good news is the loop comes close to harvard square, so i can just take a short trip down to the charles river to see it; bad news is the event begins at 8:00. i didn't go to bed until 4:00 last night, only to wake up 3 hours later to get myself ready. i didn't leave the house until 8:00, figuring it'd take them 20 minutes to get from boston to the eliot bridge turnaround point.
i parked my bike by the weld boathouse then walked across the JFK street bridge. originally i wanted to watch from the overpass extending from the weeks bridge, but discovered the north harvard street overpass was just as good, and much closer to the action. there was nobody there except a police officer making sure cars don't turn onto storrow drive.
there was already a handful of cyclists on storrow drive when i got there. originally i was facing east towards the direction of the cyclists coming from boston. but with the morning sun directly behind their backs, i couldn't see anything but shadows. so i decided to face west, viewing the column of cyclists who've already reached the turnaround point and were on their way back into boston and beyond.
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julie actually told me about hub on wheels last night. she was doing the 50 miles loop. i was hoping to catch her amidst the nearly 6000 participants. i assumed she'd be riding fast since she still had a long ways to go, so she'd be closer to the front. i'm not sure how i did it, but i was able to pick her out from the crowd. i wasn't sure if it was actually her so i didn't try to shout out her name but when she passed by i knew it was her.
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i was there until almost 9:00, picking out interesting individuals from the crowd. it was noisy business since many cyclists enjoyed shouting to create an encho when they went into the tunnel below the overpass. i also got a kick out of the riding outfits. what's the deal with cyclist clothing? why are they so covered up with advertisement like rolling billboards? one interesting thing i noticed was professional cyclists wear velcro shoes, since getting shoelaces caught in the pedals can be a dangerous thing.
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i knew drew was already up by the time i came back because i could smell the freshly brewed coffee. i went outside to adjust the spacing of my front brakes (make them closer, the pads have already worn down to the point where the front brakes don't catch the rim anymore). before i left earlier i had a tea egg.
i left for belmont around 12:00, traveling via motorcycle. even though my bike got soaked last night, it'd already dried by this point, and if anything, actually looked better because the rain washed off all the dust. i stopped by the cafe briefly to drop off the new usb/esata hard disk dock my father ordered.
in belmont my mother made some noodles for lunch. i watched some football but since the patriots game wasn't until later in the evening, i wasn't paying too close to attention. since i didn't get very much sleep, i dozed off while watching the game from the couch. later, when i relocated to the bedroom, i fell asleep for about 2 hours until my father returned home from work close to 6:00.
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the emmy's was tonight, which happened to coincide with the patriots-ravens game. the best part of the emmy's is the red carpet anyway. i was surprised brian cranston didn't win again for breaking bad, and that homeland was the big winner of the night, picking up victories for best lead actor and actress in a drama and best drama. i turned to the game during the commercial breaks, until i finally switched over to the game altogether. new england ended up losing in the final seconds, all dependent on a baltimore field goal.