Success is Sweet!

Saturday September 15^th dawned cloudy and a little cool, but a small band of intrepid cyclists turned out to challenge the 60 kilometer course my staff and I had laid out through the city.  Traveling through historic streets and sheltered urban forests, it showed some of the best that Kansas City has to offer.

There were a lot of competing events for Saturday and not being able to move my birthday did force us onto a specific date. There were at least 3 other bike rides, the Zoo Run, numerous fall fests and events that competed with ours.  We had four riders, but all four went the distance.  In addition to myself, Jim Haake, NHS construction manager, Leslie Alford, Executive Director of the Blue River Watershed Association, and Brent Berry, Loan Manager for Wells Fargo Mortgage.

We headed out in good time, the weather was beautiful as the day wore on, and we ended the first loop back at our offices after 25 miles.  Despite some aches and pains, all four of us set out, and finished the rest of the ride, completing the full 60k in around 4 hours.  For the metrically challenged, this is about 37 miles, so four hours is pretty good when you factor in breaks and the hills that the route covered.

The ride-ending cook out was much better attended, with roughly 20 folks enjoying burger, hot dogs and some Kansas City brewed refreshments at the end of the ride.  Board members, neighborhood presidents and incoming board members were in attendance, as well as realtors, lenders, staff and general well wishers (like my brother John.)

Thanks to everyone that helped support this event-  Brent Berry, Erica Dobreff, Lynn Craghead, Bradley Streeter, Mike Nied, Time Clemons, Saundra Hayes (especially for the great cake!), Joe Keane and Anne Kinerk, Amy Crouse, Craig Colbert, Bridget Oelklaus, Joyce Wrinkle, Marti Lee, Ann Nixon, Jennifer Buxton, Jackie Watts, Augusta Wilbon, Venita Fain Siffre, and Leslie Alford.  Thanks too to Robin Wells of Country Club Bank and Turner Pettway of US Bank.  Special thanks to my wife Diana who put up with a lot of early morning rides and empty Sunday mornings so that I could get in shape for this. Love you De.

Some thanks to unofficial sponsors too. Revolve on Troost gave me a lot of good advice, as well as selling me my bike.  Kmart carried a great selection of stuff for my bike and Schwinn and Bell had great products that worked right and performed as advertised. Dicks Sporting Goods was a great spot to buy the less traditional items such as bike clips and padded bike shorts. (I do love those padded shorts!)

Finally, the NHS Board and Staff were supportive throughout, and as far as I know, none of them bet against me finishing. If you did, I hope you covered the spread!

I finished the day with what I thought was going to be a quiet dinner at V’s in Independence, but turned out to be a surprise 60^th party. All my kids, grand kids and extended family put in an appearance.    I was supposed to carb load before the ride, but I am sure I will burn it off as I continue riding.

Sunday was a rest day, but I was back out on Monday, hitting the streets and the trails, and finished slightly over 10 miles in 58 minutes.

The bike blogging is behind me, but I hope to continue to post items of interest related to housing, special programs, houses for sale, neighborhoods making progress forward, and of course, whether or not Brad Pitt will be at the ribbon cutting for Bancroft.

Stay tuned. 

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