Two days ago, in Burleson, Texas, I did my sixth bike rally of the year and my 478th overall. This rally, known as the Honey Tour, is in its 12th year. I've done 11 of them. My friends Phil and Randy met me in the parking lot, and during the ride we caught another friend, Marc. The weather was gorgeous. Besides being hot (the official high temperature for the day at DFW International Airport was 95º), it was calm. The average wind speed for the day was only 4.0 miles per hour. The highest wind speed for the day was a mere 12. Calm days are rare in North Texas, so we enjoyed it immensely.
A year ago, on the same course, I averaged 20.14 miles per hour. We didn't ride nearly as hard this year, but somehow we managed to average 18.34 miles per hour (elapsed time = 3:13:54) for 59.3 miles, which makes this my second-fastest of 11 Honey Tours. I pedaled 18.9 miles the first hour, 19.0 the second, and 17.1 the third. I averaged 18.56 miles per hour for the final 13:54. There were no accidents and nobody had a flat. Does it get any better? We talked, laughed, commiserated, ate, drank, and in general enjoyed the ride. The road surfaces were smooth (for the most part) and the course had few hills. I haven't averaged 18.34 miles per hour or higher since 19 September, more than eight months ago. I'm sure we could have gone faster if we wanted to.
After the rally, we moseyed about the parking lot, eating the free food (bean burritos and tortilla chips for me), drinking the free drinks (cold water for me), and listening to a live band play songs by Steely Dan and other artists. Although it was only noon, it was quite hot. Randy was too lazy to walk 50 yards to see whether he won anything in the raffle. I took his ticket and walked over for him. To my surprise, he won a copy of Lance Armstrong's second book, Every
Second Counts. Randy told me to keep it, since I had done the work for it, but I insisted that he take it home. My theory is that if Randy reads it, he will do less whining, and that will make everyone happier.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 