Reports from the 2004 Bike to Work Day Challenge

The call went out to the 700+ women on our email group -- ride your bike to work on Thursday, May 20th,2004 then write a report about your adventure. The three most entertaining stories would be chosen to win a fabulous Velo Girls jersey (or another piece of logowear).

Nine women shared their tales (I hope more of you rode). Following are the stories as related to our email group. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent.

And, for some useful information on how to incorporate bike commuting into your life, read our training tip on commuting.

It was a dark and stormy night... Ok it was actually morning and rather overcast. :) Usually I split my occasional bike commute over two days by taking the bike to work in the car, biking home in the evening, and then riding back the next morning. For this year's Bike to Work Day, however, I decided to up the ante by biking round- trip in a single day. Here are some random thoughts and stats from my commute (one way):

-Distance: 10.21 mi
-Ride time: 41 min
-Stop lights: 32
-Stop signs: 3
-Pedal strokes: ~3690 (~90 rpm x 41 min)
-Time spent pedaling between stops: 2.93 miiin (assuming that one-third of the stoplights were red)
-Fuel used: oatmeal, banana, water
-Energizer stations: 2 (Hello to Lorri at the Burlingame Caltrain station! I expected to see 4 but forgot to look for the other 2.)
-Free stuff from Energizer station: bottled water, water bottle, cool biking map with hills marked by level of difficulty, energy bar, my favorite sunscreen, red flashing reflector light, Velo Girls bumper sticker, patch kit
-One very good reason to bike to work: Seeiiing a racer friend who can pull you through a strong head wind and show you a shortcut! Thanks, Holly!
-Planes taking off/landing at SFO as I pedaled by: ~15 (1 plane/min x ~15 min)
-Caltrains that passed me during the commute: 4
-Cars on 101 between B'game and South San Francisco from 7-8 AM: thousands
-Money saved on gas: $1.20

This morning, armed with my hybrid steed and an adventurous spirit, I headed out on my epic journey from home to work, and to four energizer stations in between.

The first stop, at a bright and early 6:45 a.m., was the Redwood City Caltrain energizer station. This little energizer station was run by the Penninsula bicycle coalition cult, a merciless band of vigilantes who keep the roads safe and enjoyable for Peninsula bicyclists. Their leader is an infamous ring leader who appears on the surface to be a cute little baby, but actually is a dangerous bicycle coalition mastermind.

Under the strict gaze of their cute ring leader, I scored my first load of free booty. The loot I scored included a glass of orange juice, an everything bagel from Noah's, and a "I biked to work and you're not worthy" shoulder bag complete with bicycle propaganda, tire patching/save the world kit, food for epic heros (a zone bar), Bullfrog sunscreen packet and a blinky light.

Bicyclists of higher moral bearing might have gone straight to work from there, but I had to get more free booty! So, off I went to the second energizer station which was run by the occult group called the "Woodside Bicycle Coalition." They believe in some mystical spirit called "The Right of Bicyclists" who they are trying to resurrect using dark secret ceremonies.

While I may not be one of their member, they generously offered some of their sacrificial offerings to me including: cookies, bananas, Peets Coffee, Zone bars, muffins, water, "I biked to work and you're not worthy bag" full of goodies, and Angie, fellow velogirl. Luckily, I was able to rescue Angie from the jaws of death and continued part way with her as she went on her way to Mountain View! Hers was a super epic journey of monstrous proportions which puts my little peon adventure to shame. But I digress.

Next I took a significant detour from my typical journey to work and stopped at the San Mateo Road bike bridge in Menlo Park. A friendly band of locals were handing out bananas, water and "I biked to work and you're not worthy" stickers.

My final stop in this epic of all epic (eh hem, 12.69 mile) rides was the Menlo Park Caltrain station energizer station. Bananas and "I biked to work and you're not worthy" bags and stickers were aplenty. There I met a Velogirl comrade, Stephanie, who was having her tubes fixed by the friendly locals.

Bicycle tubes, you silly jesters!

