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Sunday morning was the 30 mile St. Paul Bike Classic, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy biking when it’s 50 degrees and raining? But, I still had a great time and actually did a lot better than I expected, since I really haven’t biked that much this summer.

Steve stopped by to pick me up at 7:00 and we headed over to St. Thomas for the start of the ride. Registration went quickly, and we were on the road by 7:30, biking south along the River Road.

I was a little worried about my asthma since it was so cold, but I dressed appropriately with a long sleeve shirt, exercise pants, and gloves to keep my hands warm, which ended up being what saved me the most from the cold wind and rain.

The first half of the ride was mostly downhill, which allowed us to pull ahead from most of the more casual riders. I think we were probably going at about a 17 MPH pace, which I was worried was a little fast for me, but I was enjoying the ride so much, I didn’t really think about it. We cruised down Shepard Road to downtown St. Paul, which was also the cutoff for the 15 mile ride, so a few of the riders exited at that point.

One of the guys in our group, Matt, had a sweet GPS bike computer that uploads his path to the web and tracks things like elevation, speed, weather, distance and time. You can view his chart and map here. You’ll notice at about the 12 mile mark, the route suddenly went uphill a lot more. I’ve said it before, but hills are my weak point, and if the guys I was biking with hadn’t slowed down for me at the top of each hill, I would have spent the rest of the ride biking alone. But thankfully they stayed with me and allowed me to take the hills at my own pace.

After about 5 miles of hills, we stopped at the Indian Mounds Park for some grapes, water, and to rest for a few minutes. It was nice to stop for a little bit and enjoy the event instead of just peddaling away.

From there, we biked up Johnson Parkway, past Eric and Amber’s house, and where Eric and Tricia were out waiting for us to come by. I wanted to stop to say hi, but we had just stopped and I was feeling good and wanted to keep going. But it was still nice to have some fans cheer us on as we passed them!

It was another 5-7 miles or so before we stopped again at the Lake Como band shelter. I refilled my water bottle, had a banana, and an excellent cookie. At each of the rest stops, they had a band playing, but we must have been too early, because they were just setting up as we got there.

So we continued on through Como Park and west until we hit Raymond Ave. It took a lot not to stop at Key’s for breakfast but we on the home stretch! From there it was back to the River Road and to the finish line!

Unfortunately, the finish line was pretty lame. Steve and I had to stop at Cretin Ave for some cars to pass by before the cop allowed us to ride under the baloons which I guess was the end. It was too bad that they were able to get streets closed for a majority of the ride, but not at the most important place. Oh well, I was just glad to be done.

The ride was 30 miles, and we did it in around two hours, averaging just less then 15 MPH. That’s about my pace for a normal flat 10 mile bike ride around the neighborhood, so I was very happy that I was able to keep that up for 30 miles with more hills. Unfortunately, I forgot to set my new bike computer with my wheel size, so my distance and speed are slightly off.

At the finish line, they did have a lot going on, so we stayed there for a while and looked at the event shirts and other crap before heading home. As soon as I got inside, my legs finally started to ache. So I changed into some warm, dry clothes, and spent the afternoon on the couch watching football, baseball and tennis.