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Bicycle Race!

Zach is the 18 year old son of a friend of mine. And he challenged me to a race. On bicycles. This entry is about that ride.

First of all, Zach is 18 years old. And he does NOT ride a bike very often. To say he HAS a bike would be stretching the truth a bit, as the bike he has is quite old, is best suited for trail riding, and does not fit him very well. For Zach to use this bike in a race would also be an adventure in curiosity, as perhaps his ability to survive an outing of more than 20 miles would be like watching a slow motion de-evolution of an otherwise capable boy. And I was correct. More about that in a minute.

How it began

This story began as many do, with a group of people talking about a thing, that leads to another thing, and someone challenges someone and BAM! just like that a race is born.  It happened in Hawaii for the IronMan Triathlon some 33 years ago and it happened in Walnut Grove just last weekend while camping.  And, like in Hawaii, I had nothing to do with the conversation.

Really, I was just sitting there.

So Zach was talking about youthful things and alluded to his sheer ability to survive about anything.  Well, when a mouth gets to motoring, there seems to be no stopping it, and Zach was certainly getting chatty.  And it seems the conversation got revved up like a big ol’ V8 engine when Zach dropped the pedal to the floor, let gasoline fill the chamber and NO2 got mixed in from the highly pressurized tank, and something came out of his mouth that sounded like “I could beat you in a bicyle race.”

I was like, “what?  You talkin’ to me??”

A smile formed; first in my eyes, then on my lips.  The gears began turning.  We all knew how this would play out, but Zach had a learning moment coming to him….courtesy of me.

The Ride

Our “race” would begin at Bannister Park on Sunday, at 9:00 a.m.  This was changed, and we began at Zach’s Place.  And the race became a ride.  And the challenge of the race went away.  Now it would just be a brash 18 year old kid riding the bike trail with some old guy trying to get another fitness ride under his belt.  So the ride took us down a couple of residential streets for a mile and a half, a mile on Fair Oaks Blvd, and we would attain Bannister Park then continue on to the American River Bike Trail (ARBT) proper.  Following the ARBT for about 13 miles would take us up to Beals Point where we would have a breather and turn around for the ride home.

The entire ride logged in at 32.02 miles and it took 2:55.  Our speed was a sizzling average of 10.9 mph and total climb was 1492′.

Learning Moment

The big learning moment for Zach may have come early in the ride, perhaps as early as 15 minutes into the ride.  Now, these are his words……and when he was reporting them to his Dad, sister, and I…we were laughing so hard I may not have heard them correctly.  So here you go, my version of what Zach said about the ride.

“The first ten minutes go by and I’m hanging with Dave, thinking this is going to be easy.  The next ten minutes I’m thinking this is getting hard!  The first hour goes by and I can’t believe what I’ve gotten myself into.  The next hour was like an out-of-body experience and I’m up there floating along watching this guy down there, struggling to keep up and wondering how he is going to make it.  The next hour I was begging God to just take me!”

I may not have gotten this right….Zach, any help?

Anyway, Zach bit off more than he could chew and by throwing the gauntlet at my feet in front of all those people….well, there was just some part of me that wanted to really show him how difficult it can be to ride competitively and dare him to keep up!  And another part of me that wanted him to enjoy the ride so he could challenge me another day.  I think we attained both.

The lesson?  That is easy….don’t open your mouth and have it write checks your body can’t cash.

Thanks for visiting!