April 28, 2017
"Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first." I have no idea who said that. I saw it on a T-shirt at the starting line of a race a number of years ago and decided it was a philosophy worth adopting. (My other philosophical tenet is "Avoid left turns whenever possible." That's from the United Parcel Service.)
Last year I celebrated the momentous occasion of turning 60 by recruiting a few friends to join me on a 60-mile bike ride. By that logic, in ten years I should ride 70 miles, and when I get to a hundred I'll have to ride a century. Now that would be something.
Back when I bicycled the backroads of West Virginia with my brother, I'd be pushing my bike up a hill and there'd be a curve up ahead and I'd pray that around that curve would be the top of the hill, but wouldn't you know it, I'd get around that curve and the hill just kept going. It seemed like we never would get to the top. But we always did. We'd get home hot and tired and proud of ourselves for climbing all those hills on our 3-speed English racers, even if we did walk up a lot of them.
We were always able to take on whatever was around that next curve. But getting older brings with it the knowledge life can be uncertain. My brother lost his life to AIDS over twenty years ago. Rob - my husband and long-time bicycling companion - has a chronic lung disease slowing him down. As I look around at friends and family my age and younger with health problems I appreciate how fortunate I am. Still, I'd better tackle that century while I know I can.
I invited the same crew as last year, but my good friend Nancy was the only one who came along for the full ride. A couple friends had to cancel at the last minute. Mike Herlihy decided he'd ride the first half only and Rob met us for lunch and the second half.
With so many miles to cover I didn't stop often to take pictures and when we did stop for lunch and a late afternoon snack, I forgot. Following is what I can offer from one hundred miles of bicycling in the seacoast of New Hampshire and southern Maine.
Mike, above, took the picture of the boats below. He's a much better photographer than I, which is why I had to steal the picture from his Facebook page.
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After leaving the lighthouse, the strangest thing happened. We were riding down a hill along the shore when insects began pelting us. Mike said maybe they were some sort of sand creatures. They sounded like little hailstones hitting our helmets. I yelled, "Keep your mouth shut!" Mike covered his face with the sleeve of his jacket. As careful as I was, I did end up swallowing one.
It wasn't too cold for these kids to go for a swim. |
Nancy is very excited, anticipating her first ocean swim of the year. |
Nancy came out, a big smile on her face, and said, "I had to get out. I couldn't feel my feet."
I said, "Rob and I were a little worried that there was a riptide. We figured that if there was, that's how you'd like to go anyway."
Nancy believes that when death comes, it should be embraced as part of life. She laughed, "You're right."
"Breathe soft, ye winds, Ye waves in silence rest." The Lady of the Sea: NH Marine Memorial |
We backtracked north up the coast for a few miles then headed east, to Exeter, where we stopped for a snack, and then home.
A park runs along the Squamscott River just outside Exeter. That's the town in the background. |
The town of Newfields has a church, town office, an art gallery, and this little general store. |
If you've ever wanted to ride a century, don't let the idea of it intimidate you. Find a flat route and go for it. Just leave yourself plenty of time. I don't ride fast; I'm that turtle that just keeps going. My average for the day was just under 12 mph. We stopped for lunch, twice for snacks, and once so Nancy could go for a swim. We started at 7 a.m. and finished 12 hours later. My longest training ride was 47 miles.
So now that I've ridden my century, I figure I have a couple choices. I could either decrease the distance by one mile each year, in a sense paying respect to my declining physical capabilities. Or, given how much fun I had this year, maybe I'll just own a century on April 28 every year.
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