RIVER BENDER - June, 2011

In October '84, I retired from AT&T at age 55 after 33 years. I was in management, had too many people reporting to me, burned out, a smoker, overweight and a couch potato. Worse yet, my dad died of a heart attack at age 53 so I assumed that unless my life style changed I was living on borrowed time. After puffing away a pack of Winstons at the retirement party, I promised Marilee I'd never smoke again. I also began riding my old 3-speed Raleigh bike daily for an objective of 100 miles/mo. Hey, that's only a little over 3 miles/day. It had a speedometer (later replaced with a bike computer) and I had an Apple computer with Visicalc spreadsheet software so I recorded all my miles cycled monthly and continued doing so ever since. During those years I began a business/hobby rebuilding old bicycles and selling them using parts I obtained from a bike shop that had gone out of business. My rebuilt bikes looked like new and business was good. I mention this only because it enabled me to continue getting a better bike for myself so I began cycling over 100 miles/mo. I also began to wonder if maybe I could cycle around the world before I died which is 24,901 miles at the equator.

In '93 we moved from MD to River Bend. I loved it, no hills, good weather, so my cycling increased. In '96 I entered Neuse River Senior Games cycling events and discovered that my old French Motobecane touring bike was not for speed so I bought a top of the line Cannondale aluminum road bike and went to the state finals in Raleigh. The bike made a vast difference and I won two silver and one bronze medal and continued racing for 10 years including representing NC in the Senior Nationals at Disney World at age 70. Later in '96 Greg McCoy of River Bend and I cycled our first Century trip (100 miles) to Beulaville. This was followed by Bill Ernul and I cycling Century trips to Beulaville almost monthly. My cycling average peaked in 2001 at 450 miles/mo. Wishing more cyclists to join us to make group riding easier by drafting I created the New Bern Century Cyclists (NBCC) group (http://pages.suddenlink.net/davew/nbcc.htm) which has 175 members, 118 of whom have cycled one or more Century trips. I've cycled 57 Centuries, including 10 during the 9 years I cycled the MS Bike Tour and raised $19,141 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

In May 2011, I noticed my cycling spreadsheet had reached 74,701 miles which is three times around the world. Since starting in '84 at age 55 this took 319.5 months (26+years) of cycling at an average of 233.8 miles/mo. But as noted, my fast cycling started in '96 when I bought a road bike so the average since then is 324 miles/mo. None of this, of course, is a record. The Guinness record for cycling around the world is 176 days to cover 18,172 terrestrial miles after 12 plane and boat transfers. But to me, I'm convinced that cycling, especially in the aerobic range that is helpful to one's heart, is why I'm still alive at age 81.