A Day of 100 Miles of Bicycling, 13 Donut Store Visits and One Promise Fulfilled

September 21, 9:17 PMCycling ExaminerAlan Snel

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It was time to pay up today so at 5:45 a.m. I began a 100-mile bicycle ride to celebrate bicyling, donuts and the at-one-time-unlikely scenario of a baseball team called the Tampa Bay Rays clinching a playoffs berth in Major League Baseball's playoffs.

I stopped off at 13 Dunkin' Donuts stores along a bike route from my house in Tampa to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg to fulfill a vow made back in June when the Rays' winning ways were seen as novel and maybe even a quirk in the baseball world. Dunkin' Donuts and the Rays had a tasty promotional deal that allowed anyone to walk into a DD store on the day after a Rays win and get a free donut.

I promised three months ago that if the Rays clinched a playoff spot, I would bike 100 miles the next day and visit every Dunkin' Donuts along a 100-mile bike ride to pick up a free donut at every store.

I biked those 100 miles today and enjoyed the company of Dunkin' Donuts public relations whiz Toby Srebnik today. Toby came over from south Florida this morning and joined me at store No. 5 along the Rays victory donut bike ride as I collected my free donut and gave away free food and coffee coupons and Dunkin' Donuts towels, too, to customers.

Combining bicycling and baseball and donts was a lot of fun during a 100-mile bike ride. But I'm afraid I wasn't up to eating 13 donuts today, and instead parcelled them out to folks hawking Sunday newspapers at street corners and homeless people along the way. Channel 10 in Tampa Bay, a CBS affiliate, covered the ride: http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=90338&catid=8

This was one of my favorite photos of the day. In the pre-dawn hours at one Dunkin' Donuts store, thre employees pose with Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir. As you can see, Kaz is looking a little stiff from pitching the day before.

I gave a donut to this Sunday newspaper hawker and he gladly accepted the donut and used the St. Petersburg newspaper as a burkha.

This fella is double-fisted in teh donut department. It's very early in the ride, probably around 6:20 a.m.

Some appreciative customers enjoy a free towel and coupons.

These trio of Dunkin' Donuts lovelies are pleased with their towels.