Last Biketober I spent over $200 on inner tubes. My goal was to be a top ten rider for mileage during the challenge and to do so required riding over a thousand miles. I finished 9th out of over 1400 riders in Atlanta with 1013 miles. That’s an average of two hours of riding per day, every day, for 31 days. I rode those miles on a bike that was 3 decades old—a 1987 Bianchi Sport SX that I named ‘Inquieta’, which means “the disquieted one”. She was restless indeed. But with her temperament came a nagging problem—almost every day meant a flat. That was another twenty minutes changing out the tube and another ten dollars to replace it; it added up both in dollars and miles I could have been riding. Worse still was the stress of not knowing when it would happen, but knowing with a good deal of certainty that it would. It took a bit away from the fun of riding.

This year was different. We came in organized and ready. After last year’s performance, there was a heightened interest in Biketober at GTRI. Rather than scrapping together a team of eight out of the ten in the recruitment pool we could muster, we had forty plus people interested. We formed multiple teams, stacking our veterans and heavy hitters on GTRI’s Thighs and GTRI CyclePaths. We were going to come in this year firing on all eight cylinders—on TWO TEAMS. We had daily commuters on the roster. We had mileage beasts on the roster. We had people that were riding both daily to work and long rides on the weekend. We had people from GTRI represented on almost every individual leaderboard. Last year our goal was to be #1 team for riding points. We achieved that goal. This year we wanted to stay on top, and keep every other team from thinking we could be dethroned.

But I was not sure what my own role would be in it. Last year I was the top scorer for GTRI’s Thighs, so there’s a bit of expectation that comes with that when the champs return to the field. I told Jett Marks, our team captain, leading into Biketober that maybe I could ride 500 miles—a paltry half what I rode last year. The reason for lack of commitment was that I would be coming back from The World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji and I was not sure what shape my body would be in. In fact, I was not even sure if I would be able to ride a bike the first few weeks of October. To be clear, I was racing non-stop for twelve days in late September in a competition that many did not come home from under their own power. So for me, there was a big question mark lingering over what I would be able to contribute to GTRI’s Thighs. But I knew that even if I only rode the second half of the month, I would be able to get 500 in. So I put my name on that.

The angel of death is going to trade in his scythe for one of these bikes soon. The thing is ruthless.

When I began riding in October, I realized that while I was initially still very weary, I was in good health. But I was still getting flats..still. 😫 At this point, I had replaced the tires, tubes, wheels, and rim tape. There was nothing else I could do in the time I needed to do it (immediately), so I dropped some coin and bought a new (to me) bike. It is a 2014 Cannondale Synapse that I have dubbed “Weapon”. Not just because I have since used him to break nearly every personal speed record I formerly set on Inquieta, but because on my first ride he also violently killed a squirrel that managed to break its neck by jumping into Weapon's front wheel. Two weeks later, a rabbit made the same mistake. The angel of death is going to trade in his scythe for one of these bikes soon. The thing is ruthless.

With my new ride and feeling good about my health, I considered the possibility of equaling my performance from last year—ride over 1000 miles for the month and earning a top ten spot for most miles ridden amongst the 1500 or so riders competing in Atlanta. I was feeling confident I could do it again, but as Biketober progressed I continued to maintain not just a top ten ranking, but I was often near the top of the list. I started to think I could sustain the pace. I began thinking bigger. Perhaps I could ride more than a thousand miles…

Then catastrophe struck. My son was admitted into Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta—Scottish Rite due to a health issue that required him to stay in the hospital for nearly a week. Biketober would have to wait. I traded off care duty with his mother, staying with him in the hospital for 24-hour shifts. The time in the hospital drained me of all my energy, and after coming home each time, I barely could wake up to get to work on time the next day, much less to get in a ride before it. It was a tough time.

Between the weekends in October that I had committed to doing other adventurous hiking, climbing, caving, etc and my son’s stay in the hospital, I lost a lot of days to other riders. I was sitting while they were logging miles. But prior to his stay, I had already begun to internally set loftier goals than a top ten finish in Atlanta, and it is not like me to let circumstances get in the way of anything. My son out of the hospital and in recovering health, I could refocus my efforts on the bike. I had a deficit of 200 miles on the #1 rider to make up. With so much time lost, it would be hard to catch him. I started looking at him—last year’s champion in Atlanta—as a barometer for what I might achieve. Then I looked beyond. I wanted to set my gaze beyond the hard, and start seeking out the unimaginable.

