Oh Yeah, I'm Supposed to be Riding a Bike

I have that bike ride thing rapidly approaching and I haven't done the things I was supposed to be doing to prepare. Things like, oh I dunno, riding my bike so that when I get to the start line in a little over a month, I don't collapse 15 feet later while 30,000 other bikers use me as a speed bump. I also haven't talked to the other people I'm doing this thing with (that's 4 instances of "thing" in the span of 3 sentences. Nice vocabulary there Mark). So there are a few unanswered questions that I shall now list cuz I'm a tool.

1. how are we getting down to NYC? (I said I'd drive but this means I have to get a bike rack so that Solh and I can actually have our bikes with us, which I'm sure you'll agree, would be quite helpful).
   
2. how the hell are we getting from Dave's house to the actual start of the event? The start line is in Battery Park over in Manhattan and Dave lives out in the frickin' boonies. Are we driving all the way in? Taking the train part of the way? Teleportation?
   
3. if we are intending on doing the whole ride (which I assume we are), shouldn't we skip the boat ride from Staten Island back to Manhattan?

There are other questions but I can't think of them. I am looking forward to this but my anal retentive ways are currently clashing with my procrastination streak. It isn't pretty. There are a couple of things I have to do to the bike that I'm planning on using before the ride too that I haven't started yet. Nothing radical but just to make it easier for riding in the city I'm putting slicks on the ol' mountain bike. Also, I need to replace my stupidly hard and unforgiving seat with one of these:

I'm just not into squashing the "boys" anymore thanks. The ride isn't that difficult or too long (42 miles if we don't skip the trip back to Manhattan) so it should be a fun time. I hope it doesn't rain that day.