Why I’m Doing This Ride
After a particularly and unusually rough end to 2009, the start of 2010 seemed sooo much better, even in the first few days. So I decided to challenge myself with a goal that would take me out of my comfort zone and help me achieve something cool and unusual. This isn’t a weight-loss or “must go to the gym more” resolution. Those aren’t things we should promise ourselves at the beginning of every year and then forget. Plus, there’s no incentive for that kind of work unless one already has the personal incentive to do it. Instead, this is an “I want to do something different and productive this year” goal, and that ‘thing’ is to ride my bike from Bloomington, IL to West Lafayette, IN, for the 2010 Computers and Writing conference at Purdue University. (Thus the name of this blog — Cycling & Writing — as a play on the acronym for my favorite conference, C&W. And both involve lots and lots of writing! As well as multiple technologies.)
A year ago — nay, a month ago — such a crazy thing would never have entered into my head. I am not a “bike” person. I am not really an “exercise” person, for that matter. Nor is anyone in my family. We just don’t have a history of doing outdoor things beyond the age of, oh, 14. So I have to thank a few crucial people who (perhaps unbeknownst to them) made me realize that cycling and exercising do not have to be thought of as the same. I totally stole this idea from Jim Ridolfo, who posted on Facebook (or Twitter) early in the new year that his goal was to ride his bike to two of our field’s major conferences this year, CCCC (in Louisville) and C&W (in W. Lafeyette). Jim lives an hour from Lville and about 3 from Purdue, while it’s the other way around for me (Purdue is a 2 hr drive; Lville is a 4 hr drive). It occured to me that if Jim was riding his bike (with all attendant conference-going needs) for these distances, which when one thinks about are not really all that far (Purdue is 100 miles as the bird flies for me), then I could try to do it to!
Of course, Jim — and another cyclist who is inspirational to me, Bill Hart-Davidson — is already a cyclist. Already has the gear, already rides, has already been training for years. And here I am, just 4.5 months (or, at this point, 3.5 months) away from making a 100-mile journey on my bike, with no gear, no training, and little money to do either. Still, I keep being compelled to tell people that I plan on doing this trip. Over the last month (since Jan 5ish, when it occured to me), I’ve been telling friends and strangers alike that I am riding my bike to C&W. But I’d also been hedging my bets, figuring that there was no way I could afford to buy a new bike and all that gear and train enough to make the trip. Until I told a group of colleagues on a listserv who would otherwise have no idea I was planning this adventure. And they will all BE at the C&W conference. And one of them — another person I have to thank: Joyce Walker — promised on that list that if I made the trip, she would drive the support vehicle. (I’d had other offers to do this, but Joyce has to go to the conference anyways, and her husband is a cyclist, this option makes great sense, and helps ease my nerves tremendously.) So now I am obligated. I’m in. And this blog will chronicle my attempt at getting to Purdue by May 19th, on a bike, in one piece. 
A final (for this introduction) thanks must go to the Davis’s of Bloomington Cycle and Fitness, who are wonderful shop owners and more-than-wonderful people, and who are helping me figure out what the heck I need to accomplish this trip. More postings on that in the actual blog.
PS: There are no promises I’ll ride my bike *back* from Purdue, just in case you were wondering. And it’s not because I think one-way is enough (although it IS enough of a goal for me to feel like I accomplished something major this year). It’s because C&W doesn’t end until Sunday afternoon, and I have to fly out of Bloomington late Sunday or early Monday for another conference, so I won’t have time to ride my bike back.