Afghanistan and My Cycling Schedule: The Connection

At the end of August, my work informed me that I would be traveling to Afghanistan for a couple of weeks.  This was a major bummer as I had previously registered for my first-ever organized ride, the Great Pumpkin Ride in Warrenton, VA, on October 23.  This was to be the capstone of my reintroduction to cycling after a 15 year hiatus.  The registration was nonrefundable, although the event organizers said they would look into making an exception to this policy.  My wife, daughter, and I were also registered to participate in the Worth 10K Run in Virginia Beach the following weekend.  The event organizers were very gracious and immediately granted me a refund.  Still, this was a bummer as it was to be the capstone to my wife’s introduction to running.

Not to be defeated by a simple business trip, I found another ride in Culpeper that was not in conflict.  I’ve since been preparing for the 65-mile route in the Culper Cycling Century, which is this Saturday.  Everything is all set for that event and I looked forward to completing a major goal for this year’s cycling.

Yesterday, I learned the trip to Afghanistan is cancelled.

Ah, the joys of working with the military!  Since the Great Pumpkin Ride never refunded my money, it looks like I will be participating in two 65-mile rides separated by two weeks.  It will be a good opportunity to compare two relatively small organized rides and apply some lessons learned in the first ride.

Sadly, the 10k run is fully booked, so that will remain a loss.