Fireflies in the City

18 Apr 2010, Makati

I joined the 12th Tour of the fireflies today, an environment-friendly 38k, bike ride around the 7 cities in Metro Manila. The cities: Pasig – Quezon City – Marikina – Cainta – Taguig – Makati and Mandaluyong.
My participation today was not calendared. I was supposed to do a 10K Earth Run but my running mate Almond, run out of fund! (runs in the country actually are getting expensive!) I told him not to worry since I plan to recharge this Sunday after 1 stressful week.
My plan changed last Friday when I got sms from D, my new bike mate. He asked me if I wanted to Tour. After 3 hours of sleep last night, Cham and I got ourselves ready and waited for D. I was lucky to have free breakfast because D introduced me to his friends from Team St. Luke’s when they were at the fast food chain counter ordering. I, not only gained new friends but even got a new free bike jersey!
Every year, I see cyclists on television joining the Tour with their colorful costume while they peddle. This year, I didn’t see a lot of colors. I saw one biker in his barong, another one in her Halloween attire, another one in Cinderella. The last one that caught my eye was the one in cruiser bike wearing “short” shorts. I thought she was one of the organizers giving water to the other cyclists since she had quite a number of bottled water on her rear racks. Good I didn’t stop her!
The assembly started at Tiendesitas 30-40 minutes late. The sun was already up and D teased me when I started fanning myself with my yellow fan. We went through C-5 Road in Libis, down to Marcos Highway then turned at Sta Lucia. I thought it was Pasig, but only to realize that we were already in Cainta! At Ortigas Extension, we headed back through C-5 towards The Fort. I got off Cham since there was traffic due to the volume of bikers. And voila! I felt that my muscles were beginning to contract. Before hitting McKinley Road, I stopped for 5 minutes and replenished my body fluid. I sent sms to D so he would know. At McKinley, I felt the adrenalin rush, I was hitting 30 km/h and stood up to pedal much more. Whew! After passing five cities, I noticed Cham’s saddle was too low and I wasted my energy for I did a standing pedaling. I after  I crossed Edsa and got to Ayala Avenue, Makati City seeing an injured biker. I thanked God for I did not hurt myself.

Since there was still an on-going program between Paseo de Roxas and Makati, the friends of D decided to have lunch. Before getting on Cham from the pavement, I felt that I needed to slow down. Finally, under a 35 deg C weather, I decided to rest my muscle by completing 6 cities instead of 7 with a distance of 28k instead of 38k. Anyhow, I was already in Makati! h