A Girl With Wheels!

On this beautiful clear Saturday morning before Easter, Cece, set off to revisit her beloved Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande River in Albuquerque, New Mexico.   She has actually been waiting all winter for this visit and she chose the most perfect day to do so.  The path had been re-paved over the later winter into early spring and she thought immediately about a post she had read by the Fat Cyclist called "Fatty's Inferno"  Fatty had a dream that he ended up in cycling hell  and had to choose certain paths with various  road surfaces.   Here is a short excerpt:

“This is amazing,” I said. “This is the most incredible pavement I have ever seen, much less ridden on.”
“And you shall never ride its equal again. This place has the best riding surface in the entire universe.”
“But I’m confused,” I said, with a confused look on my face. “You told me before that I was in hell, and then you take me on a place I’d gladly ride in for eternity. I can see there are long flats, curvy roads, challenging climbs, and fun descents. The road’s perfect and so is the weather. Everyone looks incredibly happy. How can you possibly call this ‘hell’?”

Cece would find that out later....but anyway, as she  was enthralled by the perfect pavement, she cruised along and got reacquainted with the land.  She was spinning away not concerned about much. She watched the Kenyan and Ethiopian runners grace by as they trained at altitude.  She watched the river glide by.  She was not trying to go fast or working on any of her skills...she just rode along and appreciated the earth!  It occurred to her that this is the zen of cycling....just going along effortlessly so that you felt you were not even moving at all....very still, very quiet...

She arrived at Tingley beach and took notice to see any changes since she had last been here...her favorite little train was in place,

the birds, the men fishing with their sons...check...all was in its place.

But then, in the silence, you know,......there is never a dull moment.  A man cycled by, "Are you the race official?" he asked Cece. "No," she replied, What race?"   "There is a triathlon along this course and they will be coming by at any moment.  I thought you were a race official."  Cece rode a bit farther along the path and was stopped by guess who?  The race official. She was told that she better go back north and try to out run the triathlon because after their run south, they were cycling north all the way to the Montano.

Off Cece rode, scurrying north to try to out run the triathletes.  She made it,  but ended up in a pile of runners from who knows where,...she thought she was in a crowd in Grand Central Station.  Runners going north and  south taking up the entire heavenly pavement...maybe this was the hell that Fatty mentioned?  She shouted  'Bike back, going North" and hoped the sea of runners would part....she  slowed to a crawl.  Where did all these runners come from?  The triathlon was the other direction.  No one had race numbers on.  Whew!  She made it without incident.

She crossed under a tunnel on a blind turn and all of a sudden she saw a cyclist coming at her looking over his shoulder  in the opposite direction......he was barreling right for her....no where to escape...only tunnel on one side, river on the other, She shouted " HEY<> HEY HEY" and the guy snapped out of it just in time to swerve and almost end up in the river himself.  Too close for comfort.

The day started out so quietly!  So restful.....well, she finally made it in one piece back to the Alameda open space parking lot.....and met friends and petted dogs and met a cute army paratrooper guy  who had just run 8 miles....and was a newbie cyclist...he said, "If you see me on the trail again, don't pass me by!"

Oh!  She won't!