I’m having so much fun keeping track of miles biked this month that I decided to sign up for next month’s Group Health Commute Challenge. Yeah, yeah, I don’t have a real job, but the FAQ says unemployed and work-from-home people are eligible. If I happen to take any non-kid-schlepping rides, I won’t count those as part of my commute. I’ve created a team called One Less Minivan (I can’t take credit for the name, it’s from Cafe Mama in Portland). I plan to order some bumper stickers from her for my team…but I have to decide where to stick mine. Probably on the back of my rear seat so I don’t mar my pretty celeste green paint. Lemme know down in the comments if you’d like to join the team.

We headed to the Cascade Bicycle Club office to pick up my team captain packet (long-sleeved green shirt for me, reflective leg bands for all), but first the boys did a bit of balance biking. The little one (21 months old) isn’t very speedy on his Kinderbike Mini yet, but assuming things warm up we’ll do more riding soon. I wish I’d gotten the show on the road sooner so we could have played at Magnuson Park while we were all the way over there, but as it was, we just picked up our stuff and headed back.

We stopped at the Sand Point Metropolitan Market for snacks and I was quite taken by the Madrax bike racks. Met Market just had the bollards variety, but wow, their website is fun. If I ever own a bike shop (which will be called B.I.L.F.: Bikes I’d like to fix), I’m ordering a custom Madrax bike rack of some sort.

Back to today’s ride: I made it home with no walking thanks to leaving the Burke-Gilman Trail a bit early and heading up Brooklyn. On this easterly trip, it only added half a mile to the trip, but coming from the west, like most my trips, Brooklyn would add a mile and a half so I probably won’t bother. It wasn’t the lovliest ride and I stuck to the sidewalks the whole time, but it was great to get a one-day reprieve from walking the bike.

Daily distance: 10.9 miles
Cumulative: 237.3 miles