Finally, after a long journey of one hour and 12 seconds (!!!), I arrived at that noble destination known as my work place and inventoried my booty. A fine journey it was, indeed!

May your days be filled with bicycles, velogirls, occult bicycle coalitions and epic epic journeys!

Well, I'm not sure if it's really an ADVENTURE, but I seem to be a weird-sh*t magnet, so you can imagine.

The alarm went off at 5:10. I dove out of bed, as the plan was to eat, shower, walk the dog, etc, and leave by 6:30. I got the coffee started, toast made, bath drawn, dog walked and was out the door by 6:37. Oopies.

I just rode to the closer train station (after nearly being run off the road by some guy in a Mercedes). He had 2 lanes and I guess he decided that I was somehow more interesting than actually using the other lane. I was so mad I raced after him (to call the cops, but of course, that would have done little good unless they saw him). It made me feel better, till the toast and coffee started to grumble. Well, okay, so I slowed down.

I was too early for the Energizer station (if there was one) at the San Carlos Caltrain station, but my plan was to exit at Burlingame and go to the Velo Girls station. I got my cool schwag, visited with Lorri for a bit, and ran into a friend of mine, Amy (who works down the street from me). Amy and I rode into the office together. Kind of hard to ride side by side, so we took turns leading into a pretty gnarly headwind. Near SFO, the police had a radar station with the big reader that lists your speed. I sprinted to see if it would record my speed (bike geek) and found that a car had blocked my reading. Darnit. When we got to South San Francisco, we saw another Energizer station on the corner of Grand and Gateway, but alas. It was on the wrong side of the street. We said our goodbyes and both went to work. We did see quite a few cyclists out though! Time: 55 minutes, 12.7 miles.

The way home was not bad. I've done it before, but was concerned about the wind. I mostly had a tailwind, which was totally cool. I passed a guy on a bike who was blissfully unaware of anyone but himself, and when I said, "On your left" he must have woke up. It was funny. He was all apologetic. :o)

For those of you easily grossed out, you may as well stop reading here...

For the record, I am suffering through one of the worst yeast infections of my life. Sitting on the bike is less than desirable at the moment, and yesterday was no exception. The ride IN was fine. Short. The ride home, oh man. It nearly killed me. I made it quite a ways, but then I started to hurt. Really bad. I remembered that I had some ointment in my makeup bag for it, but the trouble was actually finding a place that was isolated enough where few would see me applying it. I finally found a place in Foster City. A not-so- busy street, between 2 parked cars. AHHHHHHHHHHH. A little oasis. I tore my backpack off, threw it down and started digging for my makeup bag. I came up with it and found an older, stocky, cigar- smoking Russian guy walking toward me on the sidewalk. Doh! I figured he'd just go on his way, but nooooooooooooo. He stopped to chat. And chat and chat and chat. He talked my EAR off. Showed me all the plants on his deck (visible from the street, thank you very much), showed me his car, invited me to stop by any time and he'd give me shoots off his plants. Everything but leave me alone to try to relieve my pain. I finally gave up, put some chapstick on (I figured that shoving my hand down my shorts would send the WRONG signal), put my backpack back on and attempted to make my escape. I finally got out of there, but 15 minutes had passed! I was only 20 minutes from home, so I just gutted it out and rode home.

The last leg of the journey, I had to turn left at a busy intersection and saw the Redwood City police sitting waiting for someone to do something wrong. Now why weren't they there in the morning when that bozo nearly hit me? Anyway, I guess someone blew the intersection, cuz the next thing I know, I hear a siren. I think, "Dang, are they pulling me over? I put my foot down AND I signaled!" They pulled someone over right in front of me! Wrong Mercedes, but whatever. I had to do some fancy manuevering to get around them and was afraid the policeman would open his door into me, but all was fine.

Time: 1 hour, 13 minutes, 19.2 miles.

Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes and 32 miles.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! I'd do it more often if I could get out of the office at a regular time! Sans yeast infection next time though. Ugggh. Maybe next year I'll go on an Energizer station hunt. I only saw the 2. Where were the rest???

