Likes Long Bike Rides In The Rain

Each year, for the past 17 years, our local bike shop has sponsored an event that benefits the American Cancer Society.  I love this event.  Cancerthon is held in January, on a track surrounding a football field.  Did you catch that part about it being held in January?  We're in Kansas, not sunny California.  It is rarely warm in Kansas in January.  As it turns out, this event used to be held indoors.  Teams of 3 would hook a bike to an indoor trainer, attach it to a computer, and log their miles.  The computer would show which team was in the lead and there were inevitably grumblings about some trainers being easier to ride on than others.  The easy fix?  Move the event outside where there was nothing to blame but yourself for being slower than anyone else.  Thanks a lot, people who ride slower and complain.*                                  (*I would, absolutely, have been one of those people)

Teams and individuals can register for the Male, Female, Mixed, Individual, or Junior divisions.  For 6 hours, each team can have 1 rider out at a time & each rider tracks their mileage.  At the end of the event, the teams and individuals with the most miles wins.  Participants make a flat donation to the American Cancer Society and lots of local businesses donate all the stuff (food, prizes, the track, port-a-potties, insurance to cover the event, etc) that make it so much fun.

5 of our 8 at the After-Party.  We watched from the balcony seats b/c warm air rises!

This year, Bouncing Buns put together 3 teams of 3! I believe our very original team names were:  Bouncing Buns 1, Bouncing Bikers, and Biking Buns. The great part about having multiple teams is that we would definitely have friends out on the track at any given time.  Team members changed around a little bit, due to illness and other commitments, but we had 8 ladies represent our group.
Last year, the weather was cold & windy!  My feet froze and I had brain freeze and tight shoulders from riding in the cold wind for 2 hours.  This year, the forecast got worse and worse as the week leading up to the event went on.  Temps were in the upper 30's and it drizzled rain for the entire event.  To lessen the risk of illness, the event was shortened from 6 hours to 4.  No one complained!

Doesn't that look fun?  You can see the wet ground & all of the cold weather gear on the cyclists.

It is very difficult to plan a wardrobe around exercising in cold rain!  If I seal out the rain, I'll be sealing in the sweat.  If I dress in lightweight clothing, I'll get chilled before & after my time on the bike.  It's fun to see some of the gear other people have (and easy to tell who doesn't let winter weather stop them from riding outdoors).  There were neoprene helmet covers (I wore a stocking cap under my helmet), things called "Bar Mitts" that looked like waterproof fabric lobster claws that fit over a bike's handlebars.  The rider just tucks their hands in the mitts and has access to brakes & gears inside the mitts.  I wore my weather-resistant Isotoners & lost feeling in my fingers for a little while.  Lots of folks had weatherproof shoe covers (I had them, too, but somehow my shoes managed to fill with water & my feet went numb pretty quickly).  I saw rain jackets (I picked up a cheap one at Walmart & it worked like a charm), wind-breakers, hoodies, and cycling jerseys.  Lots of people had on neck gaiters or balaclava masks.  Some of the kids wore their ski bibs.  We all had mud up our backs from dirty tires.

The crazy thing is- this was a really fun event, even in miserable conditions!  Cyclists are a good group of people. Also, dedicated cyclists like to pick on triathletes.  Sometimes, triathletes see the picking as a challenge & focus on proving triathletes are capable of riding outside in the rain & not just on the trainer in the winter-time, thank you very much.  Then the cyclist gets a kick out of seeing how easy it is to rile up a triathlete, but it's okay, because it's all in good fun. But, even though the triathlete had a great time out in the cold rain, she knows she will spend the rest of the winter on the trainer, so maybe the cyclist has a point.  <- That may or may not have actually happened today.

They give out trophies, too!

Several of us got chilled to the bone & spent more time trying to raise our core temperatures than we did riding in the cold rain.  That was okay, too.  It was all for a good cause & we got to do some of that warming up in the bike shop, laughing with other participants, and winning prizes.  They say that misery loves company.  Well, today we may have been miserable, but we certainly were in good company.  I wonder what Mother Nature has in store for the 2016 Cancerthon?