By
Photo by Flickr user J.G Wang
November tends to signal a time for peppermint mochas, couch-locked Netflix binges, and a general air of hibernation in the Pacific Northwest. It can feel like all guts and glory when some of us sprint the ten seconds to our cars or spend five minutes huddled at our bus stops, but a group of Weber Thompson bicyclists decided to challenge the winter slowdown.
It’s December 3rd now and we’ve made it through November, the statistically wettest month of the year in the life of a Seattlelite. For the team of ten WT employees that made up the “WT Mossbacks” team, December 3rd also means the end of Cascade Bicycle Club’s “Ride in the Rain” challenge – another successful team building event designed to encourage bicycle commuting, even in the dreary and drizzly conditions that Seattle’s winters can often provide.
Our goal: a minimum of five roundtrip commutes per rider, equating to a little over one day per week. Easy, right? Now consider the Thanksgiving holiday, the volume of formal work meetings requiring either vehicular travel trips or more formal work digs, the onset of darkness in addition to the rain, and the number of team members that were either new to Seattle or new to the all-weather bike commute. Not so wimpy after all! Our combined bike trips totaled 273, with over 1,150 miles logged. That is more than double our initial goal! In addition to our riders being dedicated, they were also incredibly impactful. These logged miles and trips equate to 1,015 pounds of CO2 avoided, and 56,512 calories burned. You can’t do that in a train, plane, or automobile.
Props to fellow WT Mossback team riders: Chelsea Gorkiewicz, Joanna Luddy, Erik Doran, Josh McDonald, Austin Besse, Erin Hatch, Kirsten Clemens, John Hornibrook, & Jeff Reibman.
We’ve weathered the worst, so let’s keep riding!