Sorry if I grossed anyone out.

My alarm sounded at 5:15am and I laid there for a good half an hour trying to convince myself of how great of a day I would have if I rode to work. Dang I was tired!

I was dressed and on my bike by 6:15. Work clothes, shoes, etc., stuffed into a messenger bag across my back and I was off.

The actual ride was great. No one was out, and I rode along Redwood road in Oakland. It's a road really not traveled by cars very much. I love mornings like this! Kind of feels like everything just belongs to me. Kind goofy, I know.

Unfortunately I hadn't eaten breakfast or had any coffee - and I had my bag full of "stuff" for the day on my back. This made for a very slow ride. I felt like crap! Where were those energizer stations when I needed one?

After about 13 miles I came out of the woods and upon Castro Valley and some gnarly city streets. No bike lanes, and plenty of pot holes. But I could see the Bart station off in the distance and knew I was near. Arrived at Castro Valley Bart at 7:10 with 7 minutes to spare before the AC bus arrived. No energizer station there. Bummer.

Not knowing how to get the bike on the bike rack irritated the bus driver enough to come out of the bus and strap the metal holder on the wheel for me, all the while grumbling about how I was delaying his route and how now he was really late. I guess those extra 45 seconds really messed him up.

Off we went, through Hayward over the San Mateo bridge and into Foster City. The bus dropped me off on Metro Drive in front of the Visa building, right across the street from where I work. Got a high five from a Visa employee and I pedaled over to my building.

Arrival time, at my desk 8:00. Trip time, 1:45. Not too bad. Ride distance was a little over 16 miles one way.

The way back was about the same. Pretty uneventful. This time I left my bag full of stuff at work, and I ate an hour before. The hard thing about going back, is sitting in the bus first and then having to ride uphill all the way to Oakland. The wind was blowing like all get out, and it started to get reaaaly cold & foggy towards the end.

The East Bay didn't really seem to get into the whole Bike to Work Day. At least not around where I was commuting. I saw barely any cyclists out there. Sounds like it was much more successful on the Peninsula and SF.

Will I do it again? Probably. Turned out to be much easier than last year - and the amount of time wasn't too bad.

"Woke up, fell out of bed, ran a comb across my head..."

I can't claim credit for that line (thank you John and Paul) but this is a typical description of my weekday mornings. Funny, I seem to no problem getting out of bed early on the weekends for long bike rides...

Clearly I need employment that involves long distance bike rides, preferably including traveling in foreign nations. Know of any openings?

Anyway, this morning.

Alarm screamed at 7am. I turned it off, and went back to sleep. Woke again at 7:30am to answer the call of nature. Breakfast, shower, dress, worship the cat for a few minutes, then realize it's 8:35am. Oops, I won't meet the 8:38am Caltrain at the Burlingame station. Oh well, there's the 9:07am train. But wait!

Instead of riding to the Burlingame station, I could pedal a mile or two further and go to the San Mateo station! A glorious plan indeed.

The weather this morning was overcast, but with no breeze I easily whirled through the residential streets from Burlingame to the San Mateo Caltrain station. At the station, I was greeted with 'Bike to Work day, free cookies!' Oh yes...cookies. One of my favorite words.

The Energizer Station at the San Mateo station had juice, coffee, muffins, fruit, and homemade chocolate chip cookies. Whoever made the cookies, my complements! They were delicious. Now if only we could have Energizer stations on a weekly basis, life would be grand!

The train arrived, me and my trusty Trek boarded, and away we go southbound to Palo Alto. By the time I arrived in Palo Alto, I had read another chapter in the latest book I'm reading.

Deboarded the train (there was another Energizer station at the Palo Alto station, but by the time I arrived they were starting to tear down) and pedaled to Stanford, aka my workplace.

In the evening, I pedaled back to the Palo Alto station, and me and my trusty Trek once again boarded the train. Instead of reading, I did another one of my Caltrain pasttimes - stare out the window and daydream. I arrived back in Burlingame, hopped off the train, and within 10 minutes I was at my front door. No muss, no fuss.

