TheBanyanTree: A Challenge for the New Year Received

[A. Christopher Hammon]

The last time I pedaled a hundred miles in a single day was a long time 
back. When I was living in Southern California and working a government 
military job years ago, I was stationed on a ship in San Diego and 
dating a young woman in Long Beach. I was also into bicycle racing. On 
the weekends that I didn't have a race I would jump on my bike on 
Saturday morning and pedal the 125 miles to Long Beach and be there in 
time for a nap before going out for the evening. On Sunday I would pedal 
back to San Diego. It was a nice ride. But that was also back in the 
Vietnam War era; a long, long time ago.
 
This past fall I was riding in Southern Indiana with a chaplain friend 
of mine as part of an organized bicycle tour of Indiana State Resort 
Parks. It was a great week long tour with around 200 of us visiting 
Clifty Falls, Spring Mill, and Brown County State Parks. Pedaling the 
back roads is great for conversation and our topics ranged from theology 
to exotic bicycles to our various bicycling stories and adventures over 
the years. In the midst of our conversations we got to talking about 
doing century rides---those 100 mile days---and a group within our local 
bicycle club known as the Mad Dogs. The Mad Dogs have as their goal 
doing at least one and preferably more century rides per month and they 
have gone so far as to organize a competition around it.
 
Every so often I find myself looking at getting out to ride with them 
since they do some interesting routes. One that has appeal to me for 
several years is their Sacred and Profane ride, which goes from 
Louisville out to the Abbey at Gethsemane (where Thomas Merton was) and 
then back to Louisville through Bardstown and the Maker's Mark 
distillery. But I find myself intimidated by this group since they made 
a competition out of their rides. I am a full-fledged tourist these days 
and in my mid-fifties I see my racing days as history. I am more 
interested in looking at things around me than concentrating on the 
wheel in front of me, and I get places when I get places. I worry about 
holding them back or getting myself in trouble out on the road by 
overextending myself.
 
My friend and I had a good week riding together; him on his classic 
upright and me on my recumbent. We went away from that tour looking 
forward to getting together to ride more often; including getting in a 
few centuries.
 
Toward the end of November I received an email message from him 
suggesting that we go join the Mad Dogs for their Dishonest Abe Century 
the next Sunday. Unfortunately, I already had commitments for that day 
but he went on to go check out riding with the Mad Dogs. He had a great 
time.
 
And now the challenge has been issued; both as invitation from some of 
the Mad Dogs assuring me that they won't bite and as spiritual quest for 
the coming year from the chaplain. How can I resist?
 
Unfortunately, I can't make the scheduled January ride as I have to be 
down in Nashville that weekend. And alas, I can't make the Sacred and 
Profane ride on the day it is scheduled in May, either. But weather 
permitting I am set to take the plunge to once again cross the century 
mark on my bicycle with a pair of rides on successive weekends in 
February. One ride out along the Ohio for a bit and then over to the 
Kentucky River and down through Wendell Berry's Port Royal. And one to 
Salem, Indiana, and back to Louisville for the Sugarbush Annual Maple 
Syrup Festival. So we will see if I can still do it. If the weather 
doesn't workout, there is always March.

I am accepting the challenge to average one century per month over this 
next year with the recognitions that I don't do wet and cold unless I 
really have to get from point A to point B and that I spend part of my 
summers teaching up in New Jersey. Undoubtedly, it will lead to good 
stories.

Cheers to the challenges that push us out of our comfort zones,
Chris

___________________________
Chris Hammon
Barefoot on the Web
http://barefootontheweb.net