Everyone rides for different reasons, and everyone participates in Ride The Rockies for different reasons. I will tell you why I ride, but I am even more interested in hearing why you do. What drives you? What gets you on that saddle when your body is telling you to lounge on the couch and eat more Pringles? What inspires you to train, pushing yourself to the limit, especially when there are so many that would question your sanity and discourage you?

I ride for two major reasons:

1. I ride, because as a firefighter, I have been told dozens of times that the leading cause of death for firefighters is heart attacks. In 2013 36 firefighters lost their lives due to heart attacks. The older I get the more I realize that the bias of nature is against the fruitful field. In other words, atrophy works EVERY DAY and it is annoying! This is exacerbated by the fact that I LOVE CHOCLATE. If there was a way to live off of dark chocolate I would try it with great eagerness. Yes, I have heard that a little dark chocolate is good for you; and so my thought process goes like this: if a little is good then A LOT must be better! It makes sense to me! Anyway a lot of dark chocolate and a sedentary lifestyle is a very bad combination. Of course I am concerned about my own health, but I am also concerned about that life that I may be called upon to save at an incident. I want to do my best to make sure that my heart is ready to deliver when I am called upon to help others and riding helps me accomplish that.

2. 

   Chicago is best seen from the saddle of a bicycle

   I ride because it is good for my soul. I have found that a single joy shatters a hundred sorrows, and that has made riding even that more important to me. Riding gives me time away from the pressures and chaos of life. Someone asked me just yesterday what I think about when I ride – it took me awhile to answer and here is why: I can shut all the drawers of my life when I get on the saddle of my bike. I never pack cares and concerns, and that is so incredibly liberating. So when I ride I am free to think about the things I see and experience on each ride, which is different every time I go. It is my soul’s way of getting replenished, so that at the end of every ride I have more to give.

So why do you ride?