2014 Festive 500 -- another one for the books!

Well, another winter holiday season has come and gone. Full of family and tradition. Each year the struggle becomes to focus on what is important, while blocking out the distractions of mass consumerism, black Friday, shopping malls, shopping brawls, and the like. Focusing on the importance and value of good friends and family, sharing joy, and reflecting on the past. It's a time to be surrounded by the one's you love, sharing hearty and healthy meals and good cheer. Enjoying traditions of holiday parties, kids returning from college, visits with grandma and grandpa, neighborhood get togethers, and homemade cookies. It's also a time to reflect on improvements and new starts.

The Festive 500 is also a tradition. An opportunity to set goals with the hope that they can be achieved. An opportunity to do something for one's self during this joyous holiday season that brings balance, clarity and inner peace. An opportunity to free yourself to enjoy the family traditions with balance. A gift.

This year, as I've done for the past several years, I clicked the button and committed. The @Rapha @Strava #festive500 was upon us! Every year brings a different set of circumstances. Will the weather cooperate? Will family commitments be upheld? Will I have it in me to finish? As the journey begins, you don't quite know how it will end.


The challenge will push you. You have to be creative. You have to go beyond your normal boundaries. You may ride twice in a day. You may head out in a drizzle or log miles at night. You may be pushed to discover new routes or paths to complete your goal. It also requires the love and understanding of your family. The understanding of a spouse, tolerant of the time away. Tolerant of the piles of wet, smelly clothes and gear. Tolerant of bikes in the way. Tolerance that comes from love, knowing that the person they receive in the end is a better, more fulfilled you. A you that is more present in the moment. With the support of family, it's an achievable goal for a mortal cyclist if you set your mind to it.


My own personal strategy begins with a yellow sticky outlining each of the eight days between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. I mark off each of the days that I know other commitments will prevent me from riding. I count the remaining potential ride days and divide that number by 500km. This becomes my daily ride requirement to achieve the goal. If you over-achieve one day, you can ease up another day. If you under achieve, well.... you have some extra work to do.


My personal experience included days of hitting the mileage mark precisely, days of under achieving, as well as epic days of over-achieving. It included early morning rides as well as night rides and even days marked with two rides. My #festive500 journey included miles of pavement, gravel roads, and dirt singletrack. It included a modern carbon fiber road bike, a classic vintage touring bike, and one of my favorite vintage steel mountain bikes.

Conscious to enjoy the moment -- taking time to smell the roses along the way -- I snapped a few pics:

Veering off my traditional routes, I was able to locate the home my mom grew up in. I vaguely remember time spent here as a youngster.

My festive500 journey took me from country back roads to wide scenic vistas overlooking urban jungles. If you look close, you can see the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, Oakland, and San Francisco. Mt Tam is toward the right (north).

There were night rides

And gravel roads

The old vintage touring bike enjoyed some action too

In the end, I had banked enough long miles on the road, that I could finish the festive500 journey and wrap up 2014 with a final ride and a few relaxed miles of tasty dirt on a fully rigid vintage mountain bike -- my favorite kind of day.

As with all journeys, there is an element of sadness in the end. The striving and looking ahead is over once the goal is complete. However, new windows will open, and new challenges will soon fill the void, and @Strava will be there to push us forward.