I've commuted to work via my bike and Caltrain for about five years now, and I consider myself fortunate. My commute from Burlingame to Palo Alto takes about 45 minutes each way. Considering Burlingame and Palo Alto are only about 15 mile apart, the public transportation route is longer than driving time-wise. However, considering Highway 101 on the peninsula is more often than not moving at a snail's pace, I much prefer the bike/train option.

And the best part is I get two bikes rides a day. Even the worst days at work are alleviated by a bike ride. :)

My Velo Boy and I got up at 6:00am to do our part in supporting Bike to Work Day. For him, it was a struggle because he HATES the cold mornings, for me, it was exciting because I am always up this early doing some sort of a workout. We parked our car at the Redwood City Train station and left from there. We were too early for the Energizer Station because it didn't open until 7:00am. We took off and immediately cut over to Alemeda de las Pulgas. Our first stop was only about 3 miles down on the corner of Alameda and Woodside Road. The volunteers were friendly, and loaded both of us up with goody bags. I enjoyed a nice hot cup of Peets as well. We talked with the volunteers and other cyclists for a few minutes and then we were off.

We continued down Alameda to Junipero Serra and then to FootHill Expressway where we encountered our second Energizer Station at Main Street and Foothill in Los Altos. At this stop there were quite a few cyclists and more friendly volunteers. Here we got some great give-aways from local bike shops, and some fresh baked cookies that had been donated by a local bakery. All in all, not a bad stop. They were also giving away bottles of water and gatorade.

We took off again down Foothill to Grant, Grant to Wolfe and then Wolfe to Monroe. All in all it was a nice way to start the morning. I think the weather may have discouraged some riders, but once you got going it was a great cause to support. On the way home, I relied on Caltrain to get me back to my car in Redwood City. I did not see any Energizer Stations setup in the evening.

I think they should promote this type of event more often. I also think they should encourage all alternative modes of transporation. Even though I love to cycle, this could have been promoted as run, walk, bike, or take public transit to work day. This way it would get the word out more through other groups, not just cycling. Many people did not even now of this event. I did my part by hanging flyers around my workplace, but I am not sure if I actually inspired anyone else.

I will be out next time as well. Total distance was 24 miles cycling into work, and it was well worth it! Great way to start my day.

And Train-Bike-Ferry-Bike-Bus home! (No wonder I'm tired.)

So, I got up at 5:30 this morning (unfortunately, that's the usual time I get up), and was still trying to figure out the best way to "bike" to work. See, I live in San Francisco (on Chenery, near 30th) and work on Fruitvale near International Blvd (3 blocks from the Fruitvale BART station). I ALWAYS just take BART to work. Sometimes I walk from my house to the station, sometimes I go to Kezar early in the morning, and then take the streetcar to BART, but I always take BART.

So, I decided to try the ferry this morning - and when I heard it was FREE FREE FREE to cyclists, I decided to go for it. I left my house just after 7am, and made it safely across the set of Muni tracks that took me down a couple of years ago (I've never forgiven them, and they've never forgotten me).

I took Dolores to Cesar Chavez to Valencia St - ah, a bike lane -- hooray! No Muni tracks - even better. Some bike guys flagged me down for an energizer station (1 cup of coffee, no bagel at my first energizer stop), and went on my merry way - but I spent too much time there and forgot how long some of those lights are! I took a right on 14th, left on FOlsom and went down to Embarcadero - I got in at 7:34 for the 7:35 ferry. Whoosh.

Because it was "reverse commute," the ferry was almost empty except for a group of hearty (foolhardy?) cyclists, and mabye three regular passengers. Another energizer stop on board the ferry (number two! whee! This time got a water bottle).

After a nice, smooth, easy and beautiful ferry ride, we docked at Jack London Square. I got back on my bike and went to the big to-do in Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland (energizer stop three! two pancakes, more coffee) - I wanted to park my bike and shower, even though I had a few miles (two BART stops) left to go. I picked up some new material (including about the "earn your bike" program I'd been looking for for youth and adults), finally accepted a bike bag, parked my bike, and showered at Club One. (Club One was giving out passes to cyclists to shower that day - but since I'm a trainer there, I just got in, showered, and left my cycling duds/helmet/shoes) in the locker.

