More Fun on Sunday

The "John Marten Sunday Ride", my new favorite ride mainly because it starts 5 minutes from my home which is not unimportant for an 8:00am Sunday morning ride.  In addition to the usual suspects of John G & Adele, Jon & Kim Sada, Gus & Peggy there was The Mechanic himself, Rick Miller, Riley, a young kid, an assortment of tri-types around 15-16 of us in total.  We headed to Newark, worked our way through the downtown and soon I found us back on....Blue Jay and the route followed the COP Blue Jay route all the way to Zanesville.  On one of the major climbs I was overtaken by John G and Rick with Gorrilla giving me the, "Dropping back in the pack just like Thomas Voekler huh?"  That guy is a laugh a minute!  I arrived at the market with John S and Riley to a mocking cheer from John G.   

At the market outside Zanesville I produced a map to show Peggy the remaining part of the route and share little known short-cutting opportunities should anyone have interest.  Peggy said, "Oh this is that Blue Jay ride that Cindy and some other guy run isn't it?".......I recovered from the shock and informed Peggy I run the COP Blue Jay ride with some nominal assistance from Cindy, certainly not the other way around.  There was the usual sharing of water and extra fluids and food were left on the picnic bench for the balance of the group who had not yet arrived.  I looked greedily at the half eaten Baby Ruth bar and bag of corn chips but decided to leave it for others.   

I declined the opportunity to start with the fastest group as my legs were still bleeding from the earlier effort and instead headed back with Peggy, Kim and Adele.  Clouds had rolled in affording some relief from the heat and sun and when we arrived at 668/204, I headed on to Glenford to get in a few extra miles (OK, maybe I was about to drop from the superwomen) but did return to the route and arrived in Brownsville at Rt. 40 to find two of our original group standing in the shade with one guy slumped over his handlebars sweating profusely.  Later they rolled in to the Flint Ridge park where we spent some time cooling in the shade by the water fountain.  I left ahead of them and finished the route with 91 miles and 6000'+ feet of elevation gain.  Good route and good people, for the most part.