Last Saturday, April 21st, was the day of the annual Old Howard bike ride. The race is named for the fact that the course takes riders past the original site of Howard College (so technically it’s in Marion, AL and not Birmingham), which moved locations twice and then changed its name to Samford University. Participants have a choice of taking a 30-, 45-, 75-, or 100-mile course, and it is a beautiful ride. That’s enough history. I, Hunter (or Veedubs if I get to choose my own nickname), decided that one of the best ways to make my final semester as an undergraduate at Samford NOT lame would be to ride in this race. At first, naïve young fellow that I was, I thought I would do the 100-mile ride. Reality quickly set in, however, that riding 100 miles on a bike is roughly equivalent to running a marathon, so I set my sights at the more achievable 45 miles, which had the added bonus of convincing a friend of mine to do it with me.
Training was fun, because we both have old Craig’s List types of bikes that are reliable but that no “real” biker would ever use. It allowed for a lot of male bonding and feeling extremely professional once we got to the point where we were pretty good. Then came race day.
45 miles sounds pretty easy. It’s a short drive, right? Those hills aren’t that steep. Wrong. I’d say that ride ranks as the most physically difficult thing I’ve ever done. The rest of the day my legs felt like jelly and this entire week my metabolism has been in overdrive with the side-effect that I’ve been hungry all the time. But the excitement of our achievement kept my friend and me smiling despite the fatigue, because we FREAKING BIKED 45 MILES! Plus we got tshirts to proclaim our greatness to the world.
So here are some tips for when you decide to up your anti-lame factor by riding in a race:
Train – however in shape you are, however long the ride is, make sure you have actually ridden a real bike a few times before you get into it. It will lead to much less pain for your experience.
Get bike shorts – up until last Saturday I was among those who make fun of people who wear spandex. No more. Sitting on a bike seat for 45 miles was roughly equivalent to getting kicked in the bum in slow motion for 3 hours. The spandex may be silly-looking, but the padding to support your southern areas is worth
swallowing your pride. Pride is lame anyway.
Do it with a friend – there were at least a couple dozen times that I was about ready to die on an uphill or my posterior was throbbing, but every time I groaned my friend had an encouraging word to cheer me on, as I did for him. We could not have done it without each other. Also, it’s way more fun to give victory high fives to friends than strangers.
Get Sponsored? – Get friends and family to pitch in a dime or a quarter for every mile you ride and you could be able to raise a fair amount of money for your favorite charity or organization (e.g. www.mpowerministries.org). I was too busy with senior stuff to figure this one out in time, but next race I do, I’m definitely going to try to make it about more than just my awesomeness.
Wear a cape – because no amount of charitable feeling completely rules out wanting to look awesome. Just make sure it doesn’t get caught in your chain.
Hunter in the house
ReplyDeleteNotice the "un"-professional loose tshirts and unshaven arms, legs, and faces. Why? Because we're man enough not to let a little wind resistance throw us off. For more on being a man, see "get bike shorts" above.
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