Biking Memories

Dad and I were reminiscing a couple weeks ago about some of his earliest memories from when he started riding and racing. Made me think of some of mine as well. First of all, a few pics to illustrate how much I have changed (body structure)since I started racing in 2006. Crazy, it seems I have been racing longer than 7 years, but it doesn't seem like a long time either. Kind of funny, when I started getting serious about biking, I was riding 10k+ miles a year and not really that fast (although it does take time), now I ride closer to 3k miles a year, and am tons faster than I was when I was riding much more. Now is also much more conducive to raising a family...

Maybe my 2nd ever race... I had to be close to 210 lbs...

1st or 2nd year of racing

This was October of 2011, weight is about 163 lbs...

Dad was saying how one of his major goals when he started out was wanting to maintain 20mph on a certain stretch of road. It's funny how 20 mph seems like such a big deal when you are just starting out. Seems so fast. (not so fast anymore) One of my first goals was to be able to maintain 20 mph on the trail between Springfield, IL and Chatham, IL. At the time, I was able to do like 17 ish, and I remember telling my buddy Matt at the bike shop that someday soon I was hoping to be able to do 20 mph for the length of the trail... (like 8 miles...) I think he said something encouraging, like you will be there before you know it or something... lol. At the time it seemed like a really difficult feat to accomplish!

I remember one of my first long rides. It was when I was in my 5th year at Quincy and working quite a bit at Jimmy Johns. I had a day off about a week after I bought my first bike, and decided to just head out and do a long ride... BAD IDEA... I have always had a tendency to just jump in over my head instead of being cautious... still that way today. I ended up riding like 80 or 90 miles, and bonking terribly. By the time I got back home, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and never ride my bike again (I have that feeling every once in a while...) My butt hurt so bad!

One of my first group rides was shortly after I moved to Springfield, and Matt from Wheelfast Bike shop suggested I should come do one of the group rides. They were pretty easy paced, and I would have NO trouble... I didn't really know what bikers do, or wear, or that much about riding yet. I showed up to the group road ride with my Camelbak on and ready to roll... I got dropped from the group within the first 20 minutes or so. They were flying!!! Some would have quit right there, it was in that moment that I decided I wanted to get faster so I could ride with those guys. At the time though, I thought it was unbelievable how fast those guys were! So much for a slow easy group ride...

Shortly thereafter I started riding group rides with Team Mack. In the beginning I was always one of the slowest, but eager to prove that I belonged... At one point after a pretty difficult section I was feeling pretty good, and riding alongside Andrew Lister (who I didn't realize at the time, but is the fastest rider around the area...) I saw that his rear brake was open, and thought I should be helpful and let him know... He let me know that it was supposed to be that way and he already knew... (lesson learned... keep my mouth shut) The funny thing is from that day till now, I always ride with my rear brake open, and can't tell you how many times people have told me that it's open...

I remember when I wanted to start racing, and decided to start going to the Team Mack training races in Springfield. They were unbelievably fast and aggressive, and for months I never got past 20 minutes staying with the group! I would always get dropped and catch them on the way back into town. I thought I would NEVER be able to ride fast enough to stay with them the entire time... But each time I stayed with them a little bit longer. It was a feeling of incredible satisfaction the first time I stayed with the group for an entire ride! Now I can't imagine not being able to stay with the group.... Crazy how things change.

There are many many more memories, mostly good, some not so good, these are just a few of the earliest.