Ride 34 of 50 – The Big 5-0 – Bicycalligraphy

There are many reasons people choose to go for a ride: exercise/fitness, fresh air, good company, race training, racing, exploring new locations, personal bests, Strava (to get kudos, or to attempt a KOM/QOM), test a new bike or new bike part… and many more. For my 50 rides in my 50th year, I’ve experienced many of these reasons, and on the occasion of my 50th birthday, I came up with a new reason, something I’m calling: Bicycalligraphy!

As I started this 50-in-50 rides this year, I’d tentatively planned to ride 50 km on the date of my 50th birthday. My friend Tim K. also recently suggested a ride that maps out “5-0” so I decided to use Strava’s map-making feature and ride this route:

Notice that I started at the green dot and ended at the checkered dot. I stopped my Garmin early so that my ride was exactly 50 km (why not… 50 in 50, right?)

My plan was to leave work early and ride at around 3pm, but when I got home, it was pouring rain. After checking the satellite weather, I figured if I held off until around 5 or 530, I might get lucky and miss the storm cells that were passing through KW. This was the case for about the first 10 km, when it started to rain (on the southern-most line of the “5” of my route). The rain got heavier as I completed the “5”, with the heaviest rain on the north part of the “5”, where there were two gravel roads. The rain got so heavy several times that I considered taking the shortest distance back to my car, but it appeared that the sky was clearing (or I was hallucinating).

I was lucky that during the heaviest rains, I didn’t hear any thunder. However, as I approached Heidelberg (along the eastern side of the “0”), I saw some flashes that were a little to close for comfort. I stopped for about 10 minutes to let the worst of the storm pass, and I followed it back towards Waterloo. By the time I was on my way back to St. Jacobs where I parked, I was treated with this view: