Heroes in funny hats

Bike helmets are not sexy.

Now motorcycle helmets have a certain mystique that adds to the attraction but no matter how you dress it up with that thin plastic highly colored slightly reflective shell, bike helmets still look dorky. Of course, riding without a helmet is even less attractive when you consider what that head might look like in the event of a crash but for cyclists, safety can be a blow to vanity.

Until you get into large groups of like-minded - and like-hatted - people.

My family and I signed up for the Quarter-Century (25 mile) ride as part of Ride the Rogue a couple weekends ago and weren't sure whether the younger members would make it. They were definitely among the youngest cyclists on the ride. Of course, I wasn't sure I would make it either!

It was a perfect day for a ride though (except for the forest-fire smoke that is very much a part of summer in our area) and we headed out. The roughest part of the ride was a climb at the beginning and we pedaled and panted and stopped for a rest or two and generally fell behind the pack.

And then I realized how many heroes wear dorky hats.

Every time - almost without exception - a group of riders passed us, they would cheer on my kids. "Good job!", "Way to go, tiger!", "Stick with it!", "Keep pedaling!" They pumped them up and cheered them on and stopped to make sure we were okay every time we were resting.

And it wasn't just my kids. An older and somewhat heavier woman had pulled off, obviously near her limits, and two women crossed the road to sit with her until she recovered or until Sag Support came to pick her up. Search and Rescue teams were out keeping tabs on any rider on the route in all distances. As riders thinned out, they kept a count of who was still on the ride.

Another group of riders on recumbent bikes were our own particular parade that inspired us just by the colorful flags they'd put on their bikes. Seeing those colors waving in the breeze and over field tops kept our legs turning.

The lunch stop volunteers were cheering us on and keeping us up with ride-friendly energy foods. Sag support volunteers helped replace flat tires (one of our bikes had THREE flats over the course of the ride) and relayed messages when riders got separated a little further than they (we) expected, or when cell-phone coverage died in the mountains. And the BBQ (tri-tip and salmon) and band at the finish line were absolutely worth the ride to get there.




It's Friday. What better way to end a week and get ready for a weekend than to remember someone or something special that happened during the week? I think I'll have a "Hats Off Friday" post every week to try to acknowledge the unsung heroes that we all encounter every day. It's a small way to say thanks for the big difference they make.


So today it's "Hats Off" to the heroes in dorky helmets.