2008 N.I.T.E Ride

Saturday night was the 17th (I think) annual N.I.T.E. ride (Navigate Indy This Evening). It’s a 20 mile leisurely group ride through downtown Indianapolis. Last year, more than 2000 people turned out to ride this. I’m not great at estimating number of people, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were the same amount of people, if not more, there this year.

My initial plan was to get up to Indy at 8am to do the CIBA Saturday morning ride. Then, I decided that with the N.I.T.E. Ride at 11pm, it probably wasn’t the best idea to do that long of a ride so early in the morning. Instead, I headed up to Indy so I could also do the dinner ride, which was also 20 miles.

I got up there around 4:15pm to register. Since I had preregistered, all I had to do was give my name and they gave me my packet and also a nice bright orange N.I.T.E. Ride t-shirt. I had some time to kill before the dinner ride started at 5pm. I was told that we were allowed to ride around the velodrome before 5, so I got my bike all ready and headed into the Major Taylor Velodrome. I had never watched any racing on a velodrome so I really had no idea what it was going to look like. I stepped in and looked around and was stunned. The track was rather short, which wasn’t that surprising since it’s for cycling, not cars. But the thing that really surprised me was how steep the banked turns were. According to their website, it is a 333.3m track with 28 degree banked turns. That’s just a crazy angle. I did a couple moderately paced laps around it and felt like I was going to slide right off. Then I really pushed it and did 25mph for about a lap and a half and I could barely start leaning into the corners. Those guys must really be flying as they race around that track to feel comfortable.

After that little bit on the track, I went back out to wait for the start of the dinner ride. There were probably around 100-200 people that went on that ride. It’s nice to see so many people out and riding bikes. Anyways, the first leg of the journey was about 10 miles. About halfway through that portion, I looked down to see that my Garmin had turned itself off. Apparently the battery had died. I was a bit perplexed since I had just charged it a couple days before and the battery usually lasts quite a long time. As it turns out, the program that I am using to analyze the data from my Garmin kills the charge any time you sync the Garmin with my computer. It’s quite annoying and I’m still working on a way to fix that. So it looked like the rest of the night I was going to be computer free. I was a bit disappointed since I really love seeing all of that data. I had even brought my heart rate strap with me so I could take a look at my heart rate as well. But what could I do?

About 8 miles into the ride, I started chatting with this nice guy named Dave who was from Indianapolis. We rode about the same pace and he was quite friendly. I told him that I was worried about stopping for dinner since I didn’t have a lock with me. He said that he didn’t either, but he planned on stopping at Subway and their store front is plate glass, so you can see everything that’s going on. I would have loved to go to an Indian place for dinner, but seeing as how paranoid I am about my bike being stolen, I decided to accompany him to Subway. After I had a 6-inch veggie sub and a cup of powerade, we started back out. A couple miles into the return route, we turned onto an unpaved path. It was rideable, but quite tiring. This is also the first time I’ve ever eaten and then immediately gone back out to ride. I’ll make sure never to do that again. Nothing bad happened, and I didn’t get dropped or anything, but I certainly wasn’t feeling 100%. I probably would only have been able to do another 10-15 miles at our current pace however.

Thankfully the route ended about 2 miles after I started feeling iffy.  I said goodbye to Dave and then headed into Indy in order to meet up with Alan at Aesthetics Body Modification.  He was going to try to make it up for the N.I.T.E. Ride, but he messed up his knee a couple weeks before.  I had some time to kill though, and I hadn’t seen his new place yet, so I swung by.  After chatting with him for a good hour or two, I headed back to the velodrome to get ready for the N.I.T.E. Ride.

It was just a little bit busier when I returned than I had left it.  The ride didn’t start for 50 minutes, but there was already probably about 1000 people in line.  I got right in line, since I wanted to be more at the front than at the end.  Upon getting in line, I noticed this one guy who was quite vocal about the dog that he had in a baby sling around his chest.  I found this absolutely retarded that 1) this guy would put a dog in such a place, and 2) then ride 20 miles with the dog like that.  Other than that, the wait for the ride to start was quite uneventful.  Finally at 10:50pm, people started going.  The ride organizers sent people out in bunches of 50-100 people just so it was safe for everyone.  Of course, this meant that me, at the middle of the line, finally crossed the starting line 20 minutes after the first people did.

The ride was amazing.  The roads in Indy are pretty good, but the best part about the whole thing was that we weren’t forced to the side of the road like cyclists normally are.  There were cops at every intersection and the roads we were riding on were blocked off.  There is nothing quite like have the whole road to ride on in downtown Indianapolis.  We rode by the IUPUI campus, which was nice, and then we rode through the city center.  Those buildings are quite pretty.

Another great thing about the ride was how absolutely pissed some drivers were.  As I was riding by an intersection, I heard the following exchange:
“When is this *@#$ going to be over?”
“In about an hour.”
“<angry grumble>”

There was a rest stop about halfway through the ride.  I didn’t need it at all though.  So I just kept on going through.  Shortly afterwords, I caught up with an older gentleman.  I just realized that I never got his name.  Anyways, we rode together for the rest of the ride.  He was friendly as well and made the ride even more enjoyable.

By the time I got back to the velodrome, I wasn’t tired in the least bit.  I feel that is my biggest accomplishment of the weekend.  I rode 20 miles without even feeling it.  I bought my first real bike on June 27th, 2007.  That week, the 2.5 mile commute to my office killed me.  Now, just one year and one day later, I can ride 40 miles in a day without any issue whatsoever.  To be honest, I’m quite amazed.  Just think of what I would have been able to accomplish if I had devoted even more time to this sport.