Question: Can you survive an epic dance birthday party, only to wake up and have to spin your face off at Cycle for Survival?

My birthday party was Saturday night. My REAL birthday is February 15, so you still have time to get me presents. (Swim coach) Todd and I had been planning it for about three weeks and were hoping for a whopper of a party.

I rode my bike down to meet him Saturday morning since the weather was amazing! 40 degrees and sunny. Wait, thats nice weather?! NYC has been slammed with a winter I wont soon forget, so 40 and sunny sounds like heaven. Speaking of heaven, thats exactly where I was when riding down to meet him. It had been 2 months since I rode and I really missed it. All smiles.

We went out to Costco to get beer, liquor and snacks for the party. It was absolute mayhem. They send everyone into the store with these obnoxious double wide shopping carts that no one knows how to drive. On the outside I looked like a happy shopper, but on the inside I was screaming. This was an exercise in patience.

Lets skip right along to the party.

For the first few hours I was bar tending. It was during this time that I realized I am a horrible bar tender. I get way to distracted talking to people and bobbing around to the music.

The place really got bumping around 10-12 when the entire Runner Army showed up (sans running gear) as well as numerous other friends. At one point there were 40-50 of us out dancing.

SIDENOTE: If I am not running, biking or swimming I have an over abundance of energy. If you feed me enough beer I will dance until my legs fall off. I like lots of attention and therefore will try and dance with everybody.

I was home in bed by 1:30-2AM. On a non-race weekend this would be dandy as I could sleep in, but I had to wake up for Cycle for Survival.

I had joined Jess, from fitchickinthecity.com, and her team. I had the last shift which was a life saver based on my behavior the night before. Arriving at 10:30AM I had 20 minutes until it was my turn to ride. There were maybe 500 people and 150 spin bikes set up and the volume of dance music trumped my party by 10.

Jumping on the bike we set off with a bunch of intervals. My instructor was this feisty gal who whooped our butts. In 10 minutes I was soaking wet with sweat and totally lucid. This feeling is why I love spinning. You cant really experience it on a regular bike because the faster you go, the more windy it is, therefore cooling you down.

After 45 minutes of grueling spin it was over. I’m pretty sure I sweat out all the booze from the night before. Jess, her husband Rick and I set off for some food.

After food, I rode my bike down to help Todd clean up the party.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the party! it was so awesome seeing everyone!