:: W4B photography's companion blog ::

:: Thursday, August 12, 2004 ::

W+4 ride
Got back around 5pm from riding: up to Lucan, over to Ailsa Craig, down to Byron and the bike path back: 95.70km / 3h59m of actual cycling plus about 20 or so mins of stops all together (Tim Hortons in Lucan for coffee and maple pecan danish...) Only one crap section going from the bottom of Vanneck rd East into Byron. Too narrow and big fast trucks. Fearing my extinction, I pulled off and reluctantly did the loose gravel shoulder for several hundred meters.

I was really moving today. Last Friday, while there were a few more hilly sections, and wind, St. Mary's was 109km and more than an hour and a quarter longer. I was going for a fast time today, not just the distance. I didn't know it till I checked when I was home, but on the LCW.ca web site, the 90.1km Ailsa Craig route I followed they estimated the time to complete to be 3h57m - and that's with road bikes. That really got my attention. I did nearly six km more and was only two minutes over their 90km time. Which for our purposes was pretty much on the nose. Faster even. :)

So what did I think about when riding solo today? Well, I had Sheryl Crow and Liz Phair songs stuck in my head, I was willing any cows that I passed to stand so it wouldn't rain, and also that I was doing something completely different 4 years ago today: I was getting married.

I can remember... being nervous in the weeks leading up at the thought of standing in front of everyone and repeating the vows we had written - but not actually being nervous when doing it... how beautiful M and the girls looked... the flashing pen that appeared from we don't know where on the table where we signed and witnessed... seeing friends and family - some of whom had come great distances to be there with us... that I was sweating in the little 1887 Trinity Chapel at Fanshawe Pioneer Village in my dark blue suit, with a light blue pocket square that matched the girls' dresses, a yellow silk tie and spit and polished shoes...

While things ultimately didn't work out between us in the long run (old me then vs. new me now more than anything I suppose), I still look back fondly on that day. Very little stress - thanks to M, the ease and low cost for the whole thing, and good, good memories. Call me sentimental, but if I ever do get married again, I doubt it will be anything like August 12, 2000. Couldn't copy it, nothing would top it. It was just a perfect day.


Carpe Diem

:: Mike Wood 22:25 [+] :: 0 comments
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