Yes, I am that awesome, thank you.

This week I took a gig at a school that's just up the road.  I live at (around) the 13oo block of 14th street, and this school is a straight shot up, on the 5000 block of 14th street - all told, just over three miles, with a nicely marked bike lane almost the whole way.  Lovely.

A quick lesson in DC city planning: east-west streets are named, A-Z (actually, A-W, but whatev), then 2 syllable words A-Z, and the three syllable words A-Z, then plant names A-Z, and that takes care of the whole city by "Juniper" or so.  (This could be a much longer lesson, of course, but that's all we need for this particular story.)

So.  I live at (near) 14th and N.  The school is at 14th and Gallatin.  Gal-la-tin.  Just under two alphabets.

Anyway, back our show... 

One of the things I love about biking is that it's almost always faster than public transportation, especially for short distances.  Going up 14th street from P, by my house, to U, for example, I pretty much always beat.  This is because the bus has to stop every block to let people on an off, and I don't.  Also, I ride like the wind.  

This morning, as I turned right onto 14th at P, there was a bus, headed north.

  

Ready, set, go.  

It started badly for me.  Apparently no one felt like getting off from P-T, and no one really felt like getting on either, so the bus didn't have to stop at all, it just bumbled along and I pedaled away behind it, watching it get two, then three blocks ahead.  

But luck was on my side once we got to U St, where tons of people all of a sudden needed a bus.  Thanks, U St.  I not only caught up, but got a good enough lead goi

ng into the hill  starting at Belmont that by the time we got to the top, in Columbia Heights, at Harvard, the bus and I were neck and neck.  The better part of a whole alphabet and still no clear front-runner.  This was set to be quite the race. 

When the light changed at Irving, I took off, legs pedaling fast, eyes on the prize, down a little hill from Newton to Perry, then up again to Shepherd, then down another little one to Upshur, and then the final big hill, from Webster to Farragut, 5000 14th St. 

By the time I pulled into the parking lot at Gallatin, the 5000 block 14th St, I had not only left the bus that had started with me at P St in the dust, but 

I had also passed the bus in front of it as well.  

All while saving myself the $1.25 bus fare.  

God, I love my bike. 8-)