(Amusing - to me, at least - is that fact that I ran into a couple of non-cycling friends of mine at the energizer station who did a double take - I have distinctive curly hair - and am apparently almost unrecognizable to non-cycling friends who haven't seen me like that.)

Went to the BART station, and finally got to work.

Work. WOrk. Work. Where's my workplace energizer station?

After work, I realized I had to rush back to get my bike before 6. At the Fruitvale BART station, what did I find? That's right: energizer station number four! (Clif bar, Fruitvale village book of coupons, soccer-ball squeeze toy)

Back to the Oakland Club One to get my stuff - I realized I needed to RUSH to make the 6:05 ferry back. I didn't even stop to put my cycling clothes back on (not too stinky) - I rushed back to the valet parking to retrieve my bike (thanks bicycle coalition!), and rushed back to Jack London Square for another free ferry ride. Only I mis-remembered - the ferry was 6:20, not 6:05. And it didn't stop at the SF Ferry Building, but rather at Pier 41. Oh well. That's ok. I can manage that. So, back on the ferry. Back across the bay. The boat again nearly devoid of non-cycling passengers. The sea lions greeted us when we docked at Pier 41, and I got back on my bike. I think a tourist snapped a photo of me (??).

I started riding in the street down the Embarcadero, until I realized I felt like the train tracks kept coming at me (relentlessly!). I got to the Embarcadero BART station and decided to check out their bike parking service. Cool - no reservation or lock needed - it's always attended (7am-7pm M-F). Excellent. (Energize station number 5, in case you're keeping track, but just got a reflector thingy to wrap around my lower pants leg to keep my pants from getting caught in my chain - I'm sure there's a technical word for that, but I don't know what it is>)

I got back on my bike and headed home.

I rode up market St, turned somewhere to get onto Valencia St., and headed home. Just a mile or two from home, I started feeling really tired and cranky - and just then I heard the magical 26-Valencia coming up behind me, about a block back. Just in time - I loaded my bike on the bus' bike rack, and let it take me home (just steps from my doorway).

My morning commute took just under two hours, but that included breakfast, lots of shwag and a shower. My evening commute took just over two hours, no shower, no nothing - just a longer ferry ride and more waiting around for it (my poor planning, ok).

According to mapquest, my commute by car is 17.76 miles and take me 28 minutes.

According to transitinfo.org, my commute takes 41 minutes by public transit (slightly longer if I walk to BART instead of taking the bus).

I have no idea how many miles I travelled today (nautical miles? Land miles? bike miles? BART miles?) I know so much more about public transit and bike lanes now, which is cool.

Am I likely to become a regular bike commuter? Hell, no - too much yucky traffic between my home and my workplace, and BART is so convenient. And, well, I admit it - I'm a princess. Until my workplace gets a shower (which may happen in the fall - I'll believe it when I see it), I'll probably take BART to the gym, take a spinning class, shower, and then go to work. Oh well.

Now, throw coffee and pancakes into the deal, and it might be another story.

Commute "tips" to becoming a faster and stronger rider while getting to work.

1) Don't live too close to work and don't let yourself use a car.

2) Find someone at work that lives near you, is faster than you, and is willing to ride at least twice a week with you. If he/she is too slow find someone new.

3) Live at the bottom of a hill. You will be awake by the top and doing that hill twice a week all year will make you a better climber.

4) Set a meeting time, and run out the door late. Now you have to go up that hill really fast so you won't be left behind.

5) Don't let other people on the road pass you. If you can't beat them join them (or at least try to hang on). Make sure your commute buddy knows at least half of the people on the road so that you join people one of you knows.

6) Don't go the short way. The more miles the better, but you have to still get to work.

7) Sprint each other up the little hills. Who cares if you get beat the first year of riding together, you'll get him one of these days.

