Coast Of Hope Ride Recap and Thanks!!!

I want to thank everyone who supported me in the Coast Of Hope Metric Century this past weekend. Your contributions were greatly appreciated and are going to a great cause. You all helped make me the 2nd most successful fundraiser for the this year's ride at just over $400 donated. We had, by far, the most total number of donors with 26, 16 more than any other First Giving group for this event. For that I thank you. The Coast Of Hope, through First Giving, raised over $3400 this year, and has raised over $14,000 since 2010. All of this money goes to fund programs to help children and families living through cancer and catastrophic challenges. It's important to remember that when we lose children to illness and tragedy, they often leave behind siblings who need care, counseling, and support to help them cope, understand, and rebuild their young lives.

The ride itself was a great experience. The morning started off with checkin of 150 or more riders, riding one of three distances: the 12-mile family ride; the 30 mile half century; and the 62 mile metric century. Despite a forecast of thundershowers, spirits were high. The weather was warm, and people were in good spirits. The gathering area was filled with all types of people, with bikes as varied as their ages. There were carbon superbikes and kids bmx bikes, all lined up and ready to go. After the US pledge of allegiance and the singing of the Coast Of Hope theme song, the origami cranes were dropped from the top of the ladder of the Ipswich Fire truck. As hundreds of cranes fluttered to the earth, the horn sounded and people were off. The carbon megabikes, sporting equally sleek riders, took off quickly, and the rest followed their lead. My training partner Ed Kloman, fell ill the week before the ride and couldn't participate, but I didn't have to ride solo. I met up with April Bowling and 4 others from the local triathlon scene and we rode as a group, with Scott and I being treated primarily as wind blockers.

The weather stayed dry, so all of you hoping to hear stories of 62 miles of wet riding will have to wait for next year. The temperature and humidity were perfect for our journey that day. We wound through Ipswich, bisecting Bradley Palmer State Park on its way to Topsfield, cutting up through Georgetown, and into West Newbury. In Bradey Palmer, we passed one of my generous benefactors, Donna Furse, who also knew most of the group. There were lots of hoots and waves from everyone; I nearly crashed trying to say hi, clearly I need some work on my bike handling. There was lots of chatting as we all felt pretty good. April was joking about having raced once and broken her rear derailleur. The cycling gods can be severely cynical sometimes as at around mile 20, we all heard a funny sound from her bike as we downshifted to start a little climb. I joked that she'd get to prove how tough she was riding with one gear. Turns out the joke was on all of us, as she snapped her cable and was stuck. We did what we could, and Scott ended up getting her in to a middle gear on the rear hub; fortunately, she could shift the front. With only 2 gears and 40 miles left to go, she showed her toughness as she attacked the next hill.

We stopped at mandatory water stops in Topsfield and Newbury, where we refilled our bottles with water (those of us who were hydrating properly), and partook of the snacking feast that the volunteers had prepared. Halved bananas, baggies of trailmix, and cheese sticks awaited us at each stop. We didn't have any other major technical issues. We had a 10 min stop to fix a broken pedal, I had to tighten my seat which had come loose (perhaps my form isn't the greatest if it loosened), and we had a group picture taken at the second water stop. At mile 40, we dropped D, who wanted to, in her words, "enjoy the next 20 miles, and not be constantly out of breath." She was a trooper for keeping up despite only having 3 previous rides under her belt this season. We cut across Newburyport and headed out to Plum Island for a turn around. In general, the course was car-free and very scenic. They race organizers changed the course from the previous year, and in a good way. We hit a bit of a headwind on the ride out to Plum Island, and a thigh-burning cross wind on the ride back in from the island. With 15 miles to go, the legs were starting to feel the pain of having broken wind for the others for so long (pun intended, I do mean for drafting purposes only). Melissa started to struggle as we rode 1A back down through Rowley to Ipswich; she hadn't hydrated consistently through the ride and was starting to feel the effects. We had ridden too far together to drop anyone with 5 miles left, so we stuck together to come across the finish line as a group.

As we rode down the last straight away coming up to the high school, we were greeted to the sound of bells ringing and people cheering. My family had shown up with the in-laws to greet us to a proper welcome. I played to the crowd, rode to the front of the group and did my best tour stage victory pose, high-fiving the crowd as I rode by. It had gotten hot, and the shorter route riders had come in and were long gone over to Stone Soup and probably home. The volunteers who staffed the finish tents were wonderful. Pax Massage was offering massages to the riders, there were plenty of snacks to refuel. Our riding group congratulated each other and we each did our own post-ride things. I took the boys over to Stone Soup for the post-race BBQ. I was never so happy to see the Ipswich Ale truck, and the post-race carbs that it offered, Summer Ale flavor. The food was good: I had two burgers and the kids housed some hot dogs. Sharon showed up with Claire just as my compatriot riders showed up with their families to celebrate as well. We visited under the umbrellas on the Stone Soup patio, enjoying the now sunny Spring day.

All in all, it was a great day for a great cause. There is, however, a recurring theme in my cycling in recent days, and that is difficulty following the course (think ECV TT DNF). We missed a sign, and subsequently a turn, and ended up riding an extra mile. The final Runkeeper stats had us riding 64.02 miles over 4 hrs. 26 min. We averaged 14.4 mpg, but that doesn't account for two technical issues, three mandatory water breaks, and a bathroom break. We climbed 3500 ft. over the ride and I burned almost 3000 calories.

US History without JFK?

Try to imagine a US History without JFK. Difficult isn't it? Despite his assassination 48 years ago, his influence is still at the front of our collective minds. Now stop and consider that if the religious bigots of the time had had their way, the Catholic candidate, wouldn't have been elected. The fear-mongering cry of a country "run" by the Catholic Church and the Vatican was just that, fear mongering and bigotry. It's sad that in 50 years we have made very little progress on this front. George Santayana made famous the words "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" yet that seems to fall on deaf ear's when it comes to politics.

An article I read this morning really hit on this issue and the bigotry problem that continues to plague our country. The first was an opinion on CNN by Dean Obeidallah about Republican candidate Herman Cain and his comments regarding filling a post with a Muslim. What's worse than the inherent racism in Cains position, is that it's discriminatory by both race and religion. It's as if one bigotry wasn't enough for him, he needed to leverage two. This is an especially prescient issue given similar, albeit less covered, noise around Romney being a Mormon. Perhaps that's why Romney responded with the insightful comment he did; this country, unlike many others, is based on a fundamental equality of people, regardless of religion, race, or sex. Our short, 300 year history, has shown that while that is the theory, we've struggled, and continue to struggle with this in practice. I believe the irony of Gingrich's contribution to this point during the debate was lost on him. He equated Muslims to communists or Nazis, saying Muslims should take an oath of loyalty. Requiring someone, who is already an American, to pledge their loyalty to America, is Naziesque in and of itself (hello pot, this is kettle). It reminds me of a show I saw on TV when I was a kid called The Wave (site and imdb). Everyone is an equal, sure, but we're better equals because we've "pledged." It's all very cultish, fire-and-brimstone, us versus them.

Herman Cain was born in Memphis in 1945, and raised in Georgia. Growing up in the South during a particularly dark period of our nation's civil rights history, I'd expect him to know better. As a nation, until we stop the fear, stop the vitriol, stop the bigotry, and start judging people by who they are and how they act, we can never truly progress. I'll leave you with words from Martin Luther King: "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of [any] injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."