With two weeks left until Bike and Build (donate donate donate!) I decided it was time to bring my casual bike ride form of training to the next level by joining the MIT Cycling Club for one of the Best Ideas Ever - Intercollegiate Ice Cream (ICIC) Rides.
Basically, some kids with bikes from Harvard and MIT meet up on Thursdays for a nice bike ride to a new ice cream place around Boston. Did you HEAR that?! Ice cream, biking AND inter-collegiate-ness. If that's not the best idea ever, I don't know what is.
It's meant to be an easy, social ride, which was good for me because it was my first time riding in a group, and I'm still a pretty novice cycler.
...
About halfway through, I was kind of tired and really looking forward to that ice cream.
A bit afterwards, I began to realize we had gone pretty far and had passed several perfectly respectable-looking ice cream shops already. Hmmm
Several miles later, I began to wonder if there really *was* any ice cream, or if this was some cruel joke by the MIT and Harvard Cycling clubs.
Then there was this huge hill - oh man, it lasted forever! I just had to keep going higher and higher and higher.... I must have been going half a mile an hour to get up it. I've never biked up a hill like that. Halfway through, I was thoroughly convinced there was no ice cream and wondered what I had gotten myself into, but I kept going because I really had no choice - I had no idea where I was.
I finally reached the top and- man, that felt good. The small part of my soul that hadn't lost hope about the ice cream half-expected the ice cream to be at the top of this mountain, because, well, we surely wouldn't keep *going* would we?
But we did. Luckily - and quite literally - it was all downhill from there. We passed one of those machines that tell you your speed on the road about halfway down, and whizzing by, I clocked a speed of 24mph. Going that fast was a such a great feeling - I'm really excited about this summer!
Not long after and much to my surprise, we actually did end up at an ice cream place- The Chilly Cow- and I had one of the most deliciously rewarding smoothies ever.
The ride back was - surprisingly - only five miles (for a total of 18 miles). We didn't have to go up the Hill of Death again, but if we had, I think I would have been okay.
I hope you are all enjoying your summer days as much as I am, and if you're not, go biking and get some sun and ice cream. =)
Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)
Posted by: Hawkins on May 30, 2008
Posted by: Piper on May 30, 2008
ICIC sounds like a realllly awesome idea. In fact ... I might just have to join that next year. We'll see. Have fun biking this summer!
Posted by: Lauren '12 on May 30, 2008
Posted by: Snively on May 30, 2008
Posted by: Paul on May 30, 2008
Posted by: Matt, PSU '11 on May 30, 2008
Sigh.... summer hasn't started for me yet... projekts, projekts, projekts.
Have fun!
Posted by: Josh '12 on May 30, 2008
hello karen iam new in us this my first post to you my dream is to joing mit hopefully you help me
Posted by: sarath ps on May 31, 2008
take a picture of the hill of death :D
Posted by: Aditi on June 1, 2008
Comments have been closed.