most awesomest inspirational cyclist i know.

On my walk to work this morning, I saw just about the only thing that could make me smile on a rainy day where I'd skipped my run and wasn't happy to exist. A friend of mine tooled down the bike lane, a smile on his face, on a beach-cruiser-esque bike with both front and rear baskets loaded with stuff. Then, a commuter on a MTB blew past him, but he just kept pedaling and smiling.

That was T.C. O'Rourke.

I might have mentioned him before, in summer of 2007, when he was Paris bound. Two years ago, he woke up in April and decided he wanted to ride his bicycle 1200k. He built up a brand new Surly Long Haul Trucker and hitched a ride with us up to the 200k brevet. He rode back to the Metra station to get home after the brevet. Each week he'd go on these long ride adventures and find abandoned things and old bridges and random places. It was his "training" - no intervals, no tempo workouts, just getting out there and seeing the world.

Then, just 4 months after starting this adventure, he rode 1200k in the worst weather Paris-Brest-Paris has ever seen- cold driving rain and blustery winds.

It takes a certain strength of character- one I admittedly lack- to ride brevets. There's no competition, little time clock pressure, just you and pedals and looooooooong hours. I find after about 12 hours I lose motivation. As in, why am I still doing this? Without the competition of a race or some other carrot driving you on, it's just riding and sometimes it's hard to convince yourself why it matters whether you keep going or just stop. Whatever it takes to keep going, T.C. has it.

Today, in the cold rain, he just had a few miles to go, but he has some serious perspective. Wish he had heard when I shouted for him. Man o man, I wish I could do what he did.