8) Treat yourself every year on bike to work day by leaving early, and getting a bunch of free stuff at least one energizer station.

9) Take the bike you don't like to put on Caltrain into work, now you have to ride home too.

10) Having a bunch of clothes and snacks at work makes life very nice for your co-workers because you don't smell after a good shower and your not grumpy after your second breakfast.

You can find me on the road each morning between Belmont and Menlo Park. Mon, Weds, Fri along Alameda De Las Pulgas, and Tues/Thurs 8:40 at the top of the Ralston bike path that goes over 280. Any Velogirl is welcome to join in the fun down to the Menlo Park/ Palo Alto area.

Actually, since nearly every day is Bike to Work day for me (sans Energizer Stations), it wasn't a particularly big deal. I usually leave the house between 8:15 and 8:30, but left at 8:00am in anticipation of running into (or avoiding) lots of inexperienced cyclists on the Stevens Creek bike path and to give myself a little extra time to stop at an Energizer Station or two. Since my commute bike was in the shop, I was riding my zippy Trek 5200 - wheee!!!. I was right about the bike path. There were many more cyclists than usual, and some of them were obviously newbies. The bike bridge was interesting to say the least. It is not terribly easy to get on and off (very tight turns) and in a crowd it becomes even more difficult. Whoever designed that thing has probably not ridden a bicycle since he or she was 10! Most of the cyclists were traveling in the opposite direction from me. They had probably just gotten off of Caltrain and were heading to NASA.

After I exited the bike path, I stepped my speed up a few notches, and followed my usual route through Mountain View and Los Altos to Foothill Expressway, where I didn't see any other cyclists. Foothill can be very fast and fun, especially when I can tuck in behind a fast, friendly VeloBoy and suck his tire all the way to Palo Alto (safety note: I only do this when said VeloBoy knows I am there and doesn't mind - otherwise I keep a safe distance). However, there was no such luck. And I got stuck at every traffic light to boot. At the second traffic light (Foothill and Main) I came upon an Energizer Station. This was the only Energizer Station I passed on my route. I stopped there and stuffed my backpack with cool stuff, including a water bottle, a totebag, a banana, some sunscreen, a sticker and some coupons to a coffee shop. They had other stuff, but I was running out of room in my backpack and had to scoot anyway.

I flew (as fast as one can fly in a headwind) the rest of the way up Foothill to Arastradero and in to work, where my employer had a table set up with free breakfast (muffins, juice and coffee) for all employees who participated in Bike to Work Day. How cool is that? There was a drawing for cool prizes (I didn't win anything) and T- shirts for everyone (one more item to stuff in my bulging packpack). They also kept some interesting statistics on the people who showed up at the breakfast station:

Shortest commute (one way): 1/2 mile (probably for the free food) Longest commute (one way): 25 miles (this guy does it every day) Yet another alternative: Two employees ran to work. One lives 16 miles from the office and the other 19, so they were served breakfast as "honorary bikers".

My statistics (the ones that I remember):

Distance: 8.95 miles (including the lap around the campus that I took after breakfast)

Average speed: 16.0 mph (not bad, considering my lousy luck with the traffic lights and the congestion on the bike path)

Energizer Stations: only 1

Velogirls spotted en route: 0

The trip home was much faster. I didn't get to draft any VeloBoys, but there was a tailwind, I had better luck with the lights and there were few people on the bike path. Distance: 8.25 miles. Average speed: 17.0 mph, despite my overstuffed backpack. Hee, hee, commuting on my road bike is fun!

Aside from the extra food and goodies, Bike to Work Day was really just a regular day for me. I was actually thankful that it was not much of an adventure, since my last cyclo-commuting adventure ended with me in the emergency room (ugh). I was also thankful that Bike to Work Day didn't coincide with a day that I was wearing my other professional hat - that of a guitar player. I'm a pretty hard-core cyclo-commuter, but somehow I can't see doing a 45-mile commute on a bicycle while carrying one or more guitars plus sound gear - yikes!