This blog is dedicated to the over 70 Wisconsin breweries, and the wide array of Wisconsin beer found in Madison, Wisconsin



Sunday, August 29, 2010

REACH Ride: Figure 8 the Lakes - for beer lovers!


 So I will start by saying that I am not really a biker.  I don't own an expensive bike, clip on shoes, or an "official" Team Radioshack jersey. And I am certainly not a big fan of how I look in biker shorts. But living here in Madison it seemed like a shame not to take advantage of how bike friendly a place it is.  So last year I bought a bike - a 7 speed cruiser I refer to as my Pee-Wee Herman bike (although it is not as tricked out - see video below).

My friend Erik recently told me about his organization's event, REACH Ride: Figure 8 the Lakes. REACH a child is a great organization that helps children in crises through the power of books, so since it was for such a good cause - we (me and my hubby Matt) signed up.

This was my first organized ride and the longest distance I've ever ridden so I was kind of nervous. When we arrived at the starting line most people had proper biking attire on and were on sweet road bikes. We headed out onto the roads and within a couple of miles were in Dane County farmland.  Let me just say that when you are in a car it is all pretty and green and rolling.  When you are on a bike those are some ridiculously air sucking ginormous hills.  But we gasped our way over them and made it to rest stop #1.  breakfast at Captain Bill's.  I must have looked sort of pathetic bc some dude told me don't worry all the big hills are over with. The dude's a liar.

We got back on our bikes and rode around Lake Mendota through Shorewood Hills. Shorewood turned out to be a huge ego booster for us on non-road bikes.  They apparently threw down a ton of gravel the night before the race so the poor road bikers had to go through very cautiously.  Pee-Wee cruiser bike and Matt's mountain bike allowed us to just blow past the real bikers and leave them in our dust - for about 5 blocks anyway. 

The next stop was at the Terrace (UW Union).  Our friends Molly & Dave were volunteering and stationed there.  Had a nice chat and then I left to ride around Lake Monona solo. (Matt had to save his legs for his 15 mile run the next day). I rode Monona and then met Matt back up on the Isthmus and we rode the last 8 or so miles back to where we started at the Nau-ti-gal.  

And that is where I got my reward for riding almost 37 miles:
Yes that is right - a free Supper Club (Capital Brewery) 


Jerseys:
Along the way I took a couple pictures of the beer themed jerseys I saw. I also couldn't resist a pick of the Twinkies jersey.  Twinkies told me he had to eat 12 Twinkies to get his jersey.  There was one other jersey I wish I'd gotten a good pic of - Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  Awesome!!!










Here's some other assorted pics form the ride and after party:





No comments:

Post a Comment