Years ago, before DC or New York or San Francisco, before Southern California, before St. Louis, I lived in Southern Illinois. My folks went to SIU in Carbondale, and spent the next several years working for different organizations in Jackson and Randolph County. One of the towns we lived in was Chester, Illinois, nestled on the banks of the Mississippi.

Chester had one street light, and about 6000 people. The official population was 8500, but that included the 2500 or so “residents” of the Pierre Menard Home, a maximum security correctional facility for the criminally insane. It also had a food factory, Gilster-Mary Lee, where they made cake mix. I always remember that smell.

I lived there from fourth to sixth grade. I haven’t kept up with anyone I went to school with, though I remember many of the names, and even some of the faces. Of the ones I do, perhaps the face I remember most vividly is Melissa Reiman. She was athletic and tall, a born achiever, and a radiant person. Whenever my mind stumbles back through what remains of my memories of being 11, she’s in them, a bright, shining star.

So, how did this come up? Well, just a little bit ago, another name popped into my head that I couldn’t place, so I Googled and the name came from a site dedicated to Chester High School’s Class of ‘87. I clicked, and my stomach flipped and dropped.

The Chester High School Class of 1987 has lost their “Favorite Punk Rocker.” The City of Chester is remembering Melissa Reiman who lost her five-year battle against cancer Friday morning, May 1.

The 40 year old CHS Hall of Fame member passed away around 6:30am central time Friday morning in a San Diego hospital with her family surrounding her.

I haven’t talked to her in probably 25 or 30 years. I didn’t know she’d married, or had a son, or moved to San Diego. But I’m certain of two things: I know she fought like hell, and I know she’s left a massive crater of a hole in the lives of those she left behind. I feel it a thousand miles and 30 years away.

This is insignificant in the scheme of things, but I’ve made a small donation to my Livestrong account in her name, the eighty-seven cents to mark what would’ve been our common graduating class had I stayed in Chester. Melissa, you’ll be on my mind and in my heart while I ride.

Yesterday, I was going to do the Sligo Creek to Capital Crescent Trail into work, and then do it again coming home.

Cledus was my weapon of choice, he’s a solid warhorse of a bike that loves the road and frolics on gravel. I felt good, the weather was beautiful, and once I got warm I started pushing on him, and then kept pushing harder. I hit pedestrian-free stretches on the gravel parts of the CCT where cruising in the 20’s was as easy and natural as the grin on my face, and towards the end I even took turns pulling and drafting another gentleman that was tearing down the last couple miles towards Water St. I realize this is not at all impressive by any objective measure, but averaging 16.5 mph for 20.6 miles is probably the performance highlight of my short, unremarkable cycling career.

When it was time to go home at the end of the day, I was pumped to get on the loop for another run… right up until I got on the bike. Half block into the ride home, I realized I had nothing left in the tank, nada, so I headed north to the shortest, flattest route home and tried to keep the stiffness and fire in my legs down to a manageable level. Progress burns!

Nevertheless, with that short ride home, and then a round trip to the pool to meet the family, the first half of the year came to a close with my first ever 500 mile month! Woohoo! Here’s some more numbers, as recorded by… BikeGame!:

• Finished June with 502 1/4 miles and somewhere around 14405 feet of climbing, though MapMyRide’s elevation stats are innaccurate, so that’s kind of an arbitrary measure suggesting only that some climbing was done. We’ll call those units “not-feet”.
• For the year, I’ve done 271 rides for 1962 miles and 59416 not-feet of climbing.
• Also, thanks to a few close friends and family, I’ve raised another $200 in donations for the Livestrong Foundation, and have now crossed the minimum fundraising line of $250 to clock in at $274.65

Now, I need to talk to y’all about something. The Team Fatty Philly manager has asked me about my donations, and I said, “I have just over $250, see? I made it!”

And she said, “$250 is the minimum, sure, but it’s up to you whether or not you want to do the bare minimum. Well, like, Oscar over there has raised $2740, and he has a terrific smile.”

