Friday was the last day of the Group Health Commute Challenge. To celebrate, some coworkers involved with the challenge met for lunch to yak about bikes and riding in general. It's cool to connect with people you work with - at something not work related. Every company I've worked at, we had a some bike related fun involved. I'll will take some credit for that. I seem to get people involved with bikes once I'm around 'em enough.
My 10 member Nordstrom corporate team, Team Jerkcx, did pretty well this year. At the moment, out of 1200+ teams, we're in 10th place for mileage and 50th place for days biked. As the smoke clears and people enter their final mileage, that may change a bit - but overall, not shabby at all. We had 10 teams signed up for Nordstrom, with 90+ people riding, our best year ever. Now we just need, ahem, some actual corporate involvement.
Later on Friday afternoon, some of us cut out a little early and rode from our office in Seattle to the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville - a nice cruise on the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River Trail. The "Redhook Ramble", brain child of Gerry Grimm, coworker and fellow rider, is something we try to pull off at least twice a summer. Depending on who shows up, it can turn into the "Redhook Rumble" with some drafting and sprinting involved. Fun stuff.
Redhook brews their own beer, good food, outside seating - all right off the Sammamish River Trail. A great place to end a ride.
Reynold and his girl Holly. Reynold did a killer job on my team. Not one missed riding day and 700+ commuting miles for the month. Holly rode with a team for AT&T, cranking out 800+ commuting miles for the month. She had a bet with Reynold that she'd kick his ass - and she did. Cool people.
Phil and Gerry, captains of two other Nordstrom teams - provided some friendly competition. Gerry's team has grabbed the high mileage crown for a few years in a row. Not this year, my team has taken that honor - heh, heh. Gerry's team did however score the most days biked. Phil and I have almost identical commutes and share rides home often. Nice guys and fun to ride with.
After the Redhook "Off-Site Team Building Meeting", I hopped back on my bike for the ride home. Combined with my usual commute, a 50+ mile day. Pretty good for a work day - no?