27.8-

Marcus and I went on another bike ride this weekend. He completely planned the route for this one. Saturday morning, when I arrived at his house I only asked him if the route was 15 miles (because I was running late). He assured me it was and we were off.

The weather was beautiful, and the air was crisp. It was the perfect morning for a bike ride. As we went further south and further west, I began to wonder when we were going to turn around to head back home. I mentioned to Marcus that I felt like the bike ride would likely be longer than 15 miles and I tried to estimate the distance in my head. I felt like it was more like 25 miles, but I was not sure.

I thought about telling Marcus to ‘amend’ the route so we could make it back home sooner, but didn’t because of the message it might send. I believe “cutting corners” is increasingly more common in today’s culture. By my estimation, quality of work is increasingly being sacrificed to personal integrity in order to save time. It is a sad observation of society, but that is what I have observed. Hopefully I’m wrong.

I’m not sure how Marcus would have interpreted me telling him to change in the route. He probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. The one thing I was sure of was that I did not want to give him the impression that cheating is OK. If he believed the route was 15 miles than I believed we should stick to it. So we strictly maintained the previously decided route and I figured there would be no problem in extending our 15 mile bike ride. The extra miles would be a learning experience, if nothing else.

Being extremely curious, when we arrived back home I measured the distance using Google Maps. We traveled a bit more than 15 miles and actually went 27.8. I was excited to inform Marcus that we had actually traveled more than double any of our previous rides.

He had absolutely no problem with the extended mileage. I was a little sore, but survived quite well. I think neither he nor I feel like our upcoming 50 miler will be much of a problem (assuming we can measure it correctly).

Three bike hikes down, four to go (45+ miles logged, 105 miles remaining).

Scott

Self Portrait: