On Biking (Part Two)

Yesterday, I wrote about some of my thoughts on why I am not really up for switching to cycling right now, even though my left knee continues to have some pain a year after I last ran.  I do try to walk often, of course, although not more than 5-6 miles at a time right now, other than when hiking.  My last really punishing distance on foot was a year ago March when I ran - with some walking - the Shamrock Half Marathon.  The knee pain has made me wonder if cycling would be better at some point.  I did try a bicycle recently, but think I might have to buy a better one, so I guess I need to save my pennies...

My biggest concern about cycling is the traffic.  Most places do not have roads designed to accommodate large and fast cars along with bicycles, in my opinion.  I'd love to see separate bike paths that would keep cyclists away from traffic.  And drivers are often just awful - I see it all the time as a fellow driver and as a walker.  Some are courteous but they are in a minority.  Running red lights is epidemic here in the Richmond area.  I've almost been run over several times while on foot, crossing with a green light.  Once, I got in an argument downtown when a driver insisted on turning right on red (for him) as I tried to cross the street (on green) in front of him.  I see drivers texting, talking on their phones, even doing their nails!  C'mon!  Doing your nails while driving?  Really???  And as to texting - there is no safe text while you are operating a vehicle the weight of a rhinoceros.

Now, let me share some peeves about cyclists.  A lot of them act as if they are invincible and above the law.  If you want to read an account of a cyclist who lived because of a one second difference, go here in my blog.  When I see cyclists do stupid things, I think of this guy and how I nearly killed him when he did maybe the most stupid thing I've ever seen a cyclist do.  If I had taken one less second getting to the point where we almost intersected, he would be dead - and I would be haunted the rest of my life for killing a man.  If he continued to ride his bike with such disdain for safety, he is probably dead by now.

So what are some of the things I see cyclists do?  By the way, these tend to me more what I would call "casual cyclists," not those out doing miles for fitness.  They routinely run red lights in the city.  To my cycling brothers and sisters, the same traffic laws for cars apply to you.  A red light does not mean slow down and then go through.  A red light is not just a suggestion!  Now and then, I will see a cyclist speed up to zip though a red light just ahead of oncoming traffic.  About a week ago, I saw one make it - just barely - with yards to spare.  Insane!

I see cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road - always ride with traffic.  They sometimes go the wrong way on one-way streets, which is a very dangerous thing to do.  Downtown, they often ride on the sidewalks, and from my experience, they rarely let walkers know that they are coming up on them from behind, which is a disaster waiting to happen.  As a walker, a huge peeve I have is when cyclists, runners, and walkers share a path and the cyclists don't warn the pedestrians when they are coming up from behind.  From my experience, about half do call out a warning and half don't.  Bicycles are very quiet on a paved path.  As a walker, facing away and ears oriented forward, one rarely can hear a bicycle from behind.  A bike going 15 mph travels about 22 feet in a second and can be on a walker before they know it is just behind.  So call out a warning - "passing left!" - and/or ring your bell.  Otherwise, it may be you and the walker who's bells are rung!

All these things being said, most cyclists I see - especially those that routinely cycle - are riding in a safe manner.  Sometimes though, there is just not enough room for bikes and cars safely together on our roads - roads were designed to move car traffic, and to move it fast.  So as a taxpayer, I am very much in favor of putting in more bike (to share with pedestrians) paths.  Some cities and regions have a nice network of bike trails, and I'd love to see that for Richmond.

Bike safety is very visible here since a young woman was killed on her bike last year.  From all accounts, she was riding properly.  But she was riding at night (with flashers) about 10PM on a fairly narrow road.  It has raised discussions about safety.  After writing yesterday's post about why I am not ready right now to take up long-distance cycling, I started to read the paper and saw this article (linked here online) about drivers being aware of cyclists, and operating their vehicles safely.  There is plenty of room for improvements among both drivers and cyclists.

As always, I am not trying to offend anyone, and I welcome differing viewpoints.  I know that most cyclists ride safely - their life is much more on the line than that of the driver of a 4,000 pound vehicle.  But I also know that I do see cyclists - frequently - doing really stupid things, especially in the city, and that sometimes their survival comes down to luck - or to a single second.

