Starting Line
Cycling Origins
On October 26, 2025, I participated in Finish The Ride, a bi-annual event to raise awareness and advocate for safer roads for all users. Last year, on the day before Thanksgiving 2024, I had my first and hopefully last collision with a motor vehicle while riding my road bicycle. All my road cyclist friends said, “Welcome to the club.” It was scary when it happened, but I couldn’t wait to get back on the bike at full strength because that’s how much it means to me. I know it might sound crazy to most people why I like cycling so much.
In 2022, I bought a bike from my Dad when he upgraded. I rode it a few times and it ended up getting stolen from my condo building’s garage, which having a bike stolen is another initiation phase for the Southern California cycling community. I said I would replace it … until the top of 2024.
I was going through a tough time mentally and right after my birthday I decided to buy another road bike. A Specialized Allez Sprint LTD. It was a beautiful, iridescent colored alloy bike. That’s where my love for this sport started. I remember when ride 10 miles was enough for me. Then, 15 miles wasn’t enough to satisfy me. When I discovered the world of “climbing” on a bike, especially with the elevation variance offered here in SoCal, I found out about myself that anything less than 1,000 feet of elevation gained on a ride was not a ride for me.
Cycling became a thing to look forward to. A way to tune into the 5 senses I often take for granted. A healthy discpline that I quickly discovered I want to be a pillar in my life for a long time. I got through that tough time with work on myself and the bike was right there for me each pedal stroke.
Cycling a Metric Century (62.1 miles)
When I signed up for the ride initially, I didn’t think of what I just typed out. It was a stream of consciousness. I really just wanted to participate in an “official” type of event. I call it “official” because it wasn’t a race per se, but I paid for entry. It was akin to running a marathon. I wanted to test my training I’ve done up to that point and see how my conditioning compared to others.
Up until this point, my longest ride was 100 miles and I’d done plenty between 40 - 80 miles, but those were more leisurely. For this event, I was preparing to max out my effort and try to pace myself smartly.
Strava had an estimated finishing time of 4 hr 40 min - 5 hr 40 min. My goal was the lower end of that range. I ended up finishing in 3 hr and 57 min with 18 minutes of pause time.
I’m still really proud of that.
The internal mental battle to keep pedaling and focusing on form was the most challenging of this ride. It’s the muscle I strive to keep training and when I crossed the finish line I felt I gained more experience points than usual. A couple of late-ride cramps could not stop me.
I was going to type more in-depth about the ride itself, but I documented it in video form and did some rare talking on the microphone. Also, I included the route below and stats below.
Talk soon.