Chapter 3

Once we had loaded up our bikes on the back of my Jeep, Melody gave me the location of the start of a group ride that I didn’t know had actually been planned: Marymoor Park in Redmond. The park is massive with a combination of multi-use areas like ball fields, soccer pitches, a flight area for RC craft, and even the famed (or was that infamous?) Marymoor Velodrome, one of the few remaining outdoor and mostly publicly available velodromes in the US. I wasn’t at all a track racer, but like most cyclists, I had at least dabbled in it a few times just for the heck of it. For me, track racing is a lot like NASCAR ... A bunch of turning left without actually getting anywhere! And just like NASCAR, a lot of track cycling fans were there for the wipeouts! You see, the Marymoor Velodrome is a concrete track, so crashes really left a mark, so to speak! OUCH!

We were meeting at one of the parking areas, where a lot of Cascade Bike Club rides start and finish, and when we arrived I thought perhaps we had hit near the start time of a Cascade club ride ... Until I looked a little closer and saw a lot more team related kits than normal for a club ride! I quickly spotted the UW and Starbucks jerseys, and a few that I didn’t recognize ... Moreover, nearly all the riders were women ... Hmmmmmmm. I recognized many of the riders, with all the UW “A” and “B” team there, even though Melody had graduated and was in the process of moving over to the Starbucks team. And speaking of the Starbucks team, it appeared that all of them had made it as well, all twelve riders strong, with Melody sporting her newly issued Starbucks team kit for this ride. I saw a handful or time-trial type frames, with some dark burgundy jerseys, which seeing Joy waving in the same kit, told me we had some local Triathletes with us as well. When we rolled up to the maelstrom, I was greeted by plenty of hugs and kisses on the cheeks from women I knew only casually, and my five ladies in particular! And, as always, spandex does not lie! There were some serious cycling ‘eye candy’ in this group! Once we were through with the preliminaries, Melody walked into the open space in the middle and held up her hand for quiet. The group quieted quickly and nearly thirty pairs of eyes were focused on the love of my life...

“Thank you, everyone, for pulling this together on such seeming short notice, at least as far as Nate knows!”. This was met with a pretty good chorus of laughter and cat-calls! “We are here for two reasons. One that I told you all about, and one that Nate is going to have to spill about!” And thirty sets of eyes smoothly pivoted to me! I simply stood there in silence, as I awaited some idea of where Melody was going with this. “The first reason, is to hail the Olympic Silver medalist in Road Cycling!” And a thunderous cheer went up from all the riders in front of me, causing my cheeks to heat in embarrassment! There was again much shouting and hugging and kissing as everyone pressed forward to congratulate me in their own way! Melody let this go on for a few minutes, and as it started to wind down, she once again raised her hand and things settled down again... “The second, is on Nate’s plate, and we only found about it this morning while catching up on postal mail...” And she turned and indicated that the floor (or parking lot, anyway) was mine!