The Polar Pedal

December 31, 2007 will be the THIRD ANNUAL POLAR PEDAL ride. Yes, it's the day where we ride just because it's the last day of the year we can ride.

Here's how it all began: Dec. 31, 2005.
I had owned my road bike for not yet three months. Before I bought my bike, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was about 11 or 12 years old. And, dang, now I was excited to ride any chance I got. So when I heard that there was going to be a group ride, I was there. I drove to the meeting place: Cracker Barrel in Springville. We were to ride from Springville, around West Mountain, through Genola and Payson, and back to Springville - about 50 miles total. A lofty goal for such a newbie. Imagine my disappointment when the only other people who showed up were serious, fast cyclists. I got dropped quickly. Luckily for me, Russ decided he couldn't leave me behind and ordered everyone to slow down. I hung on, anaerobic for several miles. Pretty soon, one guy, I'll call him Hothead, decided to ride away from the group. Hothead didn't know where he was going and soon missed the turn to West Mountain. Everybody in the group started yelling at him to come back, but he was too far out and couldn't hear us. We sent Russ to chase Hothead down and bring him back. In the meantime, the rest of the group tooled around, waiting for the others to return. It never happened. After looking for them for about 45 minutes, we decided to head back toward Cracker Barrel. Total mileage ended up being only about 20 miles.
Coming into the parking lot at Cracker Barrel, I had a little incident. I couldn't clip out of my pedal. My cleat had apparently frozen to the pedal. Now, I could either run into Coach Girl or my car. I chose the car. Once I hit the car, my foot finally unclipped. I felt like such a dork! All of this at a time when I was trying so hard to impress Coach Girl. Good thing she's managed to look past all my goofiness, and we've become good friends.

Dec 30, 2006: The Second Annual Polar Pedal.
This time around I had a year's worth of riding under my belt, and I was a bit less spastic. There were a few more people on this ride. People from all riding abilities. The group managed to drop a couple of riders off the back within 1.5 miles of the start, and Hothead didn't even come this year. I was not one of the dropped this time. By the time we realized we were missing some people it was too late. We didn't see them again for the rest of the ride. (I called them later to check on them. They were fine with doing their own ride...so no hurt feelings.) The 2006 ride was to be a much shorter ride. We rode from Orem out to the temple in American Fork and back. It was about 20 miles.
(I have a picture of the group from this ride. I'll have to post it later since it's on another computer.)

This year I expect the Polar Pedal will be even bigger. I've been telling people about it for a couple of weeks now, and several people have expressed interest in coming. The group will be meeting at the Orem Macey's flagpole (800 N State) at 11 am on Monday, Dec. 31. We plan to ride about 30 to 40 miles out to Saratoga Springs. Since I'm expecting that we'll have all different riding abilities, I think we'll split into a fast group and a slower group. I'll probably head up the slower group since I'm riding endurance right now. I don't want anyone getting dropped this year. It's no fun thinking you're going with a group and then ending up riding alone, feeling rotten about yourself the whole time. I know...I've been there too many times.

Anyway, I hope some of you can come ride with me for this year's Polar Pedal ride! As JE would say, be there or be somewhere else.