Thanks for all your suggestions.

The hardest part in scaling down from 5K words was the realization that I could not possibly maintain the narrative of a single ride. I could not possibly contain the moments that made up my ride. So I had to step back and it was not editing rather a complete rewrite from a blank document.

All the best stuff had to go. Nothing about passing and being passed by a fellow who I had ridden against in a century a few years ago, as we battled for the honor of slowest and second slowest to complete the ride. Nothing about how I started the ride with my kickstand still down and got heckled by other riders for it, but I wasn't going to stop because stopping would have caused a massive wreck at the beginning. (I was on a recumbent, so I could have done the whole ride with the kickstand down without incident, just an occasional scraping noise in sharp left-hand corners). Nothing about how, when trying to return home, I was prevented from riding on the River Trail and forced up Overlook Drive, which was steeper than any of the hills on the ride and into a tangle of cul de sacs and winding streets and the route out to the main street was so circuitous that none of the few people I could find to ask directions from could give me directions out of the neighborhood. Lots of great stuff fell the the editing room floor.

I even wondered did I need to make the ride to write the article? Could I have just saved myself the money and stood on the sidelines.

Or does having done the 50 mile ride let me write a bit more authentically? I mention a 300 lb man on an ill fitting bike as part of crowd waiting to start. I don't mention that he almost forced me off a hill as he decided that he just couldn't pedal further up the hill at the exact moment two people were passing us, so he cut sharply right to stop and I was boxed in by them on the left. Happily, its easy to stop quickly going up hill. Nor could I describe the fellow on the hand cycle that I mention in the crowd, and how I attempted to catch up to him on the road to Maumelle, but he was too fast! Doctor J, I did mention Arkansasgal, though I did not see her. I wasn't able to work in Ken Gould, founder of BACA who blew past all of us on the steep hill on his recumbent while most riders were struggling to just push their bikes up the hill. Not bad for a guy in his 60's.

But I think the refined article does its job of perhaps presenting an alluring prospect to someone who has not done a ride yet, and I think that was the target market. After all, the editor did not say the readers are people who bike.

So, catch the article in the next issue of the Emerald City of the South, at convenience stores and stand alone racks all over the Little Rock area. This is the third in a series of articles I have written for it. The first described how to use your bike for local chores like going to the post office, the bank or a local store. The second described my recumbent, and now this.