by This year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. To celebrate this anniversary, I’ve been riding every day and today will be my 100th day in a row on a bike ride (all outside).
My celebration of insulin is because my son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he turned 14. (Happy Birthday!!) This is an auto-immune disease making him dependent on insulin. All of this was to help fundraise for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. ( http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/soultrain )
World Diabetes Day was today, November 14. To mark this, I planned to ride 100 miles. Seemed to match up nicely, riding 100 miles on the 100th day to celebrate the 100th anniversary. To add an extra level of relevance, I decided to ride my fixie, One Gear for Type One.
I realized that 100 miles is a lot this time of year with varying temperatures and fewer hours of daylight. I was not sure I would get many people (or anyone) to ride that kind of distance. I decided to go with a criterium approach and ride 8+ loops to reach 100 miles. I sent an open invitation to meet me in Concord Center and join me in a loop or two or many.
It was cold November morning with the sun just rising as I pulled into the Concord Center parking lot. There was Steve C. Ready to join the first loop.
It was great first loop. Steve and I were warming up as sun was coming up and warming up. Not warm. Just a few ticks up on the thermostat.
On the second lap, Anna from JDRF and a friend joined us for a lap. Great to have the organization support this crazy day.
A third lap with just Steve and I, then a big group met us for a bunch of laps.
Around and around we went. Lap after lap. We got the benefit of two fighter jet flyovers. They launched from nearby Hanscom Field to head down to Gillette Stadium for the Patriots game. Then a second flyover as the jets came back from the stadium to land.
One final lap. One last person joined as the group had diminished in size. There were a lot of cold toes that needed to be warmed up. (I couldn’t feel my toes any more.)
These last four friends put up with my antics as it became clear (as expected) that eight laps was not going to be enough to reach the full 100 mile mark. I wasn’t willing to stop at 96 and round up. I thought one short partial loop up Liberty Street would get me to the mark. It didn’t. They put up with me for a short loop around Concord Center to reach the targeted 100 miles.
If you want to see all 100 days leading up to this today, here is a video with a snapshot from every 100 days.
