Virginia Registration Update

[OBC Webmaster]

Virginia Registration Update

Registration for the Spring to Virginia is very low at this time. Six members have registered so far, including the coordinator. The tour requires many more registrations by the March 1 deadline to proceed. Otherwise it will be cancelled. Contact the OBC office for further details.

admin Thu, 02/22/2018 - 09:08

Full story on the OBC homepage: https://www.ottawabicycleclub.ca/story-2018-02-22

[sean.crowe]

Hello everybody,

I'm Sean Crowe. You may remember me from such rides as Sunday tours, Saturday tours, Tuesday tours, Rideau Lakes, OK tour, Vermont Inn-to-inn and Virginia. I saw many familiar faces at last Wednesday's social. It was great to reconnect!

However, you haven't seen me on the road for quite a while. I have always had a tendency to be heavy. No matter how much cycling I've done in the past, getting lean has always seemed to elude me. I remember fondly one Vermont tour where, based on my ability to keep up, and sometimes briefly do the pacing, on the hills, and the post-tour weigh-in, I was given the nickname (gave myself anyway :)) 'the 206 pound climbing machine'. I was always a pretty good climber in spite of how heavy I was. But I always wanted to remove the 'in spite' qualifier.

Over the past few years, I gained even more weight and was unable to participate in the regular club rides and the tours that I enjoy so much. I also got into health issues like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and type II diabetes.

I have lost over 50 pounds in the past year. I haven't been this light since I was 25! I wish I could say it was solely as a result of tremendous discipline on my part to get into cycling shape. However, the main impetus was my decision to finally commit a couple of years to a dental reconstruction project, fixing my teeth and, eventually, my jaw. The orthodontic paraphernalia made chewing slow, difficult and overall unpleasant. So the weight started drifting off. My little puppy Bijou has really helped as well. We regularly do walks of 5-10 K, often gallivanting through the snow on the Ottawa River pathway.

However, getting back to, and enhancing, my cycling life, has always been top of my mind. My dreams of climbing the Alps and so forth finally seem to be within reach. That's why I want to keep this going. I'm actually only just a bit over half way to my goal. But the orthodontic paraphernalia is soon slowly going to start coming off and, the piece de résistance, my lower jaw will be broken in a few months to realign my bite. Then I will be able to go back to eating normally, enjoyably and, with great temptation, too much once again.

To keep up my resolve, I need to continue to concentrate on my dreams, cycling paramount among them! That's why I was so excited about the upcoming Virginia Tour. It seemed like providence that this was to be the last one. This was to be an exciting reintroduction to the cycling scene for me and a bit of a reward for my, admittedly somewhat serendipitous, weight loss. However, it's not looking good for that to happen...

As I say, this is totally selfish plea of mine to see if a few more people will come along for this tour. I have done it a few times over the years and I can assure you that yo will have a wonderful time. I know there are a few hills but different routes can be chosen and the stronger climbers are always very tolerant, kind and encouraging those for whom the hills are a bit more of a challenge. Again I speak from experience... Even if it turns out I'm now an awesome climber, I promise to remember you who are still not quite there yet, and try to be as patient and kind, despite my excitement.

Now I certainly realize that, with just over a month to go, most of you have your plans already set for early April. But maybe some of you are still 'on the fence'. And maybe the lack of enthusiasm hasn't helped. So I implore to take a chance and go for it. For me! No, mostly for yourself because you will have a wonderful time. The phase 'the more the merrier' definitely applies since the more people we have the more variety of routes and companionship there will be.

Let's see if we can get this ball rolling in the next few days and make it one last great Spring to Virginia Tour. And I've always felt a bit guilty over the years about not giving back as much as the club has given to me with all of the wonderful volunteers. I would like to get involved to see whether we can keep this wonderful tour going into the years to come!

Now I realize that this is a long shot and I'll probably have to accept disappointment. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the roads of Ottawa starting in April. It will be awesome to get back into the fun and comradery!

Cheers all!

Sean