Deciding to Ride

This summer, Lord willing, I will be riding my bicycle from Los Angeles, CA to Staten Island, NY with the Sea to Sea 2013 bike tour organized by the Reformed Church in America. It’s a 6,178km trek over nine weeks. For the math geeks (me!) this works out to an average distance of 114km per day. It will be six days of riding followed by a day of rest… repeated nine times. From June 22 to August 24, this amounts to approximately 246 hours in the saddle (assuming an average speed of 25km/h), 54 days of riding, 54 campsite setups and 54 campsite take-downs, 63 sleeps on an air mattress, and countless Litres of Gatorade.

“Why, oh why, would someone put themselves through such torture?” you may be asking yourself. I suppose it’s a matter of perspective, because I’ve been asking myself “Why shouldn’t I seize such an awesome opportunity?”

My friends have been quick to provide an answer to this seemingly ridiculous question:
“You’ll go sterile”
“Just think how much your ass will hurt”
“You want to live in a tent for nine weeks?”

But all these concerns are immediately followed by comments of the extreme positive:
“How often does an opportunity come along – you totally have to do it!”
“You’re healthy, unattached – now’s the perfect time to go!”
“That’s the best way to see the country – on a bike”
“What else is chamois cream for?”

While my friends’ and family’s comments and encouragements are valuable, riding such a distance really does become a personal challenge. Even though I’ll be riding with over a hundred cyclists each day, riding a bike is a solo job. Each pedal stroke is powered by my two legs. Every miserable minute of riding in the rain needs to be endured in my head. And it’s my butt in the saddle every day.

That’s not to say I’ll make it on my own. Each pedal stroke is made easier by riding in a pace line. Each minute in the rain is more tolerable with a drenched fellow cyclist to gripe with. Every evening away from the comforts of my home can be shared with new friends around the dinner table. Dinner wouldn’t be prepared without helpful hands of volunteers. Gear wouldn’t be transported without more volunteers driving truck. Bikes wouldn’t operate without mechanics to tune them up. No, this personal challenge is made even better by many legs getting together to promote a good cause.

And a good cause it is… the Reformed Church in America in partnership with Partners Worldwide and the CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) is organizing this ride to raise funds to eliminate poverty. The target for this year’s ride is $1.5M after costs. Each cyclist registered for the entire distance is committed to raising $10,000 to reach this goal.

Those are the stats… but for me, that’s not enough information. “Ending Poverty” can seem to be bottomless pit for donations. And $10,000 is a lot of money. $1,500,000 is even more! What’s it going to be used for? Are these organizations worthy of being entrusted with that much money? Do I believe in the programs that will be supported enough to ask my friends and loved ones to give their money to it? I think these are healthy questions, and ones I’m working at finding answers to.

The previous ride, done in 2008, raised over $1.5M and allocated the funds to the CRWRC, Partners Worldwide, the CRWM and over fifty more churches and outreach programs throughout the United States and Canada. A few organizations I recognize and respect from this list include Cause Canada in Canmore, AB and Awake Church in Seattle, WA. (A complete list of 2008 recipients can be found here). Unfortunately, a list of recipients for this year’s tour will not be available until after all funds are collected.

I grew up in the Kelowna Christian Reformed Church and have heard about the CRWRC and CRWM for years. I respect what they do, and believe they are a well-run organization. All I know about Partners Worldwide is that Charity Navigator (a website that rates the performance of not-for-profits) rates them at 58.7/70 – which sounds pretty good.

I am not, however, currently attending a CRC. And this did cause me some consternation while deliberating about registering. I’ve been attending a small Baptist Church plant called Awaken since I moved to Calgary in 2006.  An email to the tour coordinator cleared the air, as I was assured there is no denominational discrimination for riders - everyone is welcome.  But support from churches is immensely valuable, so I have approached three churches that I am connected to with a request to support me through prayer over the course of the journey.  These churches are the Kelowna CRC where I grew up, Maranatha Church the neighboring CRC just across the river from me, and Awaken, my home church.

So why to I want to ride?

1. It's an once in a lifetime opportunity to join an epic tour;
2. The cause of the tour is something I can get behind;
3. It's a great way to travel and see the world;
4. I'm excited to meet people who are as crazy as I am about cycling;
5. I could use a break from work.  The stress of day-to-day tasks and always being on-call is getting old and lure of money needs to be checked;
6. I turn 30 this summer - we'll be somewhere in Iowa - what a brilliant way to enter a new decade!
7. It's a physical challenge, but I think I'm up for it.  It's like I started training for this ride last summer without even knowing I was training for it (I trained for a Gran Fondo, and I'll be using the same training plan to be ready for this tour in June).

There we have it...  the tour of a lifetime: SeatoSea.org.

As I get more organized, I'll be starting a fundraising campaign to raise this $10,000.  Emails will fly, and hopefully the cash from y'all will as well!