The really good news is that I did not fall off my bike.
Dateline September 11, 2021
Location: Strawberry Plains, TN
Event: Tennessee Senior Olympics
State Championships
Age Groups 6 Men and 4 Women (divided into 5 year intervals)
20 Kilometer Road Race
I signed up for this event on a lark. Having won the 85-89 age group in Pickleball when the opposing player failed to show, I figured maybe I could compete is this cycling event. Surely there could not be too many in my age group and I could qualify for the Nationals in both events, (Pickleball and Cycling)
Carolyn and I drove up in the early afternoon for a 4PM race time. The weather was great, not much wind, temps in the low 80s, a good day to be out there.
No. 111 is registered and has the tee shirt.
Looking around the group of men and women in racing attire and their bikes, I noticed there were none with toe clasps on the pedals, no other straight handlebars only drops, and none with iPhones on the bars. My bike had all three and looked like a VW Bug in a Ferrari race.
The race is about 12 miles in length through the rolling countryside of East Tennessee. The course is a loop, on public roads, but with little traffic. No spectators lined the roadways, and the cheering was pretty subdued.
There was a one lane tunnel, under the railroad, pretty tight for one car even, so we followed a motorcycle for the first 0.8 of a mile till we went through, It had been a neutral start, with the riders in a pack till the tunnel, and then the real race began. The pack pace was faster than my race pace, so I never saw the pack in motion from the beginning. Needless to say I never saw the real racers until we all received our medals after the race.
Most of the time I rode a solo race, hardly ever seeing a biker the whole way around. There were not many of us who were dropped by the peloton at the beginning, maybe 4. We never rode together, I passed no one, was passed by one and beat the other two to the finish.
Even though there were no other cyclists in my age group, I wanted to see how I could do on a new course, with unfamiliar hills and roads. Turns out my time was 55 minutes, about 10 minutes faster than my training rides of equal length, so I guess I got a PR.
I saw few people out on the course. Probably 4 cars in all, and only the marshals who pointed out the way to go at each intersection. No one jumped out of the crowd to take a selfie with the riders going by.
Cresting the last hill, 2 police cruisers pointed the way downhill to the finish. I probably would have raised both arms in triumph except that it is never a pretty sight when a biker crashes going over the finish line in front of everyone. I just smiled.
My race time was 55 minutes and the winners were in around 31. To me that says that they finished, when I was halfway. I assume these fast guys went home for a shower and bite to eat before coming back to the finish line to see us stragglers glide across the line.
At the medal ceremony the 85-89 age group was called first. Only one name for a medal, mine, and as I walked forward to a round of applause, one rider stepped out of the "crowd", looked me in the eye and said, "You know I hope when I get old, I can be just like you." I took that as a compliment, smiled, and accepted my gold medal.
I did not feel like any role model, but gladly thanked God that he had blessed me with a healthy body that could still ride. Who said you could not outlive your competition?
A man came up to Carolyn and I after the medals were given out and wanted to know if he could interview me about being fit at any age. He did for a few minutes, which was kinda fun, and he told me about his web site on aging, but I did not write it down. I don't think he was from USA Today, but I'll post the interview if I ever see it anywhere.
Good grief, where will this all end. Photographers in the driveway?
It was a fun day
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