Yesterday, in Grandview, Texas, I did my 12th bike rally of the year and my 458th overall. This is the first year for the Grandview rally. What's funny is that other rallies, such as Burleson's, go through Grandview. I've also been through the town on training rides. It's a classic Texas town. It has a main street with brick buildings, quiet residential neighborhoods, a water tower, and proximity to a highway. The highway is Interstate 35, which goes from Duluth to Laredo. It splits into two highways both south and north of Dallas/Fort Worth. The one that goes through Fort Worth is I-35W. The one that goes through Dallas is I-35E. Grandview is 43.2 miles from my house in Fort Worth.
I didn't think any of my home boys would go, since the rally was on a holiday, but Randy contacted me a couple of days before the rally to see what I was doing this weekend. I told him I was doing the Grandview rally. I was pleased that he showed up, although I was perfectly content to ride alone with my music. This is as good a time as any to address a question some of you may have: Given that I can ride just as far on my own, on a course of my choosing, why would I go to a rally? After all, rallies (1) cost money, (2) require driving (sometimes long distances), and (3) require that I rise insanely early. Why not just sleep in and ride out of Arlington Bowie High School, which is only 13 miles from my house?
The answer is that I like rallies. It's a social occasion. Hundreds—sometimes thousands—of cyclists show up at rallies. Acquaintances are made or renewed, friendships are cemented, and tales are told. There's nothing like driving into a small town on a Saturday morning and finding dozens or hundreds of vehicles already there, or just arriving. Where did these people come from? They came from their houses, just like you did. What brings them together is love of the sport.
There are two other reasons to do rallies rather than ride alone or on a club ride. First, in most rallies, the intersections are controlled, sometimes by police officers. Yesterday, for example, there was at least one person at every intersection on the course, and believe me, there were many intersections. I must have said "Thank you!" 50 times. Yesterday's rally was sponsored by the Grandview Volunteer Fire Department, so many of the volunteers, both at intersections and at rest stops, were either firefighters or people who are associated with the fire department. Second, there are rest stops every eight to 12 miles. You don't have these if you ride on your own. Yes, you could stop at a store along the way and buy something, but that's a hassle. It's much easier to roll up, lie your bike in the grass, and walk over to a covered table on which there are all kinds of goodies.
Maybe that doesn't seem like reason enough to do rallies. It is to me. I love rallies. I try to do 25 of them each year, from March to November. I'm about halfway through the current rally season. It's hard to believe we're in July already. It won't be long before we're doing the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls. That's the mother of all rallies.
Randy hasn't been able to put in the miles he would like because of his work schedule. I told him not to worry: that I wanted to ride slowly and have fun. The longest course was advertised as 50 miles, but that could mean an actual distance of anywhere from 45 to 55 miles. There were no maps available for riders (I should have printed one), but we were informed that the course was well marked, and it was. After chatting with our friend James at the start, we rolled off. It was warm and sunny, with a brisk southerly wind.
I hadn't seen Randy since Italy two weeks earlier, so we rode side by side most of the way, talking. One of the topics was Sarah Palin. Randy has turned against her as a result of her forthcoming resignation. I was aghast. He says she's a quitter. I don't think that at all. People resign their positions all the time. Palin is no ordinary governor. First, she has already run for vice president. Second, she is being attacked on a national level. She needs to get out of Alaska and fight back. I'm glad she resigned. I want her to gear up for the 2012 presidential campaign. Anyway, this is the sort of thing we discussed. Later, I bored Randy to tears (I'm sure) with the story of Custer's Last Stand. Randy has been to the battlefield, as I have, but I didn't think he knew the details of the troop movements and was determined to convey them. It's amazing that Randy puts up with me, when you think about it.
There were so many turns on the course that we were never riding into a headwind for long. But the wind was definitely stronger than it was a week earlier, when I rode 98.5 miles in Waxahachie. The average wind speed yesterday at DFW Airport was 12.5 miles per hour, with a maximum of 21. The official high temperature for the day was 101º Fahrenheit, two degrees less than a week ago. We were done riding just past 11:00, so the heat was never oppressive. At least it wasn't to me. Randy says he doesn't like the heat.
There was a lovely scene from the rest stop where Randy and I halted for water. The rest stop was located on the side of a narrow country road. Someone appears to have mowed the grass for the rally. Across the road, in the middle distance, were huge rolls of hay, freshly baled. Farther away, there was a water tower. This is small-town America on the Fourth of July. Later, Randy I talked about the Declaration of Independence and complained about Americans who are ignorant of their nation's glorious history. You don't know who you are until you know where you came from, and that requires a careful study of history. Randy, like me, is a history nut. He can tell you all about the Civil War, many of the battlefields of which he has visited.
The course was short, as I feared. I prefer to ride at least 100 kilometers (62.14 miles) at rallies, if only as preparation for future rallies. I hoped that the "50-mile" course was more than 50 miles rather than less. It was 46.3 miles. I averaged only 16.16 miles per hour. (Elapsed time = 2:51:48.) My maximum heart rate was only 148, and my average heart rate 115. I burned 1,483 calories. I didn't get much of a workout, frankly. But hey, I had fun with Randy, and the short course allowed me to get home earlier, which was nice. The Tour de France started yesterday. I watched the two-hour replay at 1:30.
One more thing. When I got back to my car in the parking lot, I found a rolled-up $10 bill on the ground. Nobody was around. This happened a year or so ago, when I found a $20 bill while running. If I knew whose money it was, I would gladly have returned it; but there was no way to find out whose money it was. That leaves two alternatives: either keep the money or give it to the first person I see. The latter seems foolish. If someone is going to have a windfall, it may as well be me. The money paid for my meal at Taco Bell on the way home.
Addendum: Someone has already posted a review of the Grandview rally.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 
