True, you don't need a club
in order to enjoy riding your bike. So what is the point
of joining? We are always glad to have you join us on a
ride, member or not. You have full access to ride information
on this website if you want it. Yes, there is a slight reduction
in fee at Bite the
Bullet. But that doesn't amount to much. And yes, we
do charge $5.00 at the club pizza feed, the barbecue, or
the post I-Made-th- Grade picnic. You could make back your
membership fee just eating, I suppose, but $5.00 just isn't
much of an argument.
So why join? I'm not a joiner
by nature. I'm never dismayed to find myself alone. But
I was dismayed to find that I no longer had any running
or cycling partners with whom I had practiced this odd addiction
for 20 years.
I was addicted to endurance
exercise but I also knew I wouldnl't be motivated on my
own to go out on the bike as frequently as I liked.I went
looking for someone to cycle with and that's when I discovered
TRC. I went on a couple of short rides (I thought they were
pretty long at the time--30 miles including the Grade) but
then I found a club member who's fondest wish was to cycle
across America for the second time.
I knew immediately that what
I had thought was training and distance hadn't really counted.
Soon I had done my first club century. I had ridden STP
in 2000 but it was a goal. Suddenly I found myself going
out on a weekend for a century without a particular goal
in mind. Sometimes it was two centuries.
You don't have to ride centuries.
We have lots of group rides at shorter distances. The point
is you find not only someone to ride with, but you find
out something about yourself.
I scoffed at the suggestion
of doing STP when I first heard about it. "I don't
want to spend that mcuh time on my bike," I said. Now
I have discovered that being on the bike is one of the most
gratifying experiences I can have.
It's not just the wind in your
hair, and the motion of a silent, smoothly rolling bike,
though that is part of it. I'll go out on a century by myself
now though I would never have thought to do so before I
joined. That isn't it either.
Friends. All sorts of people
find they share a love of the bike no matter what they do
for a living. We complement one another, share rides and
bread and our lives. Joining is making friends. You can
never have too many.
But joining to find riding partners
will only work if you become an active participant. We need
young, not so young, and old. We need the fast and the not
so fast. Don't be intimidated by the expensive bikes, the
lycra, the flashy shirts. Most of us are moving down the
other end of the not-so-young continuum, but, what the heck?
We've got good friends.
Come join us. Be active. Be
alive.
--Corrie
