ICIC by Karen F. '11

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. =)