Cleaning out my office closet and running across stickers and a patch reminded me it’s the season for two of my favorite things in one fun challenge: Riding my bike and drinking coffee. It’s coffeeneuring season!
A portmanteau word that combines coffee and randonneuring, this creation of Mary Gersemalina’s makes for great fall riding motivation. This is Year 16. I haven’t ridden every year, but I rode in 2011, the very first year it was created.
In the it’s-a-small-world biking circle, Mary was inspired to create it by a conversation with her friend Joe Platzner after a randonneuring trip. The next year I took a job as the executive director at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (later named Washington Bikes thanks to one of the initiatives I led). Joe served on their board at the time. Who knows who you might meet or learn of because of coffeeneuring who might later re-enter your life in some way?
Mary’s post rounds up the rules. The challenge started Oct. 11 so I’m still within that first week. It runs through Nov. 25 and surely I can get in 8 rides to 7 locations, no more than two per week, each trip two miles in length or more. One “problem”: My neighborhood coffee shop/bakery is only 3/4 of a mile away. Easily solved, just noodle around the neighborhood a bit to create a ride of two miles total.
I’m never sorry I start an attempt at coffeeneuring, even if I don’t quite reach the magic number of rides within the time frame. Fall is my favorite season, or at least it is when it’s aflame with crimson, gold and orange on the trees and the sun is shining in a blue sky. When it’s gray and soggy and tending toward winter, maybe not so much.
Per the rules, you can absolutely consume a fall-appropriate beverage of your choice, coffee-adjacent or not. Maybe this year I try to mix it up a bit more, throw in some hot cider or hot cocoa alongside hazelnut or caramel lattes, chai, and straight up black coffee.
Are you in?
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