General Cycling Discussion - Mother's Day

The Big M-Day is coming up and for a change this year I thought I would give my mother the gift of peace of mind. The peace of mind that comes from knowing that her second born is trying to stay healthy. I will try the 60+ mile commute from my house to hers with my wife following up several hours behind in case I am the victim of zealous 4WD pilots or wandering cattle. There is one hill on the route that gives me nightmares but I can't wait to try it. I'll try to throw something in the ol' backpack that will cover if peace of mind is not enough. Anybody else got any good gift ideas?

You should probably buy the flowers after you get there. I would bike to my Mom's house, but she is 1,000 miles away...guess I should have left last week.

I am sure your Mother will appreciate the effort, and good idea having the wife bring up the rear...60 miles is a long ways (at least for me, sorry no centuries on the MTB).

Maybe you could have your wife bring a couple extra bikes along and the three of you could go for a ride once you get there.

Good luck!

My folks live 5 blocks away. Its faster to ride than to drive. (No hills either.)

My Mom is 1500 or so miles away, too. I forgot to leave last week also, so I just ordered the flowers over the phone.

This is nice, remembering mothers. So I will, too.

My mother died at age 43, when I was 12--in 1952. She had a stroke while cooking dinner, and passed away four hours later.

I appreciate her more every year. She was a woman ahead of her times, and I know she would have been enthusiastic about cycling and alternate energy sources and all sorts of advanced, unpopular notions that we Bike Forums people strive for or at least dream about.

Furthermore, I owe her more than I can say for introducing me to things that have remained important to me, and sustained me, all these years: books, writing, the arts, independent judgment.

And I love and admire her for being a good mother despite some considerable physical and emotional disabilities.

So--I'm celebrating Mother's Day along with the rest of you! :)

hopefully(if i can shake this head-cold) i will race on mother's day.
the flyer says "mothers race for free!"(funny...they don't offer the same thing for FATHER'S day).

my mom has come to watch me race mtb a few times. after a few broken bones i asked her NOT to say "be careful" but "ride fast" or "have a good ride".

wish me luck. i haven't raced in a few years and i am a fat-tired old lady! ;)

p.s. really enjoyed hearing about your "forward thinking" mom jonR. sounds like a great woman.

Great Post Huffyman. It's amazing, the older I get the more I appreciate my parents.

I will definitely be sending my Mom flowers for Mother's Day.

Oh yeah, Good luck on your Race Poptart...:thumbup:

Let us know how you do.

Originally posted by poptart
wish me luck. i haven't raced in a few years and i am a fat-tired old lady! ;)



I'll be thinking of you as I lug my fat-tired old body up some hill on one of my bikes that day! :beer:

That's strange...

I think we've already had mother's day in GB.....either that, or the last year has just zoomed by!!!!

Rich

Isn't it one of those holidays that's celebrated at various times in various countries? (I think Thanksgiving is in October in Canada, but it's in November in the US)....

Mother's Day Race Report...

I woke up sick as a dog. Start time wasn't until 1:00 p.m.
I ate a bowl of oatmeal, popped some decongestants, drank 1/2 bottle of Cytomax and then moped around the house for the next 3 hours trying to decide whether to race or not.

At the very last minute(~1.5 hour to race time and we had a 1 hr. drive) I decided "yes".
My reasoning was that my cold seemed to be "above the neck", the race was going to be free and I'd promised a friend I'd come.

I had less than 1/2 hr. to register, dress, and warm up. I was happy I came when one of the girls said "wow this is the largest women's field we've ever had!" . All of the women seemed excited to have a "real" race; 4 experts and ~4-5 sport women(apparently they've had a hard time getting the women out to race in this area, not at ALL like Texas where I started out racing in Beginner with ~30-50 ).

I felt dehydrated on the start line(NOT good) but when the gun went off,we went...and had a crash ~100 yards into the race on a gravel corner. Yikes. I managed to stay upright, asked if everyone was "ok", then watched the backs of two of the Expert women disappear into the distant singletrack. *sigh*. Didn't have it in me to chase. The other woman in my class and I pretty much stuck together during the race. We turned it into a "girl ride". She was really funny and very supportive. We started egging each other on to "get air" on the little jumps and whoops. She was calling out "log" and "climb"when she was in the lead...I pointed out that we were *supposed* to be racing. :)

Well I slogged through the 24 miles. Can't say it was fast or pretty, but I rode cleanly(0 crashes) and finished my race. It was my first race in over 2 years, my first time ever to race "sick"(i'm usually a "fair weather racer"), and my first time to be DFL(hey SOMEbody has to be last!). Funny thing is overall I'd rate the experience as "good". I met some really nice people, hopefully recruited a few new women for my "girl rides" and got a little fesh air and sunshine.

Hope everyone and their mom had a Happy Mother's Day :)

I'm glad you rate the day as good. The more you remember it, the higher you may rate it.

Good going! (And take care of that cold.) :)

Way to go Poptart!! :thumbup:

It sounds like you had a great time even though you were sick as a dog. I'm impressed...I probably would've just stayed under the comforter if I would've been that sick.

Glad to hear you didn't crash. And so what if you came in DFL. At least you got yourself out there even though you weren't feeling your best.

I am ashamed to say that the trip ended in dismal failure. I developed a nasty, chest imploding cough that my better half thought would hamper my efforts. I argued slightly, but she used her "teacher stare" and I rode quietly with her in the car. However, this only delays the trip a few weekends, now I'll just have to mow the grass when I get there. :beer: