By Dan Chang, resident at Wesley Palms Retirement Community
A few weeks before a national CyberCycle competition took place among senior communities, Wesley Palms Retirement Community had a chance to get acquainted with this stationary smart bike. Equipped with virtual reality screens, CyberCycle connects riders from all over the world and allows them to compete with each other.
The goal of the national competition was for a team to ride as many miles as possible during a week. Since many of our team members had only ridden the bike a couple of times before the competition began our goal was simple: the Wesley Wheelers were determined to stay out of last place! However, by the third day of the competition, we learned that we were in sixth place nationwide, out of a total of 85 teams. This generated a wave of enthusiasm and a desire to hang on to that position! By the fifth day of the competition we learned that we were only about 10 miles behind a team from Alaska that was in fifth place. That night we managed to pass the Alaskans to take over fifth place and were determined not to let them recapture the lead.
We needed to build up an insurmountable lead, about 20 miles, by midnight during the last
day of the competition. However, at dinner hour the day before, we learned that we were only a few miles behind the fourth place team in New Jersey. This ignited another wave of enthusiasm and adrenaline. That night and the next morning we rode a few extra miles allowing us to pass the New Jersey team by breakfast on Saturday morning. Knowing that the race would end for us that night, the team decided to keep the bike as “busy” as possible all day Saturday to try to stay in fourth place. The lead for fourth place changed during the day and we were passed by New Jersey during the lunch hour. Two of our grittier teammates, Barbara and Phyllis, determined that they were not going to let that happen again during our dinner hour. They kept the bike busy through dinner. Well, needless to say, we passed the New Jersey team when they stopped to have their dinner. We kept riding until 9 pm PDT (12 midnight EDT). They never caught up and by then, we had built a 40-mile lead over the Alaskans so we stopped to party!
We learned a lot about ourselves, teamwork and sportsmanship during the event. Especially from the first place team from Santa Barbara. It turned out that our top rider, Dan,
was in fourth place in the individual rider’s competition, and only a few miles ahead of two of the Santa Barbara riders during the last hours of the competition. He was also only a few miles behind the third place rider (also from Santa Barbara). So our strategy was to continue to ride intermittently in order to keep the third place competitor riding, thereby preventing the fifth and sixth place riders from catching up (since Santa Barbara only had one CyberCycle). Unbeknownst to Dan, the lead riders for the Santa Barbara team had stopped riding in order to allow as many of the entire team’s riders to achieve 10 miles in order to get their “badges” and “T-shirt” for the competition. Their lead riders sacrificed their potential third and fourth-place individual rider finishes and Dan wound up in third place even though any one of those three riders could have easily passed him. What a great lesson in teamwork and sportsmanship!
Learn more about CyberCycle from our sister community, Fredericka Manor HERE.
2016 Senior Olympic Trials: Piece of Cake
By Kay Murphy, Resident at Claremont Manor Retirement Community
So you think you were a swimmer ... back in the day? Well, good for you, but our own
John Abbe is currently swimming and cycling and winning awards in the process. On June 5th, John joined hundreds of senior athletes participating in the Pasadena Senior Games held at some 30 venues through-out LA County between June 4 through 26.
John competed at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, built as the official swimming venue for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and won three medals, first place in both the 25 yard and 50 yard freestyle and third place in the 50-meter freestyle. 2016 is a qualifying year for the National Senior Games which will be held in Birmingham, Alabama June 2- June 15, 2017. John does not plan to participate in Alabama - too far to cycle, no doubt.
John was accompanied by his own private cheering section, which consisted of 25 volunteers who were employees and family members from Front Porch Home Office and Front Porch residential communities (Kingsley Manor and Villa Gardens as well as from Front Porch partner CARING Housing Ministries). Front Porch has been a sponsor and volunteer staff participant in the California Senior Games for several years.
John keeps in shape by swimming at The Claremont Club and a daily round trip trek of almost a mile on his bicycle. He participated in many cycling events over the years and has actually cycled the route of the Tour de France, though not in competition. He worked for the State of California in a variety of management positions from San Diego to Sacramento where he and wife Carol eventually made their home for some 47 years before moving to Claremont Manor a year ago.
One final note includes the ages of the senior athletes. Most are 50-60 and 70 years old. They have a category for participants who are between 80-85, but they don't actually have a category for athletes above that age. This is unfortunate since our Olympian, John Abbe, topped off his 2016 Olympic achievements by celebrating his 89th birthday on June 29. Happy Birthday, John!