“Set a goal so big that you can’t achieve it until you grow into the person who can.”

— ZIG ZIGLAR

is on the front of my website. Since 2015, I have lived by this mantra. So I reevaluated what I was attempting to do. I looked beyond the Atlanta rankings and started looking at the national rankings. I was sitting at #33. Last year, I wanted to be a top ten rider in Atlanta. This year, I had ten more days to become a top ten rider in the USA.

All my miles were into a headwind governed by my pedaling speed. I had my Weapon; I needed to wield it.

It was time to redefine my plan. I knew I was competing against guys riding e-bikes and those who rode regularly in group rides where they could benefit from drafting off of other riders. While I did now have a newer, faster bike, it does not have electronic-assist, nor do my work hours allow me to join others for group rides. All my miles were into a headwind governed by my pedaling speed. I had my Weapon; I needed to wield it.

GRIT. GETS. IT.

I was not logging enough miles. I was not waking up early enough. I was not going to bed late enough. These things had to change. I was not demonstrating the same level of mettle I had shown in past goals—that of my self-guided expedition to the tallest point in North America, that of my record-establishing 400 mile kayak expedition circumnavigating the shoreline of Lake Lanier, or that of my competing in the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji. I had to lean into my greatest asset—grit.

I became laser focused on what I needed to change and just did it.

I became laser focused on what I needed to change and just did it. I began waking at 4am, going to bed at midnight. Riding every hour I was not working, washing clothes (which mostly consisted of cycling clothes), repair or tuning my bike, or eating. I began fueling my body aggressively. I was burning 6000 calories a day riding. Snacks during the day and Cup O’ Noodles alone would no longer suffice. I began riding routes I was hesitant to attempt before. I rigged my bike and clothed my body with high visibility reflectors and turned the high beams on. I braved the traffic night and day. The temps were dropping. I added layers or shivered absent them. I took cold showers to force my legs to recover. I began looking at the goals, and I set myself to them with the resolve of a Pit Bull’s bite.

Like a wind, this mentality spread throughout the team. While I was chasing after being amongst the Top Riders (most miles), teammate Jason Bryan was pursuing the Top Commuters list (most days riding to work) and team captain Jett Marks was looking to be amongst the Top Riders (most trips on bike). GTRI’s Thighs mainstay Kevin Cook and new recruit Kit Plummer were hammering out their own high-mileage months, and daily commuters John Rose, Shawn Bainbridge, and Josh Wells were rounding out the team with high daily points (in addition to 1 point per mile riding, 20 points are awarded per diem of riding). GTRI’s Thighs were on fire. We were earning 40% more riding points than the #2 team and holding the pace.

The energy even spread across the teams. GTRI had depth this year, and another GTRI-assembled team--GTRI CyclePaths—had risen to a podium spot as well. Team Captain Mike “Scratch” Fitzpatrick was leading the team by giving me a run for my money on miles pedaled, while other GTRI riders and new Biketober Challengers Jackson Wessels and Kristina Kuhlken were making some headway in the Top New Male Rider and Top New Female Rider categories. GTRI was earning spots in all categories of the competition.

I had a plan in place, and I had options for doing more. Having ridden zero miles during the first three weekends of October, I knew the 200-mile bikepacking trip I had planned for the last weekend of October would catch other competitors by surprise. I realized I could add another 30 miles to the trip by starting further away. So I did. I was joined for part of it by team captain Jett Marks as far as the Georgia state line, at which point he handed me off to Shanna Irving, who rode to and from Anniston, AL where our camp would be. I enjoyed the company, and despite the rain, it turned out to be a success!

Joshua Forester shows the highlights from his Bikepacking trip from the Marietta, GA to Anniston Alabama following the Mountain to River Trail, the Silver Comet Trail, and the Chief Ladiga Trail.

In the early weeks of Biketober, I had set a cadence of riding long then riding short the next day to let my muscles recover. It was time for that to change. After having ridden over two hundred miles during the bikepacking weekend, I found myself in the #8 position of the national leaderboard. It was October 28th. With four days to go and a top five spot within reach, it was no time to let up. I would continue to press my position—riding at the daily mileages of the Tour de France for the following days as well. That morning I rode twenty miles and later that night another hundred, moving me to the #7 spot. The following day I would be cut short, riding only seventy miles due to a flat, but it was enough to move me up another position on the national leaderboard.

