To the moon....and part way back

A number of years ago, Velonews published an At The Back column about a guy who had been a lifetime commuter and had estimated, over the course of time, that he had ridden the equivalent of the mileage to the moon and back. Roughly 476,000mi. I remember reading that article and wondering how many miles I had ridden. So I went out and got a new heart rate monitor/cyclo-computer so I could start tracking my mileage.

That was 6yrs ago. In the intervening six years I’ve gone on to have a family, business, etc…but it got me to thinking.

When's the first time your rode bike? Do you remember it as well as I
do? I was at my parent's house in New Hampshire and I never
dreamed a bike would eventually carry me more than 313,000 miles. That’s to the moon and a good part of the way back!

At first, it was a toy. It was a play thing. But that toy gave me a
strange feeling of freedom that I hadn't experienced. I could go
further, faster than I ever had before. A bicycle gave me my first
taste of independence and freedom. But, it remained a toy to be
played with. But that would all change very soon.

I started racing in 1985. Back then we had “citizens” racing where you didn’t have to hold a license of any kind. I rode for a local bike shop club in NH. There were a number of seasoned guys in our area and that helped me get on the fast learning curve.

And the bike became more than a toy. It became a tool. And for the
last twenty six years it's remained a tool. It was how I earned my
living for a number of years. It was how I trained my body. It took me from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains to the cobblestone streets of Belgium and Holland. From
it’s saddle I've experienced some of the greatest beauty and happiness and the most terrible sadness and dissapointment.

In 2001 my twin brother and I won the national championships in Jackson Mississippi on our tandem. We had gotten 2^nd three years running and we were thinking about giving up. I remember as we took the top step of the podium that we were both smiling so much my cheeks later hurt.

 That fall I went to amateur criterium nationals and got tenth. I felt pretty good about that result. It stood out because I had turned 30 and come back down to amateuer after spending the previous 4yrs as a pro, even spent some of that time racing in Europe.

With that though, I also have to remember when we lost Mike Horgan who died from a freak incident in Boulder, a good friend and fellow transplant to CO from the east. Or Brian Bogart, one of my early mentors in NH. More recently we saw the death of a good friend and great Colorado bike racer Grayson Pointer.

It's continued to be a tool for me as I've transitioned to coaching
and owning a business. I still get out for the odd bit of riding here and there and I’ve even been fantasizing about coming back to competition as a masters athlete.

But today, when I realized I had pedaled those 313,000 miles, I remembered
that the vast majority of those miles have been some of the happiest times of my life. The people I’ve met and the places I’ve gotten to go to and experience through cycling have been the most remarkable. And as I headed out the door to put in a few short miles I left the house doing a little math. I have 163,000mi remaining to get to that goal of to the moon and back. At the current rate, it oughta take me somewhere around 15yrs. I can’t wait to see who I get to meet or, the places I might get to go to.