Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

My 100 Mile Bike Ride – Made It!

The Harpeth River Ride south of Nashville, is one of the two premier biking events in Middle Tennessee each year.

The 100-mile Route of the Harpeth River Ride

Last year I did the 62-mile loop for the Harpeth River Ride that starts in the parking lot of Nissan’s North American headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, and winds through some beautiful scenic roads. I had just got back into riding a couple of months earlier and the ride was just about more than I could handle. I started off strong but then hit Pulltight Hill for the first time and struggled the rest of the way to the finish line.

I’ve been on the bike at least once a week and usually twice since then – so I’ve “let” my neighbor talk me into the 100-mile loop – which goes 101 miles. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be just about more than I can handle – but I can do it! So if you see a triumphant update on my ride on Monday – you’ll know I made it – even if my pace doesn’t break any land speed records.

If I am unusually quiet next week you might be right when you assume I switched to the 62-mile loop mid-course. But I’m not even going to think that way. 101 miles here I come. Prayers and best wishes are welcome!

ADDENDUM

I made it! In fact, I took a wrong turn and added 4 miles, so I made 105 miles. I wasn’t the last rider in – but I was definitely near the back of the pack. I expected that knowing that the majority of the 100-mile participants would be the better riders and I didn’t think I could catch any of the stragglers riding the 62-mile or 44-mile loops. Next year? Might return to the 62-mile loop!

Harpeth River Bike Ride

Nissan’s Official Harpeth River Ride Vehicle

 

Top 10 Ways to Know a New Football Season Has Arrived

Top 10 Ways to Know a New Football Season Has Arrived

Is it football season yet?

Are you ready for some football? Here are the top 10 ways to know a new football season – high school, college or pro are all fine –  has officially arrived!

1. the bass drum corps from the high school – located more than a couple miles from your house – rattles your windows every morning during marching band practice – and then breaks crystal and knocks picture frames off the wall every other Friday night at home games;

2. you find out where your neighbors moved from or went to college as flags are attached to car windows or hung from front porches (or both) every Saturday morning – of note: you will know when their favorite team has lost a big game when the flag comes down immediately after the game;

3. no more curling tournaments; no more bocci specials; no more cricket highlights from the New Zealand versus Barbados match are shown on ESPN 2 through 25;

4. coaches at every level of football stand before a row of microphones and talk about how tough their opening game against a team that hasn’t won a game in three years is going to be…with a straight face;

5. grown men who shouldn’t take off their shirts in public take of their shirts in public with a big block letter painted on their chest;

6. television ratings for major league baseball plummet – and no one outside New York City and Boston and whoever lives in one of the cities that has a shot of playing them cares;

7. even the most long suffering of fans – i.e. Cincinnati Bengals fans (the team I grew up watching) – believe this year is going to finally be different for their team (until after the first game is a blowout loss);

8. the skinny kid who majors (or plans to major) in atomic and molecular astrophysics puts on a Tiger outfit and becomes a rock star to the home fans;

9. fantasy draft parties are held in corporate meeting rooms after work hours with a group of eleven people who bring enough pages of notes to fill War and Peace – and a twelfth person who plans to draft the kicker from his alma mater in the first round;

10. fans who have never played a down of football get into heated – and well reasoned – arguments over the merits of cover two versus bump and run; three-four versus four-three; i-formation versus the spread; punting or going for it; 60’s Packers versus 80’s 49ers versus the 21st Century Patriots; and the current head coach versus the coach who got fired from someone else’s team last year.

Are you ready for some football?

“The Necessary Compulsion of Exercise”

I will be riding my bike this Saturday with Lance Armstrong and other friends.

On Saturday morning I take off on my bicycle with a couple thousand of my closest friends – including Lance Armstrong and some of his Team RadioShack teammates – on the Harpeth River Ride. I am doing the 62-mile course with mixed emotions. (Not sure how far Lance is riding or how long we are going to hang together.)

On one hand I love riding my bike and I see the benefit – or more accurately the necessity – of riding to get in better shape (another way of saying, “I need to lose 20 pounds … again”). On the other hand, after a long winter hibernation and then an early spring surgery, I’m not in the best shape of my life, a condition that both motivates and discourages the obvious cure. So I know full well that not all of the 62 miles promise to be fun. In the short time I’ve had to get ready for this modest ride I’ve discovered that after riding about 25 miles the gentle rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, the hills are not always so gentle.

I was sifting through some excerpts from Albert Schweitzer’s Africa Notebooks and stumbled on this relevant observation the great missionary and humanitarian made as he conversed with the natives of Africa. They were curious as to the differences between themselves and the people of Europe where Schweitzer was born.

So I go on to tell them that in Europe people row for pleasure, a statement followed by uncontrollable laughter. … I don’t attempt to make clear to them what sport is. The conditions under which they live in so many ways compel them to use their physical forces and take exercise to a greater extent than they like, that they cannot understand at all how people can do so except under compulsion.

We may have a choice whether to exercise or not, but in our corner of the world where food is abundant and many of us ply a trade that is sedentary, it’s not surprising we put on jogging shoes or head to the gym or hop on a bike under a certain compulsion, too.

So will I ride for pleasure or compulsion on Saturday? I’m telling myself it is for pleasure. But halfway through I may not be able to fool myself any longer. As is so often the case in life, the answer is a definite and resounding, yes.