October 2017 Top Talk
President Chip Kyle
The reason our club functions as well as it does is due to those who willingly volunteer their time and talents. We depend on these individuals and, in turn, the entire membership benefits. There are ride leaders who plan, organize and lead regular rides; others that coordinate our major events; still others that work / participate in those events; more volunteers that plan and organize our meetings, picnics and banquets and still others that serve on the board. The club could not function without these individuals, and the club would be a very different organization without them.
At the end of the year, a major transition will occur in the club leadership with several critical volunteer positions coming open. These are the board positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Member at Large. If you think of an individual who would be a good candidate for any of these positions, pass their name forward to any current board member. Also, please give some thought to expanding your role in the club – it’s never too late to step up. Elections for new officers is just two short months away and we publish a slate of candidates in the next newsletter. We hope you will volunteer.
On a completely different note, we, as a club, like to keep track of our accumulated riding miles for the year. We have a handful of club members who regularly make it into 5 figures – typically in the 10 to 12k range. These are impressive numbers, but as in many things in life, it’s all relative. Last year I told you about Kurt Searvogel who broke the record for the Highest Annual Mileage Record that had stood for 77 years. Well, his record only lasted only one year! And, it was broken by more than 10,000 miles! The new record holder is a young (24 year old) woman from Florida, Amanda Coker. She began accumulating miles in May, 2016, and completed her annual total on May 14, 2017. Her total miles for the year: 86,573 !! If you do the math, that’s an average of 237 miles per day! The record is all the more impressive when you know that Amanda was hit by a car in 2011 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. After a lengthy recovery, she got back into cycling by riding cross-country in 2015. She happened to meet Searvogel following that ride and was inspired by his accomplishment. It seems, however, that was not enough of a goal. With 86k miles in the bag, she decided to go for another record: the fewest number of days to ride 100,000 miles. She did that as well and set a new world record of 423 days. Imagine what her life is like.
Ride Safely!