So I said to her, “Okay. Okay, so you want me to do more fundraising.”

“Chiggins,” she says, “people can go anywhere to give money to fight cancer. They give to people doing the Livestrong Challenge for the thrill and the attitude. That’s what it’s about, okay? It’s about fun.”

“So you want me to raise more funds then?”

“Look, we want you to fundraise, okay? If you think the bare minimum’s enough, then okay. But some people raise more, and we encourage that, okay? You do want to raise more funds, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

“Great. Great. That’s all Team Fatty asks”

“Okay.”

So, um, I need to raise some more flair– er, funds, I don’t wanna be on the wrong side of Philly Jen. If you were thinking about making a donation, now’d be a good time to do it.

There’s 54 days left until the Philly ride, and we’re only five riders away from our goal for team members. Last I checked, I was the only representative from our nation’s capital. You really, really don’t want me to be the sole representative from our nation’s capital. So I’m calling out all you cyclists from the District, and asking you to join me in Philadelphia on August 23rd.

Also, our team’s about 30% of the way to our fundraising goal, so please consider making a contribution. With your help, we’ll hit our goal. Hopefully, we’ll surpass it, by a lot.

I mean, c’mon, what do you think of someone that just does the bare minimum?

60 days remain until I ride my bike 100 miles around Montgomery County, PA, just North of Philadelphia. Up until recently, I’d been thinking, “So long as I train to not die, Cledus has the gears and I’m pretty sure I can average at least 10 mph for 10 hours.”

I’d been thinking this because I don’t always read all the documentation associated with toys, tools, or adventures like this. After spending a little more time looking at the route, and reading fine print, I see that there’s a cut-off at 4 hours for a checkpoint 32 miles in, and then provisions for getting riders off the road if it doesn’t look like they’re going to make it in 8.5 hours. Recalculating, it looks like it will take an average of 11.8 mph to make it with seconds to spare, or 13 and a third to get there with an hour to spare.

Last night I took a very long way home, grabbing the Capital Crescent Trail down in Georgetown, taking it to the Sligo Creek Trail in Silver Spring and down through Takoma Park, then into Hyattsville on the Northwest Branch Trail and finally back to Brookland. I did the reverse this morning, certainly because I want the miles, but also because it’s a gorgeous day, the trails are beautiful, and I felt up to it. It’s about a 22 mile trip, and I handled it on Cledus in about 90 minutes and change. A little checking indicates I averaged 14.8 mph, sweet! So all I have to do is stretch that out over the next few weeks, and I’m golden, right? Right?

Except for the fact that DC is really, really flat. That whole loop involved, according to MapMyRide, about 540 of total climbing, none of it on grades above 2%. The Philly Livestrong course, on the other hand, has about 4331 feet of climbing, including a couple climbs of about 500 feet over the course of about 1-2 miles. Hm.

So I’ve still got a lot of work to do, Cledus might get some skinnier shoes, his fenders are definitely coming off, and believe me when I say that depleted uranium bottom bracket I’ve been running is history.

My buddy Aaron just threw down a donation to my Livestrong page. The first was me priming the pump, the second was my mother, in memory of one of her best friends. Aaron’s the first non-me, non-family member to go all in. He’s also a helluva guy.

Thanks brother, you make me proud.

[UPDATE]: One of my other bestest buddies Sharif, aka Mr. Wacky, took that as a challenge and responded swiftly and with a haymaker of a donation. In a world that’s only interested in fucking around, Mr. Wacky is all about business.

Tell ya what folks, that deserves something special. This one’s for you, Sharif.

[UPDATE]: My friend Robin just threw down! Woo Robin! So did my Pop, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that my dear Momma was the first person to chip in. In other words, I’ve already shaken down most of the folks who unconditionally love me and are used to me asking them for advances on my allowance. So now, I’m asking you.