I got up early today at 5:15AM to drive to Livingston for The Spirit Ride. This is the first year for this ride and the people were super friendly. I left home at 6:30 for the 55 mile drive to Livingston High School. Arriving around 7:20AM a number of bicyclists beat me there. After registering I walked around handing out Texbiker.net business cards. Not one person turned me down and I think everyone said thank you. One rider said he was a regular visitor to Texbiker.net. I always like to hear from the faithful users.

On the drive up to Livingston fog blanketed the highway so I wondered what the conditions would be like at the start. Fortunately the temperature was around 63 degrees at the start. About 138 bicyclists left the start area a minute or two after 8:00 AM. The weather forecast called for 79 degrees but at the last minute as I was leaving home I took my windbreaker jacket just in case of something. My wardrobe was short sleeve jersey over a heavy long sleeve jersey, bike shorts and gloves. After registering I put my number on the windbreaker and decided to wear it during the ride. I thought the fog might make it cooler than the thermometer indicated. At the start line I talked to Richard with Air Liquide who I biked with a couple of times around the Kingwood area. He was with his father and a friend who had a brand new bike on his first ride. They were taking the 33 mile route.

We rode out of the Livingston High School parking lot onto FM350 which would take us to US190 for a short ride through Livingston. Many years ago I biked through Livingston on my way to Corrigan but the that ride followed US59. The ride through Livingston was in the fog and my sunglasses gathered mist. I did not need the glasses for the sun much like I did not need the sunscreen I put on before leaving home. I am optimistic though.

The road was smooth with a shoulder of varying widths until we reach SR146 and turned right. SR146 was 4 lanes for a long time with a nice shoulder. Once we passed FM1988 the lanes dropped to two but the shoulder stayed the same. The fog was still heavy on this section. Once we reached FM2665 a right turn took us off the main road onto what I call back roads. The surface was still smooth but the fog thickened and fell from the sky several times until I reached US59 at Goodrich. The windbreaker cam in handy to ward off the light rain.

The overpass at Goodrich took the 42 mile route over US59 while the 62 mile route turned right to make another loop on FM1988, SR146 and FM2665. I took the 42 mile route because of the heavy fog and the light mist/rain. Up to this point the route covered a number of hills going up and down. I wasn’t sure I was up to doing the ascents again. West of the Goodrich FM1988 was smooth but without shoulders. Livingston State Park access travels this road but the traffic was light most of the time. Once I reached Park Road 65 the number of cars dropped down.

I skipped the rest stop in Goodrich at around 21 miles. I did stop at the first one back at FM1988 and SR146 for a banana and energy drink. My water bottle was going down fast with all of the moisture in the air so I figured I was okay until rest stop 3. The route was fairly flat as I rode along the edge of Lake Livingston after Park Road 65. About 32 miles into the ride I reached rest stop 3 and took a break. Up to now I made good time. The terrain changed after the rest stop with a couple of hills on the way to US190. On US190 I headed back to Livingston with a nice shoulder. Two downhills provided rest as I made my way to FM350 and the short ride back to the high school.

The cars thinned out some by the time I finished at 10:56. I could smell the hamburgers cooking over by the registration area. Total miles on the ride came in at 42.05. I was somewhat surprised I averaged 15.9 mph but the downhills helped me get a max speed of 25.5 mph to make up for the slow pedaling on the rolling hills.

November miles = 326.31. Year to date miles = 5873. Links to Garmin Connect and RideWithGPS.com metrics and maps.

Pictures from the ride on Flickr.com. Click on the images below to go to a page where you can then click on the image for a full screen version.

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