19 August 2012
In his own words, from the April 2011 Freewheel:
I didn’t exercise much in the
70’s and 80’s, for I was working hard at my business as a mason. I
was then 225 lbs & smoking a pack + a half of cigarettes a day. Then
after moving to my new home in Chesterfield I decided to quit the
cigarettes & started thinking of my health. So I started to exercise
which helped me to quit smoking & lose weight. The Huffy I bought
didn't last long before it was given to my younger son when I bought a
Schwinn. A good friend, Rich Agabiti, said why don’t you try cycling
more seriously & join the Free Wheelers. I did & that changed my
outlook on exercising from then on.
When I started to ride with the
club one of my favorite rides was on Tuesday evening from Peter Muschal
School, and the pizza party afterwards at the Take It Easy bar in
Yardville. We also did time trials outside of Allentown back then. I did
a few but lacked experience. The trials didn’t last too long after
that. Alot of weekend rides got done, many with older members no longer
with the club, but alot still are Joe Miller, Ed Post, Chris Cook, John
Powers, to name a few. We did alot of rides out of [the then
called] Trenton State College, out to the Sourlands and beyond. I
also did many rides with Norm (God rest his soul) who taught me alot
about endurance, he just kept going & going. Cranbury rides are
another favorite of mine.
I like to do centuries, my
longest ones were The Beast of the East events, which they don't have
anymore. The one I liked the most was the Livestrong Challenge, very
challenging, but very organized. I like doing the event, but because of
health issues, the timing has to be right. I’ll miss doing centuries
& rides to the shore with Joe McBride, may he RIP, a really great
guy who knew how to make you laugh.
I don't ride as much and as hard as
I used to. Because of the cancer I was diagnosed with four years ago, I
am fighting the battle of my life. As Lance once said "as long as
your moving, you’re still alive," and Jack Lalanne once said
"the best way to hurt your body is to not use it". I did do a
triathlon in 2010, at Seaside, NJ tho.
The ocean was rough & I learned alot about swimming in
the ocean: you have to be in shape! I hope to do more in 2011, but
it takes alot of training. I still get a lot of miles in, because of
forced retirement, and I just pick my days. I try to ride as much as I
can now, & hope to get 3 to 4 Thousand miles in a year. On M W
F I ride with Dennis & the mature gang, a great bunch of guys &
gals.
When not riding here, I spend as
much time as I can in Florida, with my son, his wife & my beautiful
grand-daughter. She’s nine now & very active. She runs 5K races,
swims distance, rides her bike, plus plays soccer all year round, except
for in the summer when they are in New Jersey. She will be doing
the kids triathlon in September, while my son does the full IRONMAN
140.6 in Panama City, Florida. While I’m in Florida, my old bike
is down there and I try to ride 25-40 miles a day, with rest days here
and there. Then I stop at the beach to swim, weather permitting and
I run a little bit to break it up. I stay down there as long
as I can but have to come back to Philadelphia every three to four weeks
for treatments The greatest bike race I've ever seen was last years
Tour de France. Our children gave my wife Susan and I the trip to
France, where we watched three stages, an experience that will never be
forgotten.
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