The kids were doing the math, and the numbers weren’t coming up in Ben’s favor.
It was Sunday morning, around 9:30, and the fact that these 15-year-olds were able to do math at all was impressive. For most of the past 24 hours they’d been racing their mountain bikes at the appropriately named Dark Mountain near Wilkesboro, site of the 10th Annual Burn 24 Hour Challenge, a mountain bike race that began at noon Saturday and ran, straight through, until noon Sunday. During the past 12 1/2 hours, one of the 15-year-olds had thrown up twice during her middle-of-the-night shift-in-the saddle. One had severe stomach cramps early on after finishing a 7.4-mile lap on the hilly foothills course. One kept falling asleep in a camp chair and had to be awoken, for the third time, less than 10 minutes before his last lap. Yet at 9:30, working on maybe three hours sleep per person, their brains were working away.read more
Picture this: You’re preparing for the MS 150, or Cycle North Carolina, or the Blue Ridge Brutal. It’s a Tuesday afternoon, about 4:30. You’re supposed to do a 6 p.m. training ride, a 30-miler at an 18-20 mph pace. It’s been a long day at work; You’re beat and what sounds like a much better plan is going out with some coworkers for a beer. Or two. Missing one little training ride won’t hurt, the little dude on your shoulder holding the pitchfork rationalizes. If only you had some added incentive to drag your lazy butt to the ride …read more
If you’ve ever hiked at Crowders Mountain State Park, you may have encountered a challenge or two — tripped over a tree root or scrambled over a rock face. But it’s a good bet you haven’t come across trash or lost your way because the trail wasn’t well maintained. To a large extent, you have your peers to thank for that. Peers such as the ones who will gather June 5 as part of National Trails Day to make sure Crowders Mountain’s trails remain challenging and invigorating, yet safe and fun.read more
The next time you hear someone badmouth all the New Yorkers here, invoke the name of Jessalee Landfried. She’s the reason we’ll get to ride our bikes, free of motorized traffic, over a mile-long loop of downtown Durham streets Sunday afternoon, and she’s only lived here since September.read more
I’m already running behind this week, even on the big news, which is … this is Bike to Work Week.
Since I try to keep these posts to a readable length, I will not attempt to extoll the assorted virtues of riding your bike to work. Of the money you’ll save on gas, of how a bike and its rider emit far fewer pollutants into the atmosphere than a car, of a wake-up call (the ride in) that’s even more effective than a triple Americano at jump-starting your day, of a great way to shake the “I-can’t-believe-I-work-for-the-guy-Dilbert-is-modeled-after” end-of-day blues, of getting a good workout with great health benefits to boot.read more