Sunday morning was cool, foggy and misty. My plans for taking cool photos of the downtown skyline and landmarks and miles of car-free bikes-only LSD was thoroughly foiled, but I did take a few pictures.
I wasn't sure whether I could ride the whole distance, not having ridden more than 10 or so miles at a shot this year. For that matter, I don't know if I'd ever ridden 30 miles before... So I left feeling flexible, and took my el card with me in case of a disastrous change in weather or just wearing out 15 miles from home. It actually was just fine. I started at Bryn Mawr, the northern rest area/entry point, went at a leisurely pace, stopped at the rest area set up downtown for a snack and some air, and continued to the Museum of Science and Industry. There I got some more food (they had Oreos!) and hit the port-a-potty. On my way back, I stopped by Soldier Field for a foggy picture of the stadium with a UFO parked in it (or is that the Love Boat?).
The fog was a little less dense down south, but it misted on and off throughout the ride. I decided that rather than exit at Lawrence and go home that I'd go all the way to the northern turnaround at Hollywood so I could say I did the whole thing. Then I headed for home, pretty well soaked by that time. My legs felt tired, but surprisingly (to me) decent! I am accustomed to a multi-hour outing of exercise to result in some pain, but that really didn't happen to me. My legs definitely felt tired the next couple of times I ran, but I got to experience the appeal of low-impact endurance exercise.
