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Old 05-29-03, 08:06 AM
  #25  
Rich Clark
A Heart Needs a Home
 
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Originally posted by John E
I'll turn 53 in about 3 months, on what would have been Tullio Campagnolo's 102nd birthday, if he were still around.
I once heard a TV anchor say"Today is Lincoln's birthday - his 183rd birthday, had he lived."

I'm only 51, I'll be 52 in Septermber, and I was a pretty hardcore transportational cyclist as a kid and young man (I didn't even get a driver's license until I was 25) in Chicago and then Philadelphia. I rode year-round, mostly on 10-speeds I built out of used parts until after I got married, when I graduated to actual store-bought bikes.

I was done in by the usual culprits: moving to the suburbs, buying a house, having a career, starting a family. I rode less and less, got fat, didn't change my eating and smoking habits, and in 1988 had a serious accident (at work), broke my left ankle and went through two years of reconstruction and physical therapy. After than it was a short trip to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis and the rest of the classic pantheon, which is how I spend the mid-90's: surgery, angioplasty, therapy, more surgery, rehab.

So getting back on the bike was grabbing a lifeline, and while it took some time to get fit enough to feel good, I found that all of my old training and street smarts were intact. In a surprisingly short time I was tackling the 26-mile round trip commute to work, and piling up 5000 miles a year.

It's not as easy as it was when I was 18 and could jump on the 10-speed in my jeans and sneakers, make sure I had a fresh pack of smokes, and ride 60 miles around the south shore of Lake Michigan to visit my friends at their beach house.

But every mile today means something it never did then. I feel better than I have in 20 years, and for the first time in a while when people try to guess my age, they guess low.

RichC
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Training: 2002 Fuji Roubaix Pro (105 triple)
Commuting/Daytripping: 2001 Airborne Carpe Diem (Ultegra/XTR, touring wheels)
Commuting/Touring: 2000 Novara Randonee (Sora/Tiagra/LX, fenders, lights)
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