Friday, March 20, 2009

Endurance with no purpose?

Is there value in this?! I keep asking myself that question while considering a friendly invitation to an Iron Butt Association (IBA) event. Ever heard of the IBA? I hadn't...

...anyway, a workmate from my last job wants to do the Redwing 19 ride. The event honors a group of fallen military men, and bears the endorsement of the IBA as a SaddleSore - that's a ride wherein a thousand miles are completed in 24 hours.

I'm into riding with the intent of honing your riding skills and operation of the machine. Unless this is 1000 miles of back-country roads, I'm guessing the experience will fall short as a technical exercise. But I guess an event like this is more for planning and documentation. It could be fun to log progress and metrics - how short and frequent your pit stops are, your average speed, miles covered on day one, miles covered on day two, planning your stops so that you have WiFi access (after all, I'd be riding with a Touch!).

I'm so torn, but that probably means I should challenge myself and just give it a whirl. Anyone else got an opinion? Wanna join me?

Update: (2008-03-30)
I'm signed up. Saturday, May 16th. It's on!

2 comments:

Taylor said...

To each his/her own, no?

This is why they make cruisers with big fat seats :)

author said...

To each his/her own? Absolutely. And it's good to venture outside your "own" now and again. So I think I'm gonna have to give this a try.

I've got a spare bike if you're out here that weekend :)