I would like to dedicate my ride this year in honor of the 60th wedding anniversary of my Uncle Rex and Aunt Joan.

READ ON FOR:  This year's riding goals, my genetic inheritance of cycling and a recap of my 2007 "Cycle for Shelter" ride

Last year, I set my goals high and strove towards raising $1,000 for Emmaus and riding 62 miles.  Amazingly, I achieved (and exceeded) both, with the generous assistance and strong support and encouragement of friends, family and students.  This year, my goal is to once again exceed both goals.  (I opted not to go for the 100-miler.  Trust me, 62 miles is more than enough of a challenge!  Perhaps next year, when I turn 1/2 century, I'll consider the "century" ride! )

THE GENETIC INHERITANCE OF THE CYCLING GENE:  This past summer, as I trained for the "Cycle for Shelter" 62-mile bike-a-thon, cycling became an important part of my daily life and a means of engaging the beautiful backroads of New England.  I felt truly “at home” on the bike, and sensed that I had rediscovered an important part of myself through cycling. 

Fast forward to January, when I flew to Seattle to attend the 60th wedding anniversary celebration of my Uncle Rex and Aunt Joan, who I hadn't seen in years.  Imagine my surprise when the theme of the party was cycling!  However, I shouldn't have been surprised.

During the early years of their relationship, the couple led cycling tours through Europe, and on the home front, they were active members of a club of young people who enjoyed participating together in outdoor adventures, including cycling.  (Many of those club members were present at the anniversary celebration some 60 years later!  And some were still cyclists!)

I also remember my father telling stories of my uncle repairing bicycles in the basement of the family home as they were growing up.  He eventually opened his own bike store and then a chain of stores in the Seattle area, which one of his sons currently owns and operates.  His other son builds custom bicycles in the Denver area. 

I was so very struck by the theme of the gathering!  I had lost track of how critical a role bicycles and cycling had played in the Clark clan.  To attend a celebration of two lives joined together through cycling, and whose lives and children’s lives and friend’s lives have been defined by cycling, and to recognize that these are my own family, reaffirmed that sense of rediscovering a part of myself. 

Thank you, Rex and Joan, for passing on the cycling gene!

Did I mention the musical component?  At the anniversary party, my cousin had arranged for a good friend/folk singer to sing a variety of cycling themed tunes for the guests.  When I requested "Bicycle Built for Two", (which turned out to already be on the playlist), he invited me to join him in singing.  I was transported back to the 50th wedding anniversary party of my grandparents.  My sisters and I had sung the same song on that occasion, only changing the words to "A Motorcycle Built for Two", as that had been my grandfather's courting vehicle of choice. 

CYCLE FOR SHELTER 2007:  It was a clear, sunny day, with a cool breeze.  It couldn’t have been more gorgeous conditions for an extended ride through the back roads of New England .  After a stirring introduction by one of the Emmaus staff, who shared stories of Emmaus, reminding us of our purpose for the ride, a surge of cyclists took off down the road away from Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill . 

Within 20 minutes we transitioned from a casual, scenic ride to a two mile gradual uphill climb, climaxing with the painfully steep “Corliss Hill”.  As we sweated and grunted our way up to the crest of the hill, the director of Emmaus passed out buttons, proclaiming “I climbed Corliss Hill!”  After that auspicious beginning, the rest of the ride almost felt “downhill” all the way!

Shortly after Corliss Hill, I misread the course road signs and took a wrong turn, which led me (and one unfortunate cyclist who erringly followed my lead) on a beautiful ½ mile downhill flight, only to be followed by the uphill return to the course!  After that rough start, however, the first seventeen miles, winding through bucolic Southern New Hampshire , were delightful.  I can only compare my emotions flying down the road to the way my dog, Shiloh, must have felt, when as a 1 1/2 year old pup, he slipped out of the house and bound freely, happily and speedily down the open road... 

The rest of the ride, which dipped back down into Massachusetts, featured more beautiful scenery, several blessed rest stops, wobbly legs, a few more wrong turns (!), and crossing the finish line, 6 hours and 66 miles later!