I am pretty sure today's ride is the most "out of my comfort" zone ever ride to-date. Not because of the terrain, nor the distance, nor the charity riders, but because Bikes Not Bomb Bikeathon encourages riders to dress up in costume (although I think any road bike gear is a costume to begin with), I got easily persuaded by Eric M (one of the ride organizer) to appear in my Halloween costume from last year for my volunteer duty. I was first tasked to check the first 45 miles of the 80 miles route 45 minutes before everyone else departs on my bike. Basically I was the scout with a BIG GIANT TARGET on the back. My worry was subsided as I rode along, not because I am Captain America, but because it was early Sunday morning and the majority of the route is on quiet roads. There were zero near life threatening incidents on my solo 45 miles ride from JP to Ashland. When I encounter drivers or other bikers, either they have a friendly smile, gave me space, and/or just plain leave me alone because they figured out I am a nut (which to their credit they guessed absolutely correctly!!!) Eric M did a great job marking the route, therefore I only need to break out my chalks for less than half a dozen time. The job was rather easy and I enjoyed my brisk solo ride. I encounter a guy who was not part of the BNB bikeathon but who was following all the wonderful markings of Eric M for his own solo ride. We chat and I was failed to persuade him to ride back to Boston and drop $200 for the fundraising. Oh well, my borrowed comic book power can only go for so much (Well, I find out later it actually can go very far, more on that in couple paragraphs) The alone time reminded me about on-ride nutrition. Given that I did a 200K yesterday with 6500 ft of climbing involved, my tank was more empty than usual. I was very diligently consuming two Kind Bars between each rest stop and watch for any early sign of dehydration or malnutrition. Sharp cheddar cheese cubes were my favorite food at each rest stop today. The taste of it balanced out all the sweetness of the Gatorade and other sugary "bike food" (sorry I don't mean to classified Kind Bar as a "bike food" but I only eat it while I am on my bike). I rode hard on number roads (state highways for those who do not understand the rando lingo) as my Randonneurs instinct told me to get off the main road as fast as possible and rested and enjoyed the sights in the neighborhood/nature part of the ride. I took a break after my first task by visiting coffee haven in downtown Holliston for an Iced Tea and a pastry. After my break, the second duty that I assigned for was to direct bike traffic to/away from the 80 miles route. Riders appreciated a friendly face in the middle of the ride and again the Cap AM costume made me semi-legit to direct traffic in Holliston. I thought I would be waiting forever for the last rider to show up, so I backtracked the route to the rest stop after no body went through for more than 10 minutes and delighted to learn that the last rider was with the sweep marshall and they were heading out of the rest stop for the short cut route. Basically my duty is DONE at that point. Woo Hoo! I am a free man, so I thought... I met up with Jon D at the next rest stop. He had to get home to tend to his 6 months old kid, so I put my engine to full throttle and rocketed through Sherborn, and Dover. He decided to head straight back afterwards and I started picking up riders on my very very very loose train of a "group" between I saw Jon went his way on his short cut and arriving at the Dover check point. The route is quite brutal for riders who are not used to hills. As much as I thought Dover is a swamp (I know, a very expensive one), there were lots of rollers and switch back on the route. So I assumed my ride leading/sweeping duty and guided the tired riders through turns and navigation. I picked up a kid from the BNB team (he looks like he is in middle school) ~20 miles before the end. He said he was lost and he was supposed to do the 30 mile ride, I told him to just follow me as I know the route (thanks to GPS, cellphone, and old fashion cue sheet). He was actually quite spunky at first and attacked every hill that he sees, but spinning at high RPM the rest of the time. The riding style, temperature of the day, and his deficit in hydration soon got to him. I was his guarding "soldier", cheerleader, and mentor for the next 15 miles. He was very quiet at first (well score 1 to teach kids for not talking to crazy looking stranger), but increasing recognized that he needed help and we built a trust. I informed him about ride nutrition, road rules, and even showed off my non-existant cyclocross dismount in a very practical fashion--hopping off the bike to use the pedestrian crossing to get through a tough left turn, if one is available. On the urban cycling topic: "Urban bicycle riding skills" should be taught in the American education system. Yes, by now that you should find out that I should be Captain Netherland instead of Captain America. At the end, I feel a little bit more larger than life than I woke up this morning. The crazy costume was a weird "tool" that I had today to have a big brother/big sister style mentoring to an inner city kid. Please give applause (and money) to BNB for the great involvement in the JP community to educate under-privileged kids valuable skills with their after school working program and get them out of trouble. I did not pay too much attention to what BNB does before (beside it is a way to get rid of an un-used bicycle). Now I totally will support them by donation or by volunteering. Thank you Eric M for this opportunity and thank you for reading.