In Pittsburgh the local bike advocacy organization is called BikePGH. Every year they have a big fund raising event called PedalPGH. I prefer biking alone, so I haven’t participated in previous years, but Andrea and several friends talked me into it this year. Our friends did the twenty-five mile route while Andrea and I rode the forty mile one. I get pretty nervous about big group rides— in the same way I do before going to a big party where I don’t know many people, but with the added worry that I might accidentally crash into someone and cause a pile-up that ruins everyone’s day. And over a thousand people registered for this event! I thought it would be more chaotic riding with so many people, but it was actually very managable and pleasant. People ended up spreading out after the first few miles and didn’t start bunching up again until the end of the route.
We biked to and from the event, so we woke up pretty early to walk Cheerio, then left the house around 07:20 to get across town in time for an 08:00 start. The sun was just barely up and the air was refreshingly cool after a muggy week. This was a really nice backdrop for the first ten miles of the ride, which climbed up through Northside to the top of Riverview Park before descendeding back toward Downtown. From there we climbed up through Polish Hill and followed some bike routes that we frequently ride up toward the Highald Park resevoir. We weren’t quite feeling up for a nearly sixty mile day after accounting for the ride to/from the starting point, so we peeled off from the forty mile group near the halfway point. The route passed through our neighborhood at this point, so we stopped at our house for some refreshments and to walk Cheerio. Afterward, we merged into the twenty-five mile route for the rest of the ride. This meant climbing up into Squirrel Hill to descend through Schenley Park on the Junction Hollow Trail to the Hot Metal Bridge, which we crossed over to the Southside. From there we zig-zagged through some low-key neighborhood bike routes before crossing the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to get back to the finish line in Northside via Downtown.
The energy at the finish line party was really great. There were hundreds of bikers sprawled out on the lawns of the West end of Allegheny Commons Park with food trucks and tents with beer from local breweries. We got there at 12:00, just in time for lunch. Our friends joined us there shortly afterwards, then we followed them to get some wine and snacks in Lawrenceville on our way home. I came out of the wine bar to find I had a flat tire— not even five miles from home… Fortunately, I had a patch kit and this cute portable electric pump with me and was able to fix it up well enough to make it home at 16:00.
I ended up riding 46.7 miles and climbing 2331 feet— both personal records! This was a really great way to spend most of a Sunday :)