Bike the Drive

How sad that a ride I've done for the last 4 years I won't be able to enjoy this year...Bike the Drive - while I've not seen it first hand I can only imagine the pothole land mines on Lake Shore Drive - in the previous years I've done this ride, there were sections of the road that needed some work then and now with the winter we've had its got to be horrible... there was even a piece on the news about it a few days ago.

Its not a race or anything but just a fun way to see/ride Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. They close a 30 mile stretch of the drive to all vehicle traffic for about 4 hrs on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I like to get there right when the ride starts to see the sun rise... 2 years ago I actually talked my friend Robin into doing it with me, prior to that I did it solo, it was still fun - last year we spent the weekend in Chicago, did the Soldier Field 10miler and Bike the Drive the next day - last year it started out raining, but about 7 miles into the bike... the sun started to peek out, in the end it turned out to be a nice day. The year before that (first year Robin did it with me) I had been feeling a bit under the weather but was determined not to miss out, plus I had talked someone into doing it with me... night before I took my temp just to see.. it was 101 didn't think anymore about it, took some tylenol and called it a night. We did the ride the next day, I felt better, not feverish, but had a slight headache, so I toughed it out...

Boy by the time we finished and I got home and took a shower I was wiped out, laid down to take a nap and woke up in a sweat and with 103ish temp.... I fought as long as I could NOT to go to the DR... finally when temp got to 104.something, I couldn't say no any longer - went to the ER, was subjected to a spinal tap because I had all the symptoms of menegitis - turns out it was just some wicked wicked virus that took a week+ to get over - in retrospect it was silly to ride when I had been feeling so poorly the night before AND running a temp - but sometimes I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Anyhow - I WILL miss not doing this ride this year... I'm sure I can find some local ride to make up for it...