First Metric Century of 2009

It was a long time coming, but I finally got another 100 km today. It wasn't an easy day for a metric century...pretty chilly (for Taiwan) and darn blustery. I had winds coming at me from every direction, and at one point I could only muster 14.6 km an hour. That's slow even for a turtle like me.

Still, it was fantastic to get out on the bike and ignore all the weather forecasts that called for rain. I figured this was as good a day as any to stay out for hours. I should have eaten more, though. I started out with no breakfast, but stopped for some of Taiwan's famous healthy nuts and seeds that I had in my seat bag about 12 miles into my ride. After that, I stopped a few times for more nuts and portions of the Snickers Bar I had along with me.

The bike took me to the end of the Jingfu Bike path, a ride I haven't done in far too long. There have been a couple of new improvements to the path, which made it an even better ride than before. Since I knew my first goal of the day was to reach 80 km, I turned around at the end, rode back to one of the rivers, and turned left to head over to Guandu. Decided to stop at a convenience mart for more sustenance, then sat at the biker's rest area not too far from the temple.

As this is Chinese New Year's Eve, the temples can be pretty busy with people visiting. I was wondering why all the policemen were at the temple, and up and down the road, when I noticed a prison bus pulling in to the parking lot. When I left, two more buses had joined that one. I guess even prisoners are allowed a visit to a temple on this auspicious day.

Once I left the temple, I knew just heading back on the bike path wouldn't garner me my 100 km, so I traveled up and down the roads in Tienmu a bit until I made my goal. Now I just need to hit 5 more metric centuries for my 2009 goal.