On Biking

I've enjoyed riding a bike from time to time, and may yet again, even though I don't own a bike right now.  I have friends who love it, and keep on trying to convince me to take it up and ride centuries with them.  But I just don't know.  One of them badly wanted me to ride the Tour de Chocolate in Hershey, PA with her and her Team in Training group.  "Come on, it will be fun!" she said.  Then, practically in the next breath, she asked "Did you hear about Teresa?"  Teresa in an incredibly fit lady of about 35-40, I would suppose.  She does Ironman triathlons, and all kinds of other challenges.  It turns out that she was out for a easy early morning ride of 30 miles or so and was hit by a car.  The driver didn't see her because she was looking into the sun.  Teresa survived, probably in part because the lady didn't do a hit and run and in part because of her phenomenal level of fitness.  But her spine was fractured in five places and she had a broken leg.  Yup - that sounds like fun!

Drivers do crazy things.  They drive too fast and too impatiently.  They text.  They are inattentive.  They act as if they are the only car on the road.  They feel invincible in their 3,000 - 8,000 pound shell of steel, aluminum, and plastic.  It is tough enough if you are a walker or runner.  Biking would be more appealing to me if there were separate bike paths.  For example, in about another year, the Cap 2 Cap Trail will be completed - 50+ miles each way between the historical capital of Virginia (Williamsburg) and our current capital (Richmond).  Now, that sounds like a lot of fun, especially if there were inns along the way where one could stop for a night, have a good meal, and quaff a cold brown ale!

I also read a detailed article about how biking is not at all good for - how does one put this delicately, gentle reader? - one's "nether regions."  That is male or female, by the way, but most especially male - for obvious reasons.  The pressure put on the blood vessels and nerves by the bike seat from below and one's weight from above can cause sexual dysfunction in both men and women.  When I mentioned that - only a tiny bit in jest - to my friend, she said "Well look at Tim.  He rides a lot and they just had a baby."  Her argument didn't convince me.  I'm not looking for any babies.  By the way, the problem seems to apply more to people who spend a lot of time on bikes - which one must to ride 100 miles.  This article here is not the one I originally read, but summarizes the issue well and talks about mitigation strategies, especially getting away from those narrow seats which maximize the pressure on the perineum.

Then, there is the expense of biking - the bike itself and all the special gear (including that special seat that puts the pressure on the "sit bones" and not on the perineum.)  Compare that to the cost of a pair of good running shoes every few months.  Plus, with running and walking, one does not have to stress over equipment failures.  When you are 50 miles into a ride and have a tire blow out - well, I can't imagine that being a happy time at all.

Hit by cars?  Reduced sex life?  Diminished checking account? Hmm, I think I just might stick to walking (or running if my left knee ever stops hurting).  Seriously, I could see biking as being fun under some circumstances, like maybe as part of a triathlon of sprint or Olympic distance.  The cars still worry me even in that case.  Did I mention that drivers are nuts?

Well, another friend told me that all runners are future bikers, because there comes a time when their joints are too worn out from running.  So I guess I should start saving my pennies.  Maybe the Cap 2 Cap will be ready just in time for me!  Now, about that inn with the ice-cold brown ale....

Cheering for the Fletcher Flyer Century Team

As part of my quick weekend trip to Asheville, NC, I made a surprise visit to cheer for the Team in Training Fletcher Flyer Century Team. These intrepid souls were going to ride their bikes 100 miles through the mountains of the Tarheel State, all after raising money for the mission of LLS!

A great friend, Susan, and a neighbor of mine, Ed, were on this team. I told no one that I was coming except for Elliot, the LLS staff member for the event. My original intent was just to surprise them on the race course, but Elliot said "Why don't you come by when the team forms up and do a mission moment?" That sounded like a better idea.

The team was getting to the park at 6:45, he said. So I got there at 6:25 this morning. I waited while more and more people showed up for the race, but I couldn't find anyone from Team Virginia. Finally, at about 7:10, I found a few from the Norfolk area, and eventually found the others. Ed and Susan were quite surprised, which was what I hoped for. No leaks!

