End of the Road

It was once again in the low 30s on Friday and I was glad that David, a rider in town from NC, had agreed to meet me at my house for the morning ride.  I was pretty sure that we'd be the only ones out there, since Fridays are typically sparse and cold Fridays even more so.  Even better, he'd gotten his friend to come out as well. We'd ridden together on Thursday morning when the cold and wind had once again scared off everyone else, but by Friday the wind had died down a bit and there was at least a little hope for sunshine. 

We had a really nice easy ride out to the upriver end of Jefferson Parish.  On the way back David did a few moderate intensity intervals, but he let us know when he was about to ramp it up, so it was a simple matter to stay on his wheel and drop it down a cog or two for a few minutes at a time.  I was already looking forward to the Saturday Giro Ride, especially since I wasn't sure how things would work out on Sunday since I'd have family in town.  On the way back we ran into Vivian and after riding alongside her for a few minutes I heard my phone ring.  It's never a good thing when my phone rings before 8 am in the morning.  It was the sitter at my mother's place calling to tell me she's just called 911.  I dropped off the back and stopped, fumbling with my phone until I finally pulled off the double layer of gloves so I could call my sisters and my brother who was on his way from Orlando to New Orleans for a visit and so that his son could run the Mardi Gras Marathon.  I rushed home, changed clothes, and headed to the hospital.  The news was not good and by eleven o'clock my mother had passed away without ever regaining consciousness.

With most of the arrangements having been made on Saturday, and my nephew scheduled to run the MGM on Sunday, I was planning to ride the Giro and then see if I could find him when we returned.  It was a cold morning but the sky was clear and I knew the temperature would warm up by fifteen degrees by 9:30, so I headed out for Starbucks rather lightly dressed, at least by my standards.  There was a pretty good group for the ride, although a few of the regulars were testing their legs over in Texas at the Tour of New Braunfels race.  During the ride a few people commented on the Tulane riders who had come out to the Giro on Saturday.  They are all trying to get ready for their first Conference race on the 26th and 27th in Austin.  Although one or two of them were new to group training rides and a bit sketchy in the pack, they all handled the pace OK.  

Anyway, Sunday's ride was really good in that the pace was neither too slow nor too fast and the weather was practically perfect once the sun came over the horizon.  We arrived back at the corner of Marconi and Robert E. Lee about half an hour before my nephew came by at mile 20.  I'd been signed up to get text messages from the chip timing system when he crossed certain checkpoints during the race, so it was easy to figure out where he was and what pace he was running. Later, I made my way down to the finish line in City Park and met up with my brother and his family and Candy. After the finish they decided to go over to Whole Foods for lunch, so I had to hustle back home, change into my civilian clothes, and drive over to to Magazine Street.  I got there just a couple of minutes after they did, so it all worked out pretty well.  Tomorrow will be a busy day, of course, and by the time I get through that I'm sure I'll be looking forward to returning to work on Wednesday.