I so enjoyed sitting down with Karen Bonnett-Natraj for an interview on her podcast Running Strong: Mind-Body Connection.
I was immediately at ease speaking with Karen, because she comes to the interview as a real, genuine person. In this interview we discussed the role of cycling in Debra Lee Won’t Break and my reasons for undertaking the Bike MS Chesapeake Challenge.
Two notable moments came when we were discussing what I learned about myself while doing the bike ride.
People often say undertaking a physical challenge teaches them what they are capable of. That was true for me as well. But there was more.
How Much Is Enough?
When I first planned to do the Chesapeake Challenge, the website for the event had not posted the route lengths available for riders. I looked around at other Bike MS sites and saw that nearly all of them offered two options for riding 150 miles. You could ride 75 miles each day, or you could frontload and ride 100 miles the first day and 50 miles the second day.
As Debra Lee notes in my novel, doing 100 miles in one day would leave me too wiped out to do another 50 miles the next day. Instead, I planned to do 75 miles each day.
However, when the routes finally posted, long after it was too late for me to change rides, I discovered there was no option to ride 75 miles both days. The longest ride on the second day was 50 miles.
So, I could buck up and ride 100 miles and then 52 miles, or I could ride 70 miles and then 52 miles. I didn’t like either option, but completing at all was more important to me than completing the 150 miles. I went with the second option: 70 miles/52 miles.
My total mileage was “only” 122 miles. Karen and I discuss what that meant to me and how it challenged me.
Are Ebikes Cheating?
Another point of growth for me during the writing of Debra Lee Won’t Break was an understanding of ebikes. As someone who rides a standard bike, I often thought of ebikes (1) as cheating, and (2) as a nuisance.
Still today, I am sometimes put off by people who ride their ebikes on bike paths too fast to be safe for the other people using the path. I feel the same way about certain road cyclists and pretty much anyone else who thinks the shared path is meant solely for them.
After learning more about ebikes, the various options, and the people who use them, I no longer consider it cheating. Rather, it is its own category of transport, one that can open up cycling, travel, and low-emission transportation to more people.
In the interview, Karen shares a wonderful story about her experience with ebikes and how they can indeed open up the world.
Listen to the podcast here: https://youtu.be/3j8aw1X997o
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Katherine Pickett 