It has been observed that sometimes life gets in the way of a bike ride. Such was the case for me this weekend.

Not that it was a bad thing, by any means. I was one of at least five bike shop guys on the course during the 2011 Bike to Beat Cancer, a fund-raiser for the Norton Cancer Center. There were over four hundred registered riders, and at least three hundred were on hand for the event. Having so many mechanics meant that we would have very little work to do--the riders on these events have done a much better job over the last ten years about having bikes fit for the purpose than in my earlier experiences doing similar work for the Old Kentucky Home Tour--in 2001, one other mechanic and I worked until dark on bikes that were found wanting attention by their owners on the first day, and I was working on bikes the second day before daylight--we did work (meaning more than just helping put air in tires) on probably ten percent of the bikes on the course! From what I gathered talking to other folks, the "fix-it" rate was less than five percent for this event.

Jenn had volunteered to help them with registration on Friday evening and Saturday morning. When she was done, I was getting ready to head out to my first rest stop assignment. She asked to ride along rather than ride her bike home, and I agreed, as it would give us some time together even if much of that time was focused on me fixing bikes or getting to a place where I was needed for a bike repair. It worked out well.

Our plan for today was to go to her folks' house for a few hours--have dinner, play some sort of kitchen table game, socialize, and such. We had some time this morning, so we went out to eat breakfast--by bike, as the eatery is near the Hurstbourne Parkway/I-64 interchange which is easily reached from our house (she has a cousin that works there, so we get to visit with her while we are there eating).

Coupled with riding to work most of last week, riding errands on the Raleigh Thursday morning and early afternoon, and riding to breakfast, I have been able to reach a new personal best: 6200 miles for 2011 YTD. On my way home from work tomorrow, I will pass the 5600-mile mark for my CO2 miles. I figure that my CO2 mile log will pass my 2010 total miles record some time next week.

Even so, my monthly totals for the last few months have been lower than last year's numbers. I'm not sure why this is so, although if I were concerned about it, I could go back and look at my logs and see what I was doing last year that I'm not (apparently) doing this year. Looking at the monthly totals chart on mycyclinglog.com, it appears that I was riding a LOT this time last year--more than just to work and back. Almost ninety percent of my mileage this year has been "instead of driving a car" time instead of "club" miles or recreational miles.