Well, I did the Reston Bike Club ride yesterday, and I'm still alive. I didn't wuss out and do the 30 miler, but I did forgo the metric and just did 54 miles instead. Overall it was nice — the scenery wasn't up to par with the MS ride, but there were some sections that were just flat out nice. Dry Mill Road, which runs parallel to the W&OD, was a particularly nice, low traffic stretch where I could just clock along effortlessly at 20 mph and take in the bucolic surroundings.

I'm not sure if starting at 8 AM helped because there wasn't much rider congestion. I originally expected somewhat of a traffic jam on the W&OD since weekends are the most crowded, but I was pleasantly surprised not to be stuck behind anyone… mainly because I was that person that other bikers were stuck behind. Holy manoli. Talk about some seriously overzealous riders. I don't consider myself to be that slow — mainly because I've finally talked myself down from being the stupidly competitive 17-year-old that used to chase down triathletes — but really, did everyone else find it necessary to form a paceline on a rail trail? If you want to do a century for time, don't do it on one that uses the W&OD, only because you're going to have to stop about nineteen times at road crossings and also because it's just obnoxious to be that guy who runs down 6-year-olds on training wheels.

So, in a nutshell — yes, I'm glad I went, but not having to pay the registration fee and getting a free lunch and cool tee shirt made it all the better.