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I've Got Something to Say
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I was really looking forward to doing the Thursday Night West County Ride tonight, especially after having it cut short last week due to a broken spoke. Additionally, I picked up my replacement wheel last night so I was excited about its maiden voyage. After getting to the park where the ride starts & finishes, and getting myself and my bike ready for the trek, I took a couple warm-up laps around the parking lot before rolling to an area where a couple other cyclist were hanging around waiting for the start of the ride.
As the church bells chimed the top of the hour, we were validating who was riding with the group & who was doing their own thing, but we soon got rolling. Tonight we were making a change to the start of the ride. Instead of heading south on Ballas Rd to Clayton Rd, we would roll through the park and make our way out to Bopp Rd and take it to Clayton Rd. The reasoning for this is even though there is a shoulder on Ballas, the pavement is rough, with a couple ruts and even a couple drain grates you have to lookout for, along with the leftover rush hour traffic. Bopp is a quieter road, with smooth asphalt - when this option was purposed to the group I commented that I ride Bopp Rd when returning to the park finishing this ride for that same reasons previously stated.
As we head out and make the turn onto Bopp, something feels a little funny with my bike. On its own the chain shifted from the big to the middle crank (the gear on the pedals). Hmmm, OK, so I reach down to my shifter to see if I can get it to shift back up, but the shift won't budget - because it believes the chain is still on the big crank. This could make for a long ride. Then I realize that my right foot doesn't feel like it is flat to the ground as I'm pedalling - it is tilted with the outer part of my foot lower than the inner part. Now the mechanic that installed my wheel last night and checked a few things out mentioned that there is some play in the pedal, but it shouldn't go that bad that fast!
It is then I realize the problem isn't the pedal, but the crank itself. The crank (the gears, crank arm and the pedal) has come off its mounting - I can no longer pedal to keep the bike rolling, as the chain is still wrapped around the crank, that's attached to the crank arm, that's attached to the pedal, that's attached to my bike shoe by the cleat. There was a feeling of helpless as I need to get me left foot to detach from its pedal, so I can put it on the ground when my momentum stops so I don't fall over and injure myself. As I'm slowing down and disengaging my foot I holler to alert some of the other rides that I am in need of help.
I stop and another cyclist comes over and holds the bike as I swing my left leg over it, then I try to detach my right foot from its pedal as I hold the crank. It took a couple tries, but it came undone. Another rider, Doug, who I've ridden with before a few years ago, stopped and helped asses the situation. Since the bolt that would hold the crank on the bike was no where to be found, my night is done and I told them I would just walk the mile or so back to the park and head to the bike shop to get this addressed. And that's what I did.
With just over a week before I head to Milwaukee for my week long Tour of Door County, I am a little disappointed that I have not been able to complete as many of these Thursday night rides as I would have liked. This ride has a couple serious little climbs, so I view it means of getting ready for the tour. So, I will be a little aprehensive going into the tour as to how well my legs & stamina will hold up.
As I drove to the bike shop tonight, I pondered for awhile if there is a message in all these ‘hurdles’ that I need to be heeding. My first thought was, is God trying to discourage me from going on this tour? I didn’t dismiss that possibility, but I don’t think that is the case at this point. One thing I do know is that God is looking over me. Last week, with the broken spoke, there wasn’t any immediate danger when it broke, but it was provisional that Pam, the lady that came and picked me up, didn’t go to her friend’s house with her husband just before I called her. And here tonight, we could have been on Ballas Rd when this happened, where the pavement and/or traffic could have played a more prominent role. It could have happened later in the ride when I would be much further away from my truck, or at a point where I was going faster down a hill or pedaling hard trying to climb a hill – any of this could have led to a less than desirable out come.
One thing that does make all this disheartening to me is just the fact that my plan doesn’t go as smooth as I hope, and then I realize that it is easy to get spoiled with everything rolling along smoothly. But, life isn’t always a smooth ride. Things do get disjointed from time to time, and being able to adjust for those unforeseen circumstances is what allows one to move on through life. Many times it is not the journey, how I got there, that brings the joy & satisfaction, but the fact that the journey was completed despite what had to be overcome along the way to the finish.
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