Thought you should know...

Owen will be a little embarrassed that I am writing this blog entry about him. But, well, he's taking a nap and won't know I am doing this until it's too late to stop me so here I go...

I just thought you should know that Owen rode the Jesse James Bike Tour's century ride today. That's 100 miles of bicycling in a whole lotta heat. Owen's been wanting to do a century ride for a long time now. He's been talking about ever since we started riding about four years ago. But, honestly, I think he's been wanting to do this for years longer. Maybe even decades. Owen last rode a century ride about 4 decades ago (he probably doesn't want me to tell you that) when he was in his late teens. I believe he did five century rides back then.

We've talked about doing a century together but I knew that a century wasn't in the cards for me this year. So, we decided I would take the kids on the 10 mile Jesse James Bike Tour route today and Owen would find some people to ride with to do the century. He has an awesome new Trek Domane now and I know he's been extra pumped to take his new bike on a long ride. And, even though the kids and I would have loved to ride with him today, we knew it was way more important that Owen get his chance to ride fast and far without us.

So early this morning Owen met up with two other guys he knows, Patrick and Neil, and set off with the intention of riding 100 miles. Shortly after they started out, another guy they met along the way, Keith, joined them. Together, the four of them rode 102 miles and averaged about 16 miles per hour.

Rose, Ryan and I decided to drive over to the middle school to see if we could find Owen to cheer him on as he finished his ride. On the way, we saw one of the riders pull over and start walking his bike. He looked kind of stiff and was almost limping so we stopped and asked if he needed a ride. He said yes so we put his bike in the van and started back to the middle school. Guess what? Stopping to help out Larry (he's from Colorado and was the nicest guy ever) meant that the timing worked out so we saw Owen and his buddies pedaling along just a half block away. So we rolled down our windows, yelled, honked the horn and waved at Owen and his friends to cheer them on.

We made it to the middle school about five minutes before Owen rolled in and dropped off  Larry and his bike. Shortly thereafter Owen rolled in very tired but obviously happy that he had finished his 100 mile ride. His first century ride in 40 years!

Congratulations, Owen. We knew you could do it. We are proud of you!

(l to r)  Patrick, Neil, Owen and Keith just after finishing the Jesse James Bike Tour Century Ride.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Change in Plans

Image
My kids, Rose and Ryan, started a theater day camp today called Young People's Theater Workshop (YPTW). YPTW is a program put on through the Northfield Arts Guild  during which the kids, grouped by age, write a play, rehearse it, and then perform it at the end of the three week session. Rose loves the camp and this is her fourth year. In her first year I saw a huge change in her confidence from the beginning of the session to the end. She has grown each year since and I expect she will benefit from the camp again this year. Ryan has never been in YPTW and has been somewhat reluctant to go. But, to save on gas (it's a 30 mile round trip to town), make our schedule easier and give me time to work, Owen and I decided that Ryan should give YPTW a try. Given how good the program has been for Rose, we're hoping Ryan will benefit from the program as well. I dropped the kids off this morning and right off the bat Ryan found two friends from his class at Greenvale. He found...
Read more

Making tracks

Image
I just looked out my office window and saw my snowshoe tracks in the snow. For some reason they surprised me. Seeing them I had concrete evidence that I actually have been getting out on my snowshoes every day. That I've actually been going somewhere. And, for some reason, I find this comforting. I've been fighting my 30 Days of Snowshoeing commitment and am kind of mad at myself for creating the challenge for myself. I haven't wanted to get out every day and snowshoe. It's cold outside. I don't like putting on my snowpants, my hat, scarf, gloves, jacket. Perhaps because I'm doing the challenge alone, unlike the 30 Days of Biking challenges where hundreds of other people biked every day and helped motivate each other, I don't really feel like it matters that I'm doing this. And I've lost momentum and motivation and simply want to sit inside and read a book. Or sleep. Or watch Monk and Cake Boss on Netflix. But I keep snowshoeing. Every day. Ev...
Read more

A Little Bike Schooling on the B Ride

I'll be honest with you, my two main motivations for riding my bike any distance are coffee and conversation. A good workout is also a motivator but going really fast is not. I'm more of a slow and steady - okay, really slow and not that steady - sort of bicyclist. But for months now I've wanted to join in on a group ride. From what I've heard people ride their bikes, chat away the miles and stop somewhere for a cup of coffee mid-way or at the end of the ride. Sounds like my kind of ride. Right? Maybe not. Most of the group rides I've heard about promise average speeds of 18 to 20 miles per hour or more and go 40 or more miles. Some sound brutal and talk about hill climbs and sprints. Granted, these are the "A" rides, rides geared towards competitive riders, riders who want to push their limits. "B" rides are supposed to be slower, "C" rides even more so but I've seen some C rides that sound too fast for me, some B rides with leng...
Read more