Racing the mid-autumn sun

Current Seasonal Total: 2,082.3

Today was one of the few times that my astronomy knowledge proved helpful on the road. In general, taking a late-afternoon ride this late in the season has its risks -- especially if you misjudge the timing of your route and end up too far from home as darkness falls. Keeping an eye on the sun's altitude, I had no such problem today, returning home at 4:28 p.m. . . just seven minutes before sunset. Today, I raced the sun and won!

Although my ride began two hours earlier, at 2:27, it really started this morning, when I realized that because today's only group had re-scheduled their planetarium show, I could take yet another half-day off from work and take advantage of this week's abnormally mild weather. Like yesterday's ride, I added only arm warmers to my warm weather wardrobe of cycling shorts and jersey. I was very comfortable throughout the ride, which was just over 24 miles in length.

Today's ride took me south and east via President Street to the Great Western Trail, then east along the GWT to Kuhn Road, then north and west through the West Branch and Hawk Hollow Forest Preserves. In the last few miles of my route, I took a few camera photos of the long shadows of a late-autumn afternoon, one of which is posted here. [More can be found in my Village Ride Flickr album]. The long shadows are symbolic, for they represent the fact that the end of my 2010 cycling season is on the horizon and fast approaching. This Sunday, with temperatures forecast to be 20 degrees colder (in the mid-40s), I may embark upon my final ride of 2010.