2012 Cycling Review

After spending 2010 and most of 2011 ramping up to attempt Paris-Brest-Paris, 2012 seems like a down year for my cycling.  Shoulder surgery, some lower back degeneration, and iron deficiency anemia slowed me down compared to prior years.  Nevertheless I managed to continue my streak of completing at least one 200 km ride every month for the third year in a row.  As a result I earned another RUSA R-12 award.  It's special to me because for many years I had a goal of cycling at least one century ride/month for 12 consecutive months and was never able to pull it off.  Once I began doing Randonneuring rides I have not missed a month.  Now it's kinda like my not drinking except it's one month at a time instead of one day at a time.

I didn't really keep track of my mileage but estimate I rode about 6,000 miles in 2012.  Most folks would consider that a lot but compared to prior years it's not nearly as many miles.  2010 was just over 10,000 and 2011 was about 8,000.

The fact that I crashed out of PBP after about 1050 km still bothers me.  I want to complete a 1200 km ride and 2013 looks like a good opportunity.  I won't be coaching TNT cyclists until the fall so I am setting my sights on the Shenandoah 1200 in June.  This is a ride that starts in northern Virginia, heads up to Gettysburg, then heads down the Blue Ridge mountains to Mt Airy, NC.  Then it turns around and head back up to northern Virginia.  It's no doubt a hard ride but if I train smart from January through May I should be able to complete it.  At any rate that's my main goal for 2013.

America the Violent

For me the Newtown mass shooting is a familiar refrain.  I have no idea what sets off an individual to take random lives like that, but it happens much too frequently in our society.  The first one of these I specifically remember was in August, 1966 when Charles Whitman went to the top of the University of Texas tower and began shooting.  He killed 14 and wounded 32 others--none of whom he knew after having just murdered his mother and wife.  The siege ended with Whitman being killed by policeman who entered the tower.  I've also had two friends killed in multiple shootings.  In 1993 Frank Ditullio and 2 others were killed by Paul Calden while eating lunch.  Calden was a disgruntled former employee who held a grudge over being let go by the company Frank and the other two worked for.  Calden subsequently killed himself after leaving the scene.  In 1999 Joe Dessert happened to be at All-Tech Investment when Mark Barton entered the office and killed him and  3 others.  He then killed 5 more individuals at Momentum Securities across the street.  Barton killed himself later that day as police approached his car.

These three occurrences are only the tip of the iceberg.  There have been so many of these over the years that some of them do not even get national attention unless they involve many many victims, or other unusual circumstance.  We are left to wonder if things like gun control, improved mental health treatment, police in every school, or any number of other things could have prevented these past events or reduce the chance of them happening in the future.  Maybe they can be reduced over time but it's not likely to ever end.  After all America is the country that overturned the Colonial British Empire, tamed the wild west, drove the Indians onto reservations and maintained segregation for a century after the abolishment of slavery.  Many innocent lives were lost due to the violent nature of these events.  They remind me that random violence existed in America long before we had 300 million guns, video games, and closed state mental institutions.  I understand there is risk inherent in every day--I just hope to avoid becoming a random target.  Maybe someday these random mass shooters will start testing their weapon on themselves--FIRST--not last.