Broker rides out the ‘crisis’ at turning 50
By Golden, John | |
Proquest LLC |
It's not your typical 50-year-old guy who posts the ups and downs of his midlife crisis on a blog for friends, family, co-workers and the just-curious to daily follow. That is what
There was more humor than frank confession in that subtitle he gave his blog and the strenuous journey where few middle-aged guys of slowing metabolism and growing girth dare go, let alone go alone as Fuirst did. Humor is a good companion on the solitary road he took, and it travels light.
"This became everyone's summer reading - watching this saga of me go across," he said one August morning behind his president's desk at
Go across America, that is, from sea to shining sea on a road bike that carried Fuirst ("first, second, third," he said by way of phonetic help with his surname) and 45 pounds of midlife cyclist's baggage over 3,556 miles. From the cross-country cyclist's traditional dip of his bike's rear wheel in the
He shed 10 pounds on an already lean body along the way, on top of the 10 he lost in his year of training for it. "And then I lost five pounds on the day after the trip," he said in his 46-employee office, where workers greeted the boss with 2,000 floor-to-ceiling balloons upon his triumphant return. "I think my body held in the food and water for the trip and once it realized I was back at a desk," shed it like the six tubes he replaced on flat tires in the first trying week of his journey.
"I'm thinking of having my annual physical now while I'm in shape," he said. Followed by a trip to the tailor with his wardrobe of loose-waisted trousers.
Having raised his bicycle seat to relieve a first-week case of sore knees that threatened to quickly end his adventure, Fuirst went on to raise money for
"A lot of people wanted to support me in some way, so I decided to use this journey to raise money for Habitat," said Fuirst. "In
Good news for a grateful Killoran. "I still have the checks coming in," said the desk-bound cyclist.
But his journey across America did not begin as a charity mission. "It's something I've always wanted to do," Fuirst said. "I had the dream in my twenties to go cross-country but I forgot that dream. I didn't even have a bike until three years ago."
Preparing for his approaching midlife crisis along the Northern Tier Route favored by cyclists, Fuirst two years ago did a 480-mile test ride from his home in
He veered from the well-established Northern Tier route to visit a memorial to a former college classmate killed in an
"Every 500 miles I would hit a town that had a bike store and at that point I would tune up the bike."
His bike too survived the rigors of the journey without major' surgery or breakdown. Arriving at
"The journey was more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge," he said. "You have to break it down into pieces and create in your mind shorter goals. Some days it was just get to the next state. Some days it was just get to lunch. Some says on some mountains it was get to the next 100 yards."
"The challenge was two weeks into it, I was still in
He varied his sleeping accommodations from hotels and motels' to campsites to the homes of "friends of friends of friends" and those of hosts in the
"I went on the journey to see the scenery," he said. "Yet as gorgeous as the scenery was in almost every state, it was the people that made the journey. ...People who shared their life experiences with me. That's what made the trip."
"When you travel by yourself, you're a lot more approachable by people that want to house you or just want to hear your story."
Was it a once-in-a-lifetime adventure?
"Once you do a trip like this, there's no such thing as once in a lifetime," he quickly replied. "I don't think I would do another trip across the country. There's a big world out there to explore."
Back in the business and buried in catch-up emails in
That's too long to go without another midlife crisis.
Copyright: | (c) 2014 Westfair Communications |
Wordcount: | 1094 |
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