If hiking the Grand Canyon wasn’t enough….

We registered to ride the NYC 5 borough bike tour. 42 miles through Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, & Staten Island! (even over the Verrazano Bridge!) We waited 5 months for the date to arrive and due to crappy weather, couldn’t really train. Still in pain from the Grand Canyon hike..I had my concerns.

We ride on average 24-26 miles per day (in season) to the beach -but never 42 miles in one day. Hey, it couldn’t be worse than the Grand Canyon…but- I had my concerns….

A record 37,000 cyclist from all over the world arrived to ride. It was sooooo cold and windy we were freezing! The ride started off slow with several breaks and stops to allow for crossing pedestrians and traffic and even a parade….but then we started to move once we got to Central Park. Top speed about 15 miles. We were excited and starting to warm up and have fun….

5 miles into the ride…and it was over for us!

Another cyclist decided to take a photo while riding through Central Park and stopped dead in front of my hubby. To avoid killing him, hubby slammed on the breaks and took a nasty spill. Bike was twisted and so was my hubby! Someone then proceeded to ride over his hand while he was down and not one person stopped to see if he was ok!  We ended up in the Hospital and a few stitches later, and several spots of nasty road rash. ….we called it a day. A disappointing one at that!

Poor Hubby- broken…..

All I can say is, although I had my concerns prior to the tour, I never considered one of us would actually get hurt and we would not be able to complete the ride. I am just thankful it wasn’t worse because he could have been much worse. At least we tried ….

Fortunately the organizers of the road did the right thing and offered us free registration for next years tour. So we just may give it another chance.