This is a year for heroes, and have I got a few for you!
Maybe you saw them come through your town. On March 8, 2002, a group of 13 athletes dipped their rear wheels symbolically in the Pacific Ocean and headed out together with the goal of crossing the United States from San Diego, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla., in just 58 days on bicycles. That’s 3,135 miles on bikes. The ones without motors.
As I’m writing this, they have been on the road 49 days and have biked more than 1600 miles — half way through the trip. They’ve crossed the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains at elevations of more than 8,200 feet, and they say they are now much happier dealing only with Texas hills and headwinds. Their numbers are down to 12, with one biker dropping out due to injury.
I can only imagine the shape these daredevils would have to be in to survive peddling up to 110 miles a day, 6 days a week for almost two months! It makes me feel a bit sheepish knowing I’ve procrastinated getting started on my New Year’s fitness resolution till the weather got a bit warmer, and here we’re into April already! How ’bout you, America? Are you staying in shape riding that lawnmower on Saturdays? Or maybe your idea of exercise is holding your breath on the couch while watching the latest group of thrill-seekers on “Survivor.”
But there’s more to this group than just muscle maintenance and record setting. Their efforts are also aimed at increasing public attention and bringing in donations for cancer and ALS research. Some of the group have lost family members to these diseases.
These are not Olympic athletes — just more or less ordinary folks interested in life and overcoming difficulties. For most of them, this is the first time they’ve attempted a bike trip of so great a distance. They’re saying it’s a great experience spending all those hours on the road together, learning about America. They’re learning about other things too — like getting to sleep by 8 o’clock every night and riding in spite of wind and rain, 80-plus temperatures and 90 percent humidity. And they say they’ve learned it takes three weeks for your backside to get used to living in the saddle!
Don’t you just love hearing real-life stories like this? It should make us think twice about whining that there’s no frontiers left to conquer anymore, no way for ordinary people to do extraordinary things. You say it’s just a little too late in life for you to get started on something like this? Well, did I mention one of these bikers is my 58-year-old sister and that this group is all women over the age of 50?
Now what’s your excuse?
(Editor’s note: Dea Smith is a Valencia County resident who writes often about her take on life.)
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April 19, 2024
