Biking with Sweet Tea

Today marks the day that we finally completed biking the entire St. Mark's Railroad Trail! Last spring, we bought my first bike that I've had since I was a kid and Will had to reteach me how to ride it. Contrary to popular belief, you do forget things like how to ride a bike! This trail was an integral part of that experience because it's a flat, out and back trail, that offers shade and nature. In essence, it was the perfect trail to re-learn to ride. After a few nervewracking trips out there last spring, where I gripped onto the handlebars for dear life and learned how to deal with gears (I've never had them before), I finally started to get the hang of things. We biked this trail more and more throughout the summer and fall, usually covering either the first half (16 miles out and back) or the preferable second half (14 miles out and back, from the Wakulla trail station). We kept saying we would pick a Saturday to do the whole thing, but life got in the way and biking actually took a seat on the backburner for a few months. This spring, most Saturdays were tied up with races, traveling, or other activities and Will has soccer on Sundays, so there was no logical amount of time to go ride. We needed a Saturday where we had flexible activities on our schedule so we could take as long as necessary to bike.

Well that Saturday had to be today, since next weekend we will be packing our truck for our move back to Williamsburg! After a fun night out at Alchemy, we slept in this morning and then geared up for our ride. We kept a pretty good pace out there, at about 5 min/mile. Once we were there, we treated ourselves to fresh blackened seafood sandwiches at the Riverside Cafe and several cups of sweet tea. We then filled our water bottles with the sweet tea and got back on our bikes, saying goodbye to St. Marks, probably forever. Despite our sore callipygous, we actually managed to pick up our pace, clocking about 4:40/mile. I think we had both forgotten how much we enjoy riding and what a different physical challenge it is from our other activities! Needless to say, we're pretty happy that we finally went out and did the trail. And the 32 miles weren't so bad...perhaps there will be a duathlon in our future?

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, the last "mile" is totally not a mile. It's around .6 miles, not a full mile. So it's a lie when the trail claims to be 16 miles long!