On Not Being Smug

I wrote this post prior to the Bacel Ride for Heart, which I did do (there will be a lot more on that ride later, for now these next few sentences will have to do). Sorry to say did not achieve my goal of 75km in 2 hours, I did 75km (partly in the rain) in 2hours 11minutes. Thank goodness for next year! Still it was a good hammerfeast, except now I am going to need to spend a good three days cleaning Erin, my ride. On the subject of the post below, I just found out, for people who do the Ride to Conquer Cancer, there is a break every hour and 30% of the money raised is actually used for administrative costs.

I would like to think that I am not a smug arrogant prick. I'd like to think that, but the sad fact is, we all think of ourselves as being better people than we really are.

No I don't think I said anything to someone to piss them off, at least I'm not aware of anything I said rocking the boat. Rather I was wandering around on the Web and started looking at The Ride To Conquer Cancer website.

For anyone who does not know, the Ride To Conquer Cancer (RTCC), is a two day ride that covers the same ground I covered in the morning of Friday May 15. The Afternoon of the 15th I would go on to double that up and Sunday May 17 I would return home, after spending much of the previous night (Saturday night, early Sunday morning) talking with Cisco engineers as they fixed a problem in our Toronto office. In short one might say the RTCC covers a quarter the distance I did in the same time. Or it covers half the distance in twice as much time - take your pick.

But see what I mean? I look at the RTCC site and next thing you know I am bragging about how good I am. (Alright I'm pretty good but I am by no means a great one.) And the people who manage to raise the minimal $2500 in required fundraising deserve a medal for managing that is this horrid economy.

Anyway I guess what gets under my skin is that people make such a big deal about how, they are going to do the RTCC. I met someone who was so proud of herself she was even buying new tyres (actually I think she used used the fact that she was buying new tyres to bring it up in conversation at a bike shop. Before anyone asks, I was at the shop because Alex, the tri bike was making an unsettling noise, turns out something is not quite right in the seat post.) People take a Valium and just chill! A person of moderate physical fitness on an entry level road bike should have no trouble at all averaging a steady 20km/h even with red lights and stop signs. No need for a year of preparatory training. So I have to ask, if the full RTCC is 160km, over two days, that means 80km/day at 20km/h is four hours. What are you going to do when you get to the half way point? If a rider leaves at 8am and takes a lunch break for an hour and goes at little more than a jogging speed they should arrive before 3 in the afternoon.

Oh sure it is for a good cause, I do the Ride for Heart because it is also for a good cause. But I don't strut, I just do it and try to raise as much money as I can ($200 and still begging). The people who train for this one ride, it all seems rather too wasteful to me, train for love of the saddle, then do the RTCC to put an end to a horrible disease.

Anyway it just seems to me that when people brag they really need to modulate what they are bragging about or they end up looking foolish.

All of this discussion takes me back to the Lake Simcoe return ride I did with Aaron Armdt last summer, 200km in seven hours (actually a lot less than seven hours, we hit the road at 0645 and stopped three times, for water or washroom, as well had a few traffic lights to stop for), we were home by 1400. To me this is more impressive in many respects than the Rochester ride, mostly because I achieved my goal but also because we actually averaged almost 30km/h for half a day. Put another way, had we gone South then East instead of North by 2pm we would have made it to Niagara Falls turned for home and been a little past St. Catherines, except going North involves a good many more hills than following the shore of Lake Ontario, so probably a lot past St. Catherines by 2pm.

Certainly if a person is not a strong cyclist riding to Niagara Falls is an achievement. But sorry to say guys, for a roadie the equivalent of running a marathon is riding a century or 100 miles (161km, not 100km, that is a cheat, and a pretty lame cheat at that!). Most serious roadies do a century quite often, it is no big deal. But it so happens that a ride to Niagara is a century so a ride to Niagara is just too easy to get in a tizzy about, particularly a century done in two days, not one morning.

If you want to do a distance that will inspire me, well maybe draft Peter Oyler, or heck, give me a draft on July 2.