In 90 days I will compete in an 88 mile bicycle race called Race the Lake, which circumnavigates Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. I’ve done this event at least 4 times already going back 17 years.
The earliest effort I have records of is the 2009 event I did with my father-in-law where we finished in 4:54:50, which puts our average speed at 18 mph.
I’m not sure I did the 2010 edition but by 2011 I was riding more and had more experience and finished in the top 200.
For 2012 I was in my best shape yet. I turned myself inside out for that race and made all the right decisions, finishing 6th overall, in 3:25:13 averaging 25.8 MPH. That was good enough for 2nd in my age group and a little trophy.
In 2025, after a very long hiatus, I did it again at the behest of my son who was racing it for the first time with a bunch of his college friends. We finished together in 4:11:57 averaging 21 MPH. This was about as fast as I could have gone, in fact my legs got a little questionable at about the 70% mark, but I rallied to finish in good spirits.
Now it’s time to do it again. In 90 days the 2026 editon of Race the Lake will happen and I haven’t been on a bike since last year. I also need to drop some weight. Currently I weight 250 pounds. Last year I was at 239 (actually 242 when I got on the bike but I had a larger meal the night before to carb load for the event).
