Wildflower Bike Ride - Cuero, TX

Wildflower Bike Ride Start,
originally uploaded by rungrace01.

It's not chronological, but I wanted to mention a great ride I participated in. It's the Annual Wildflower Ride in Cuero, TX. Here's me and a friend at the start. The ride was in April 2005, the height of the Bluebonnet (and other wildflower) season in Texas. Cuero is geographically special, located at the intersections of the coastal, hill and plains geographies. Therefore, it has a wider variety of flowers than most any other place in Texas. Just beautiful!

My friends and I chose the 25 mile ride (there are 10, 25 and 50 mile routes). I had argued for the 50, but there were no takers. The course was through fields and farms, on back roads, over gently rolling terrain. There were three water and fruit stops so stragglers could catch up, and at the end there were sports drink, bagels, and fruit. No beer, alas. But it was as close to perfect as could be other than lacking beer :-), so this ride will be an annual event for me.

Grace & Roxanne

Grace & Roxanne,
originally uploaded by rungrace01.

This isn't a running pic, but it's related, I swear! This is my friend, who has just "finished" losing about 35 pounds, partly due to re-starting her running program. She and I run at lunch together on treadmills, and it's really motivating (since treadmills are dead boring) for both of us. Here we are sampling well-deserved Margaritas on a Friday after work!