Some years back, I took up biking. I had on occasion wandered the countryside, and even once did a century ride (legit 100 miles back in 2000). I could even go back to when my son was born in 1987 — I bought a black Nishiki Mountain Bike (this was before Nishiki became synonymous with “pure crap” from what I understand now) and toddled around. I actually caught heck for buying that bike when it was obvious that I should’ve stayed home to take care of my wife and newborn son, but he turned out alright, and I think she’s forgiven me, so…
To tell you the truth, I really wish I’d been a bit more invested back then, and I especially wish I had taken pictures and marked trails because the places I travelled in 1987 are still there…but so completely different that to be able to compare would be so fascinating to me. I remember the long trip out to the expressway – a mere 5 miles east of base – involved one-lane farm roads and in one spot a tightrope walk between rice paddies. Now I make the trip in about 15 minutes (it’s less than 5 miles from my home) on 4-lane roads in the course of going so much further.
To this day I love riding through country villages and small towns. I avoid the new bypasses that go around. The new roads may be progress, but straight through is the way to go because it reminds me so much of a simpler and more peaceful time. I loved the country then. I love it now. But it’s changed dramatically and so it’s that much more rewarding to find those pockets that are still as they used to be. That’s part of the adventure and joy of cycling here.
Cycling in Korea has been such a reward for me. It has allowed me to see things that many people (even Koreans, whom I am sure take a lot of their country for granted) don’t, and I’ve tried to share that with others. I’ve explored and built my routes around landmarks – at first mostly trees, but later, more interesting historical places that are out of the way. It’s so much easier to go so much further when you have a goal in mind, so if I see a place like “Big Stone Face Park” on the map (a park of over a hundred 10-foot busts and statues of famous…and not so famous people 35 miles east of here on a winding, out-of-the-way road), I’ve just got to go [I was not disappointed on my whirlwind tour – and bonus: I talked the lady into a thousand-won discount on the entrance fee].
And over the years that’s meant miles. I remember when 1,000 miles was a big deal for me. Then in 2016 I set a goal of 2,000 and passed it easily that year and the next.
And so now here I am – not even the end of June in 2020 and passed 2,000 a week ago already. My goal this year (as it has been (and successfully accomplished) over the past two years is 5,000km, which is only about 3,106 miles.
But let me digress a bit here: I’ve been blessed with some incredible friends of extreme intelligence, and it’s kept me grounded. I’ve studied two foreign languages and I can honestly say I’m merely “passable” in each of them. I can get by in a pinch, and still insist my Chinese is much better than my Korean although I’ve lived in Korea 23 years of my life. I can say that because I’ve seen people who are absolutely brilliant in the field. They’ve shamed even my best efforts by quite some distance and I could never compare to them.
I also know quite a few true cyclists, and they too put me to shame. I am thankful that they slow down and do fewer miles with me. I sense they do it because they simply love it so much (I digress again to say that I rode once with a man who was so stuck up about his precious bike that I could see he was visibly upset when I took him down a country road that was too rough for his tastes).
And compared to those cylcists, my milestones are next to nothing. But they are milestones nonetheless, and their love for the sport helps get me out on those days when I don’t quite feel like it (and I must say – 9 out of 10 times that I don’t quite feel like it, I end up feeling like it by the end of the ride anyway!).
So…all that to say that today, on 29 June 2020, I passed 500 miles in a month for the first time ever. No Lance Armstrong, but a milestone nonetheless.