Global Wandering

Bike Rack - Amsterdam

Next Saturday I am riding in the local MS Society Charity Ride. I have never participated in a large group ride. I prefer to ride alone. A couple of years ago I went out with our local bike club and kept up the 22 mile per hour pace for the entire two hours. Afterwards, I was exhausted and I realized how much I dislike others setting my pace. I’ve not ridden with the club since. I would rather ride slow or speed up when I want and get lost in my thoughts while listening to some music or an audio book.

I’m not much for long distances either. My next-door neighbor and I got the hair brain idea a few years back to ride from our little Idaho town down into the Teton Valley, over the pass into the Swan Valley and back west again to our homes. I trained for weeks and completed the 130 miles in about 8 or 9 hours, although I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t like self-inflicted pain.

So given my preference for riding alone for reasonable pain-free distances, I’m not sure why I signed up for the ride. Curiosity I suspect. I see so few bikers around here that it would be interesting to see 100 or so gathered in one place. Plus the Saturday route is notorious for its brisk tailwind, and it is mostly down hill. The Sunday route retraces the Saturday route, hence brisk headwind and mostly uphill. I’ll only be riding on Saturday.

The routes aren’t even the standard MS Charity Ride distance of 75 miles per day. They offer a 45 or a 62 mile option. We like to make things easy here in Idaho. In fact, rumor has it that they are putting spinner bikes on the back of flat-bed trucks for those that would like to finish the route in less than an hour.