It’s been years since I rode my mountain bike with any regularity. It’s something l always loved to do, but somewhere along the line I let life’s daily grind and responsibilities, and just sheer laziness, take over my schedule and motivation.
This all changed this spring when a friend from work invited me to participate in the Fort4Fitness Spring Cycle event, held annually in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Apparently, sometime during the cold, long winter I verbally committed to riding the 10miles with him.
Fort4Fitness is mostly known for it’s Fall Festival events, which occur in late September, which include a Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k, and 4mile races/walks.
They also host a Spring Cycle event in May that draws hundreds of cyclists who participate in their choice of a 100k, or a 43, 32, 16, or 10 mile ride on paved city and county road courses that stretch from Fort Wayne all the way to Antwerp, Ohio.
Fast forward several months, to April 2018, when my friend,out of the blue, asked if I was still going to ride. Have long since forgotten, I immediately said yes- let’s do it! (even though I hadn’t touched my bike or done any conditioning, riding, or training, in nearly 8 years).
The race was on! I immediately registered for the event, pulled my bike, a dusty old Specialized Rockhopper Comp mountain bike- covered in dust with two flat tires, from the attic of the barn and immediately did nothing (best intentions are not indicative of current actions).
As the race day approached I got the bike prepped, I dusted off years of dust, aired the tires, replaced a bad tube, lubed the chain and gave everything a once-over to make sure it was road ready.
As the big day approached the weather wasn’t very good and I was ‘busy’ so I did nearly zero conditioning, outside of some time on my rebounder and some sessions in our sauna. Total saddle time consisted of 3 quick loops around the driveway to confirm the shifters and brakes were still in working order.
Here I was, 47 years old, having never participated in any official biking events in my life, totally under-prepared, overweight and out of shape, I was nervous. The night before the event I slept like crap, but wasn’t really ‘consciously’ worried. My subs-conscience had it’s own plan for the evening/night.
The day was finally here- time to ride. I showed up downtown nice and early, all ready to go- at least as ready as I could be, considering my lack of and half-assed preparation.
I met my friend and we mulled around, checking things out, it was COOL! vendors and hundreds of other like minded people ready for a good day! I’ve been riding since 1990-91 and was nearly always solo- be it on trails or roads. Now, for the first time, there were others, like me, ready to do this!
As our start time got closer, we moved into position for the mass start- we chose to be near the back of the pack- there must have been several hundred people in our time slot. We made some small talk with other riders around us and we were feeling good, and ready!
After the national anthem and short announcement, we were off! The energy and excitement hit me like a tidal wave as we rolled off, ever so slowly… picking up speed and organically ebbing and flowing through the rolling mass of bikes and riders.
We rolle
d through the streets of Fort Wayne, block by block, intersection after intersection, all blocked by local police- we were part of something special and it felt every bit of it!
My under-prepared body was in better shape than I anticipated, outside of the expected lactic acid burn in my legs a few minutes in, the rest was pretty good- elevated heart rate and some leg fatigue, but I knew I could finish without a problem, and we did.
As we rode through the finish line arch we were presented with our participant medals and our choice of bottled water or a jug of chocolate milk. We did it! It was both of our first event and we knew then that it was just a start- we were bitten by the bug and now there’s no going back.
After hanging out a little after finishing, the rain storm that had been looming all morning finally arrived- in force! We quickly sprinted to our vehicles, several blocks away, where we said our goodbyes and headed our separate directions. I headed home with a smile on my face and medal around my neck, eager to share my story with my wife. 
My life was forever changed that day- a switch got flipped! Once home I immediately started researching other events in the region for this summer.
As the old sayings go, ‘you just need to get back in the saddle and ride..’ and ‘its just like riding a bike’ those saying couldn’t ring more true- here we go!! Stay tuned for the next adventure…
http://fort4fitness.org/spring-cycle