LoveToRide.net USA Rankings, October 30th, 11am ET

Teammates Jett Marks and Jason Bryan were coming in daily to discuss the rankings, so it was hard to forget how close we all were to our respective top ten leaderboards. Jett Marks was running every single errand in his daily life via bicycle to keep his trip count up, and Jason Bryan was steadily winning a war of attrition on the commute days leaderboard. By October 30th, I had ridden over 1400 miles, but the guys ahead and behind me on the national leaderboard were close—we were all within 18 miles of one another and the next two days’ rides would decide the ultimate outcome. James Curtis had ridden 130 miles the previous day, so it was my turn to launch a counter attack while his legs were still wasted. And I’d need to. Green Machine, who is in San Jose, California, was just waking up to 71 degrees fahrenheit and sunny. I’d soon be falling back to the #7 position as he commuted in, and would need to make up the miles by riding in the lightning storms Atlanta, Georgia were having over the next two days.

Unfortunately, the frequency of blowouts had increased ever since I lost the initial tube to a spike of glass and metal staple I had picked up a couple of weeks prior. I was out of spares, so the first thing I needed to do the night of October 30th was to get a couple of spare tubes. Then I need to ride again…hard. James Curtis put in 130 miles and I needed to stay within striking distance, hoping to ride the next morning whereas he might not. Unlike the previous night, when I felt completely drained and ended up throwing in the towel at 70 miles, I felt full of energy and ready to breeze through the nights long ride. That said, I was in a torrential downpour with lightening on the way so it was not exactly all peaches and rainbows.

Disaster struck when I rolled through a construction zone with a tone of debris on the path. Double flats. I was devastated. Without any more spares, I had to turn around and shorten the ride by about fifty miles. The chances of catching James Curtis were slimming. I rode home upset, but having a plan to make one final attempt in the morning.

Thunderstorms Incoming on the Night of October 30th.

I woke up on October 31st with knowledge that I most likely built enough gap between myself and Green Machine that I would not lose a place. What’s more, if I could ride 52 miles this final morning, it would put me ahead of James Curtis, if by only a mile. I had serious doubts that someone on the top 10 list nationally would skip the final day of riding, but you never know, and in the very least I would increase my lead on Green Machine, guaranteeing my spot.

Off I rode into the rain yet again, full of energy and vigor. In order to have a backup plan in case I flatted again, I cannibalized a tube from my Bianchi bike ‘Inquieta’. Hopefully I would not need it, but I was not sure. I was wrong. In what was a loud pop, my rear tube blew and I used my last spare to replace it. Normally I would turn back at this point, but out of options, I had to continue on for the miles in hope that I would not get a repeat of the previous ride and flat twice.

I was pressed for time, and I was even thinking of one final ride after Trick or Treating that night if it was necessary, but I did not want to get too far ahead of myself, just ahead of James Curtis. In what seemed like one final slap in the face, at around mile 34, my back tire went flat. My month of riding was over, I would have to concede the position to him after all.

LoveToRide.net USA Rankings, October 31st, 12pm ET

I returned via Uber to my house to find we had all three of us lost a position to one Michael Polce, who had apparently had his Strava software unlinked from the LoveToRide.net website, and relinked it to tally up a whopping 1993 miles! Later that day, another rider Peter Rajcani, would surprise the list in the same way. I was back in 8th, but my goal of being top ten nationally had at some point become being top five nationally. And while I was 8th, I was actually 7th due to a bug in the LoveToRide.net software from which the #1 and #4 riders were benefiting, allowing them to get double miles for many of their rides. The end result was that once resolved, I would be bumped up a place. 😀

It is concerning that LoveToRide.net did not proactively notice that three riders, including the supposed #1 rider, in the top 10 list in the nation had rides that were being double-booked. Why was I the first to call attention to the issue? It raised the question about the integrity of the competition. Realizing that no competition can be perfectly fair as people are always looking to get some recognition or move ahead without paying the cost of hard work to do so, I would still expect some priority being given to ensuring the competition is not undermined by the unscrupulous.

