept looking. Could I have mistaken my spot? I didn’t think so.

Toronto’s 2007 Ride for Heart was very smoggy

Now I had no way to contact the other two. I biked morosely back across Lakeshore Road past Ontario Place to Exhibition Place, then joined in the queue to approach the finish line. LotStreetWiz and Andie popped out of the sidelines and hailed me. I told them my sad news. It was all his fault. If I’d just biked with Andie I wouldn’t have been phoning. But I’d probably have stopped to look at Fort York. You don’t see much of it when zipping by on the highway. On this one day of the year I could legitimately stop. And then I would have wanted to take a picture. And I would have gotten my phone out. It was all my fault. I was the one fumbling the phone.

Less than two days! That’s the briefest phone ever. This time it’s gone with the flash card, my contacts, the movies I took of geese and goslings last weekend, and any pictures I took since Friday, such as our cats attacking a stuffed toy, the Girl Guide parade in Hamilton on Saturday, last night’s Stanley Cup game, or the massed cyclists on the highway. Luckily, LotStreetWiz took a couple of pictures of Andie in her biking togs.

After we met up, we all rode past the finish line and back to the car at Dundas and the Don Valley. So Andie and I got the 25 km, just with a different starting point than most people.

Road trip: Victoria’s Duathlon

Some people were seriously underdressed.

LotStreetWiz signed up for Victoria’s Duathlon on observed Victoria Day. The duathlon takes place at the north edge of Waterloo. It comprises a 4-km run, a 24-km bike ride, and another 4-km run over hilly ground. It’s the start of the summer racing season in Ontario.

We got on our way at 7:45. The drive was just over an hour and a half in duration, but we were still early for registration. We got a good place to park, close to the building, whence where we could see the starting line of the race. The headquarters of the race was at a church beside a small river, with a pond out front. The pond was graced with floating, artificial alligator heads. I don’t know if they were supposed to keep birds away or small children out of the pond.

The weather was harsh: I spent a fair amount of time cheering the departing runners, the fast runners coming in, the bike racers taking off. There was a strong, cold, damp wind blowing the whole time, with spatters of rain. Then I wandered off and bought a hotdog from the one hardy vendor on site. Then I cheered in the slow bikers coming in, the slow runners going out, and the slow runners coming in. Meanwhile, the racers were running and biking into the wind and at times almost being blown off the course. We spectators even saw showers of small ice pellets a couple of times. I think that a lot of slower, recreational runners decided not to start. One tall runner came determined to have fun and ran dressed in a business suit, shirt, tie, dark glasses, and fedora to liven thing up.

LotStretWiz made a valiant effort to go out hard and keep going hard. He made up 30 places over the course of the race, all of them in younger age-groups.

After the race, we didn’t wait for the prizes and draws. We got into the car, he had his pre-packed lunch and warmed up. Then what he wanted most of all was coffee, so we drove off to the nearest coffeee shop.

When we were warm, fed, and caffeinated, we drove to Hamilton and delivered a couple of small birthday presents. I tried my best to ignore the GPS navigation system, which told us to go onto Highway 401 and down Highway 6 to Burlington, then take a long, elevated bridge back to Hamilton. That would take us along two legs of a triangle, when we were ready to zoom down Highway 8, the hypoteneuse of the triangle, which took us straight to our destination.

Biking aches?

I had my first bike ride, first ride on new bike, and first long bike ride of the season yesterday. Then in the evening one of my feet hurt a lot. I was afraid that it was something about the bike or the biking; but then I remembered I twisted my foot yesterday: it’s a simple bruise. So I don’t have to worry about the geometry of the bike.

This morning I went swimming and had a good hour of practice with Oannes swims.

It’s spring!

All four cats were out in the back yard today, together, including our grey twins Fog & Cloud.

see more crazy cat pics

And I went for my first bike ride of the year and my first ride on my new bike, with Andie.

Bicycle lockers in Toronto

People are reluctant to ride their bikes to work if the bikes must remain outside, a temptation to thieves and vulnerable to the weather. Now, for commuters, Toronto has created bicycle lockers at some of its transit stations. For a small rental fee, $10 a month, you can rent a solid locker just big enough for a bicycle. bike from work, lock your bicycle away, take transit home; or bike from home, lock your bike away, take transit to work. Or travel outside rush hour, take your bike on transit, and ride your bicycle on both ends of the trip.

Bicycles and art: Mike Thomas’s blog

I found this blog today whilst looking for information about bicycles. Mike Thomas has an interesting approach to bikes and a nice collection of images on flickr.

New bike

New haircut, new clothes, new bike.

We got up early and went out for haircuts. LotStreeetWiz had a biomechanical assessment, which was generally fine. I zoomed through a factory outlet and bought two skirts and two tops for work. We stopped at The Big Cannoli for some delicious - you guessed it - cannoli, which are pastry tubes stuffed with custard or cream cheese.

Then we went to the bike show and bought a light-weight commuting bike or beginner’s road-racing bike for me. It’s a lot lighter than my old commuter bike. I look forward to extending my commuting circle (fine weather only) up from last summer’s maximum of 11 km. We celebrated by throwing in a couple of biking jerseys and some cute bike socks. Ah, power shopping!

It was blustery and cloudy today but we had a good time.

Honourable DNF, Madison, Wisconsin

We might have seen R. on the bike course; and in due time we moved to the running course to watch the final leg of the Ironman, the full marathon. We were there when he called us: he’d been pulled off the bike course when the cut-off time approached and he was still eleven miles from the finish. What happened? He didn’t crash nor have technical difficulties such as flat tires. It was the cracked rib he suffered four weeks ago: he couldn’t take a full breath and it slowed him down, turning aerobic flight to anaerobic struggle.

Everyone, including his coaches, thinks that if he hadn’t cracked that rib, he could have finished the bike portion and completed the marathon.

Today’s his day for sleeping in, overeating, resting, a little swimming and stretching, and generally recovering. Now that’s an exercise program that I can do.

Tour de France Stage 20

Today is the last day of the Tour de France. It’s the semi-ceremonial stage that ends in Paris with a couple of laps around the Champs Elysees.

The end of the tour was a confused sprint won by Italian Danielle Bennati of team Lampre Fondati, with Thor Hushovd as a close second, then Eric Zabel.

Alberto Contador of team Discovery Channel retained the overall lead by 23 seconds and wins the tour. Cadel Evens came second and Levi Leipheimer came third, 31 seconds after Contador.

And now, a word about sports from Tony Auth.

Tour de France Stage 19

The individual time trials produced some of the closest results ever. Levi Leipheimer pulled out the time trial of his life with 1:02, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador came close. Contador, the young rider doing his first Tour de France, hung on to the yellow jersey of the overall leader.

This is Levi Leipheimer’s first ever stage win. Both Leipheimer and Contador are on team Discovery Channel.

The overall standings are Contador - Evans - Leipheimer. This is the tightest top three in the tour’s history. Here are the stage results from versus.com.