FAT AND FROSTY
First and foremost I need to thank everyone that donated. With the collective support of friends and family I was able to raise nearly $700 which helped my team (The Bernard Group) collect over $15,000 in donations. You all are incredible.
A little background on the event: The UnitedHealthcare Children's Frosty Fat Tire Festival is an event that raises money to provide medical grants for children with illnesses across the US. I've witnessed first hand the positive impact these organizations have on families who are battling illness with their tiny loved ones and knew I needed to participate. Each rider was required to raise a minimum of $250. On top of that, the UHCCF had a donor(s?) that would contribute for every lap completed. The course was a half-mile loop across the Lafayette Club golf course.
This was the first fat bike 'event' that I've ridden in. As badly as I want to say 'race' because it sounds so much sexier, I cannot call it that because it was not. It was more of a quantity over quality type of situation where each rider tried to complete as many laps they could within the five hour period. It reminds me of the St. Jude's Bike-A-Thon I did when I was in elementary school. I vividly remember the kid with the most laps won an (awesome at the time) boombox and thinking I was way too cool to be seen wearing a helmet. I did not go home with the boombox and my parents did not care how cool I thought I was, I was wearing a helmet.
The course was certainly squirrelly. There were many victims to areas of deep, sloppy snow and most riders ate mouthfuls of white powder throughout the day. I am proud to say that I did not fall off of my bike once! I lost control and neared collision many times but my saving grace were my pedals. I was one of the only riders who wasn't using clipless pedals.
I was the 'amateur guy' of the race. The one who showed up wearing hunting boots and a flannel jacket instead of the (or so it seemed) required 45NRTH jumpsuit. Did you know: those Wölvenhammer boots don't look nearly as cool when they're sticking straight up in the air while some old dude is lying on his back? Other than my fingers, I was toasty warm the entire time. My gear held up great! My attempted facial hair even played a part by keeping some of the snow off of my face.
I ended the evening with 16 laps. Fueled by eggs benedict, walleye, beer and bacon I'm happy with the day's effort. I took the 5 lap - stop for brunch, 7 lap - stop for second brunch + beer, 4 lap - play hammerschlagen approach. In an ideal world I would've liked to have kept up a little more with the pro's (there were actual pro riders there) that were riding, but I doubt those guys and gals spend their winters binge watching *Netflix and eating Cheesy Gordita Crunches, a predicament I seem to have fallen into regularly. But hey, as that one Canadian philosopher once said, "YOLO."
Back to a more serious note, thank you again to everyone that helped me raise money for this event. Yes, it resulted in me trompsing around an expensive golf course on my bike, one that I will never be able to afford to step foot on again in my lifetime, but it was for a great cause. The $700 we raised will go extremely far in helping children and their families as they go through some of the toughest times imaginable. I was just a husky dude out riding his bike in the snow (fat and frosty, get it?). Everyone that supported me and the cause, however, you're the real Haley Joel Osments (Pay It Forward reference).
Photo credit: Kate Nelson
*In case you were wondering: Shameless, Community, Gravity Falls, Rick & Morty, Parks & Rec and Trailer Park Boys are my favorite wintertime activites.