James Curtis, for example—the one I had been so vigorously chasing and who occupied the #6 slot ahead of me—was manually logging workouts. As a background, LoveToRide.net allows for manual logging of workouts (where you simply key in the miles you rode) as well as integration into ride-tracking apps like Strava and MapMyRide. While there are even ways to game the system with these tracking apps, it is reasonable to say the effort spent doing so to get miles is on the same level as actually riding the miles—so aside from the aforementioned software bug, LoveToRide.net competitors who are importing workouts from one of these apps are generally trusted as truth. And these apps are quite pervasive among serious cyclists. Certainly those near the top of any national ranking, LoveToRide.net’s included. For example, out of the top 30 riders male and female (60 total), there was only one that was not using Strava to record their training. Yep. James Curtis. His explanation: that he is riding a stationary bike at Planet Fitness eight to twelve hours a day. I will not express my theories on the truth of the explanation, nor will I share my opinions about the type of person to which Planet Fitness markets. I am sure you guys can come to your own conclusions about the final ranking.

The final rankings were pretty satisfying given that I was #33 just eleven days prior. Grit had paid off. To catch up, I rode nearly 900 miles in ten days as the “final sprint”.

The final rankings were pretty satisfying given that I was #33 just eleven days prior. Grit had paid off. To catch up, I rode nearly 900 miles in ten days as the “final sprint”. I had to work through knee pain, some mild tennis elbow, a family emergency, rain and lightning storms, extreme fatigue from the exercise and sleeplessness, sickness, and vertebrae bruising from storing my headlight battery pack (which is itself padded) in my center jersey pocket and not realizing what was causing it until the final day. 🙄 Some much-needed rest was in order.

The good news: I could rest pretty easy knowing there was no possible way to catch the keyboard rider ahead of me, James Curtis, and that I had put enough distance between myself and the two riders behind me that none were within striking distance (although in the end Green Machine came very close). It was time to go trick-or-treating.

2019 Biketober Atlanta Final Team Rankings* * 1pt per mile ridden, 20pts per day ridden regardless of miles, 50 or 100pts per person encouraged to ride depending on if they are an existing or new rider respectively. — 2019 Biketober Atlanta Final Team Rankings*

* 1pt per mile ridden, 20pts per day ridden regardless of miles, 50 or 100pts per person encouraged to ride depending on if they are an existing or new rider respectively.

When Strava emailed me my riding stats for the month, I had to take a second look. I averaged 65 miles per day of riding—four hours a day. More astounding is the elevation gain—the equivalent of riding up Mount Everest from base camp…FOUR TIMES.

This year, when Biketober finished with a bit of trick-or-treating, the scores were tallied.

Our team was the 1st team out of 283 teams by a landslide, and GTRI’s other team GTRI CyclePaths took 4th. Honorable mention goes to another GTRI team “The B-Team” placed 15th (we had a deep roster this year).
I was the 1st rider on our team of 8 and ended up the 6th in most miles in the USA out of nearly 22,000 riders. Jason Bryan was 8th in most commute days and Jett Marks 18th on most trips out of the national rider pool.
GTRI CyclePaths team captain Mike “Scratch” Fitzpatrick was 16th in most miles in the USA and his team member Kristina Kuhlken was 11th in the top new female riders division.
Georgia Tech was 1st out of 67 organizations with 500+ staff (and all other 218 organizations as well for that matter) on overall points, and 3rd on the GLOBAL leaderboard.
Despite eating hoards of food daily (at many points I could be seen in the office eating non-dairy coffee creamer straight from the bottle, which of course perplexed some colleagues), I lost 10-12lbs of fat.
I’m now thoroughly convinced that Specialized inner tubes are complete garbage.

GTRI’s Thighs From Left to Right: Jett Marks, Kit Plummer, Jason Bryan, Joshua Forester, Abigail Perry (The B-Team), Josh Wells, John Rose. Not Appearing: Kevin Cook, Shawn Bainbridge. — **GTRI’s Thighs**
From Left to Right: Jett Marks, Kit Plummer, Jason Bryan, Joshua Forester, Abigail Perry (The B-Team), Josh Wells, John Rose.
Not Appearing: Kevin Cook, Shawn Bainbridge.

GTRI CyclePaths From Left to Right: Lawrence Wargo, Randi Thorson, Kristina Kuhlken, Mike “Scratch” Fitzpatrick. Not Appearing: Sergio Esquivel, Lisa Aguilar, Erin Scott, Katie Clayton. — **GTRI CyclePaths**
From Left to Right: Lawrence Wargo, Randi Thorson, Kristina Kuhlken, Mike “Scratch” Fitzpatrick.
Not Appearing: Sergio Esquivel, Lisa Aguilar, Erin Scott, Katie Clayton.