Cycling, Luck, Preakness...

Last Friday was Bike-to-Work Day. I always ride my bike to work anyway; I live in Old Louisville and work downtown, and most often a two-mile bike ride in the morning is very pleasant. But I support cycling to work in general, so I registered for the event.

One of the official rides into downtown ran from Iroquois Park to 4th Street Live, which is basically along my usual route. So I decided to join the cyclists as they passed by, but since the official ride departed at 7:30am, while I leave for work a few minutes before 9am, the roads were empty of bike-to-work riders by the time I left. There were events at lunchtime at 4SL, but I forgot to go until it was nearly over.

Later that evening, I got an email from the bike-to-work organizers: "Congratulations!" it said, "Your name was drawn by Terry Meiners to win a Trek 7000 commuter bikes for registering to Bike-to-Work Day!"

I was completely dumbfounded.

The next day, I went on a cycling trip to Mike Linnig's out in southwestern Jefferson County. We took the long route around the Riverwalk, had a flat tire, a detour, and a mild crash, and made much slower time than I had hoped. We got there around mid-afternoon, and I had a plate of fried gator and turtle soup to recharge. My wife drove us home because we had evening plans, and I made a few quick wagers on the Preakness before we headed out to dinner at Rocky's acrosss the river in Indiana.

We had a great table with fantastic views of the city; it was a great time to go, and they had a TV with the race on. We watched the Preakness, and I said: "OMG! I think I hit an exacta!" When I got home, I checked my tickets: not only did I hit an exacta, I hit the trifecta! I won about $150 on that race.

Of course, he whom Fortune's wheel lifts high will soon be cast down, so I was wary of coming unluck. But on the bike ride, my front tire hit a patch of mud at the bottom of a hill, and I flew over my handlebars and slid along the muddy path upside for a couple of feet. I was unharmed but for skinning my elbow, but it's at least a little bad luck to leaven what good fortune I had this weekend, aha.

EDIT

Fried gator and turtle soup at Mike Linnig's...