Stung Again!!!

I noticed some freshly painted ride marks on my bike route on Thursday night, so I did some googling and found the Wheels in the Park ride. They had a 10, 30, & 50 mile rides on Saturday morning. It was perfect since I needed to do a 2:40 ride and it was on my home turf too. Always good to seek out some alternative roads to mix things up a bit. I rode over to the Bob Rodale Fitness Park in the morning and signed up. I put down a banana and off I went. The morning was sooo humid. It was the closest you could get to raining without raining. I was coated in moistness.
The roads were my typical route roads but many times we went in the opposite direction than I usually go. After about 5 miles I was cruising down a pretty flat section and all of a sudden a large bug flew down my half-unzipped jersey. Oh shit! I hope that wasn’t a stinging insect. I shook my jersey out a bit and kept on riding. Next thing I know WHAM!!! A sharp sting right around my ribs on the right side. Then another one…Shit! I was going around 20mph at this point and before I knew it I was rapidly approaching a stop sign, so I needed to suck it up and apply the brakes. Another sting! I finally came to a stop and hoisted my jersey up to find a large, hairy bumblebee clinging to the bibs of my cycling shorts. I flicked him off as he squirmed a bit before his final demise on the road. The stinging subsided and eventually turned to itching but I found some inner strength to push on :). This year is the year stings for me.
I passed a beehive “set of drawers” in a field later in the ride and was really hoping not to get stung again. The ride was pretty nice and mostly flat to rolling hills. The sun eventually came out and made things even hotter. Good hot weather training. The folks from Sodexo who put on the ride had a nice stir fry at the end which was great. I didn’t eat the chicken though. Ended up with ~55 miles with the commute to the start included.