Susan is awesome. She has done something like 25 events for TNT: marathons, half-marathons, and triathlons. But this is her very first 100 mile bike race, and it earns her the coveted and very difficult TNT "Triple Crown" Award! I will be blogging more about her in a couple of days. We first met in 2005, my first season, and then were on the San Diego team together a year later. We have been fast friends since. Here we are before the race:
Ed and I are neighbors in an "active adult" community - 50 and older. I hear rumors that some of the other people in the area sarcastically refer to our community as "Geezerville". Should I ever hear that directly from someone, I will invite them to do a marathon with me, or a 100 mile bike ride with Ed - their choice. Here I am with Ed before the race:
In addition to being a participant and mentor for TNT, I am also a patient honoree. The goal of patient honorees is to hopefully inspire participants by making them realize some of the things that we faced while going through cancer treatments. I don't know if I inspired anyone today - my job was easy today compared to theirs. I am thinking that I was the one coming away inspired by their dedication to train for 6 months in all kinds of weather on bikes, then show up to pedal 100 miles.

In my 4.5 years with TNT, I have never met with a cycle team, and felt honored to have this opportunity. I asked to be included in the team photo, figuring that no one would mind. Doesn't this look like a great team?
Because things had been delayed and time was rapidly going by, I scrapped the remarks I had prepared for my mission moment, and just spoke briefly "off the cuff". Hopefully, I was able to get across my admiration, appreciation, and thanks to this fine group of people. I snapped a shot of some of the team doing their final preparations, then headed out - by car - to my cheer station 9.6 miles away:
Supposedly, there were going to be three LLS staff members from North Carolina manning the cheer station and I would join them. I was looking forward to meeting them and chatting with them, then cheering together for the Purple People on Bikes. I got to the cheer point - first one there - found a place to park, and walked back to the cheer point. After about 15 minutes and still no one there, I double checked the material I had about the cheer point, and I was at the right spot. But for whatever reason, no one else showed up to cheer! Bummer! But would that stop any dedicated TNTer? No way!

I placed my sign that I had made along some granite steps to a little cemetery. The sign said that I was a lymphoma survivor, and said "thank you" to TNT participants. I also had a section on the sign that said "GO Susan - Triple Crown!" with a drawing of three crowns. It was now about 8:15 and I settled down to wait for people to race by. It was a very pretty and bucolic spot:
I didn't have long to wait. The first cyclists zipped by about 8:25 - man, can they haul @ss!! After watching a few groups, I tried to take some photos of the racers. Here is a group heading towards me and a group after they zipped by at 20 or so miles per hour, going up hill:

I thought it was hard to pick runners out of the crowd but with cyclists, they have helmets and they move so fast that there was no way I could get identification until they were past, and often not even then. Ed moved by me way too fast to get a photo. I recognized him at the last second. Sometimes, the cyclists would come by one at a time, in groups of 2 - 4, or in larger bunches like this one:
TNT participants not only had their distinctive white, purple, and green shirts, but they usually put little team symbols on their helmets: peaches from Georgia, horses from Kentucky, and hog snouts on the front and curly-que pig tails on the back from I am not sure where. Team Virginia had little red hearts on top of the helmets, and when I saw a bunch of them coming, I snapped this photo (zoomed in quite a bit). With pure luck, my friend Susan was right in it - she is towards the center of the picture. It was a thrill to see her in the race:
Of course, since I was looking through the view finder, I didn't recognize her, but she called out to greet me, and it was at that point that I knew she was there as she whizzed by. Note the guy in the photo lined up behind the lead cyclist - he is taking my photo! If I tried that on a bike, I would be in traction for 12 months or so.

I don't know if Susan had time to read my sign, but several people named Susan called out to me "Hey, that's my name!" So I would cheer back "Go Susan!" One woman called out "I can be Susan for you!" That was pretty funny!

I cheered until I was pretty sure the last racer was past. I wish I had been one of a group of cheerleaders as expected but it was a lot of fun just to be there. It was really a great experience to see the cycle team - TNT Virginia, TNT other states (Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Kentucky at the least), and the many participants who were not Team in Training. I hope they all knew that I was joking when I would yell "You're almost done!" and"Ice cold beer just ahead!" :) I was honored to meet our team, chat with them before their race, and cheer them on, and hope that they appreciated one of their patient honorees coming out for the race.