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(September 22 is World Car-Free Day. As such, a biking group, the Firefly Brigade, organized a bike out today around the cities of Pasig and Marikina.)
I can't believe I biked more than 40 kilometers today.
It's my very first attempt at joining bike-outs especially because I previously had no bike. Thanks to Ate Mimi (who lets me use her bike for the meantime that she's preggy :D ) I'm able once again to ride it and get to places using it.The first few times I brought it along Ortigas Avenue kind of freaked me out because there were all sorts of vehicles whizzing by, left and right. Thank God I got accustomed to it (I had to, if I wanted to be really serious about this thing) and tried joining today's CMR (Critical Mass Ride? Not sure about FB's terminology) in Tiendesitas in Pasig this afternoon.As expected, it rained in the afternoon, as if there was a typhoon. I had second thoughts of proceeding to Tiendesitas because of it (it always rains in the afternoon after a very hot morning! Darn it...), but thankfully, it stopped after around 20 minutes of a continuous strong outpour. I readied my gear and biked from our house to Pasig by 2:45 pm.And because there were around 50 of us (estimate only: I remember signing up this afternoon at the 40th slot, that luckily won me a shirt in a mini-raffle courtesy of FB, yey!!), I wasn't too worried about getting around on my bike. Add to that that three more UPM were with me -- Gigit, Char and Pio (who's also on the FB). I wasn't even expecting that! Twas nice to see someone I know with the trip, else I'd feel so out of place, lols!Good thing I started stocking up on necessary equipment. Just like during the start of my mountaineering adventure last year, I had to well, allocate budget for this. (Salamat po AUB :p ) Had to buy a new bike cable lock to secure the bike (the old one rusted off after years of disuse), a safety helmet (on sale at Toby's) and bike safety light (what was that again -- that thing that's installed on the rear of a bike for biking at night). I also had to look for my work out gloves (biking for hours make my bare hands hurt), as well as my LED headlamp since I already anticipated that we'll run out of sunlight before returning to Tiendesitas.The route took us from Pasig through the perennially-heavy-traffic corridor of Ortigas Avenue, then Floodway's West Bank Road, then Rodriguez, to Marcos Highway, then through several streets in Marikina that I only slightly knew of but didn't know the names. We went around and I really appreciated Marikina for having those VERY NICE bike lanes. Somehow I wish they'd get implemented as well in the entire Metro Manila area. We got a lot of intersections while on the road wherein a vehicle attempting to cross cannot proceed because we didn't want to break our convoy of bikers. I sensed they got harassed because of us hahaha! Though there were some who tried to harass a few of us bikers, but because we were so darn many, it didn't work. At least this time we were the ones harassing them. X-D
As we zoomed through different streets, people noticed the length of our contingent. A few kids playing on the road got amazed at our number. Hehehe. There were even a few people who were silly enough to flag us down (as if we were PUVs, hahaha!).
We had a stop at Pan de Amerikana for a snack. And I must say, the place is really cozy for a bread shop. As Gigit commented, if you haven't much budget for a date but want a nice place to dine in then this is probably one of them. My problem right now is finding it again since I wasn't familiar with the area in Marikina so I can't imagine how to get there. Thank God there's Google Maps to map it out for me. :DIt was already starting to get dark when we started our bike back to Pasig. I think it was around 6 pm? So our contingent started pedalling again, this time towards Sumulong Avenue towards Riverbanks complex. Then from there we proceeded to Libis / C-5 and back to Tiendesitas. Took us four hours total (including the snack stop). I ate dinner with the rest of the FB group -- Mam Karen, Mia, Ramon, Bogs, Pio and the other FB officers. (I'm sorry, I must admit I'm not really good at remembering names on the first try ^_^ ).And so, I'm here, taking note of what's happened today. Twas a very nice experience riding with a relatively big group of bikers, and I can't wait for the next CMRs. :-) And of course, I hope with what we did (and what the FB regularly does in general), it can raise awareness that biking is good not only for oneself but also to the environment, and you can save on gas too. =)  | Hey Ronx, astig to see you there at the CMR...you're one awesome addition to the link in the chain! Pan de Amerikana is really cool. The waiter told me how to get there by PUJ....from Katipunan/Aurora Blvd., take the SSS Village jeep and get off BayTree. From there, ask around na lang, it's a short walk. Maybe with some UPM folks, we can do a short weekend pigout ride there, di ba? |
 | Huwaaaat?! BAY TREE? Hahaha in that case alam ko na yun! Kung short walk na nga lang talaga. Eksaktong yun din kasi mismo ang directions papunta sa isang kaibigan ko nung college. Stiiig!!!!
Now I know. Wehehehe. Yeah masaya yun, gandang venue kasi eh. =D
Hope to see you guys around in the succeeding CMRs. Sobrang naadik ako!! At least this will certainly be part of my bike training / practices. At ayoko rin naman pahuli sa mga bike-outs ng UPM. Hehehe!!!! =D |
| Ronx, pics are on my site na |
| ^ Tenks!! Uy! Featured pa ko sa site hahahah!! Tenkyu! =D |
 | It's nice to see another biker going through the ropes and toughing it. It inspires those who organize (Firefly Brigade) to continue with its biking advocacy efforts and also those others who need some re-energization in biking. Our numbers should grow and it would be nice to see bikes claim the streets in Metro Manila - all for cleaner air and cleaner environment, not to mention healthier and more physically fit people.
Congrats! |
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