Race Report: Dalmac Bike Tour

Another great race is in the books: the Dalmac bike tour from Lansing, MI, to Mackinaw city, MI, a distance of 322 miles. Bike tours like this are a blast, and I would encourage anyone that loves a) challenging athletic endeavors and b) serious tailgating, to try one. These rides last for a few days, this time for 4, and every night you camp out with other riders in an open field, school gymnasium, or other such sites donated generously by principals that are likely cyclists themselves. Different tours skew different ways, with some focusing more on the tailgating, and some more on the actual athletics. I would say this one skewed athletic, as despite the immense amount of food we ate every night, there was not a Michelob Ultra in sight. Other rides (we did the MS150 from Houston to Austin) skew toward the tailgating, and you actually forget if you are drinking and eating after you bike, or biking simply as an excuse to take a break from the drinking and eating. Either way, find one that works for you and go for it.

This  was one of my favorite events I’ve ever done for two particular reasons:. first,  for the first time in 15 months, my wife and I were not sharing a room with the-child-we-love-that-keeps-us-perpetually-awake. That’s right, for the first time in over a year, we were in the same place, at the same time, with no one to think about but ourselves. If we managed to ignore the fact that it was pouring rain 75% of the time, that our tent was especially cramped, and that everything we brought was dripping wet, it was borderline romantic. However, this also meant that our co-sleeping breast-feeder had to go without the communal bed and her favorite mid-night snack for four nights. And second,  we used the bike ride to raise money for World Bicycle Relief, an organization with which I am currently enamored.

When left to face your own dragons…

I like co-sleeping. I believe in it. I dig it. I have no problem that others don’ feel similarly, but for me and my wife, it works just fine. Sure, it means that for 15 months I have never slept more than 4 hours in a row, that my wife and I always have a warm and snugly body in the middle of the bed, and that the midnight nursing and (for reasons I don’t understand) corresponding kicking to daddy’s midsection (she’s gonna be a soccer playa, this one) will continue unabated.  And that is fine with me: our child feels safe and secure with two dragon slayers around to scare away the bad dreams, and I get to spend an extra 8 hours with my kid in a day that is otherwise filled with work and daycare. And of course, when you intend to travel with baby, co-sleeping just rocks, as there is no need to bring a Pack n Play, use a hotel crib, or follow any sort of bed time routine besides “here is a breast: suckle and fall asleep.”

BUT…. when you intend to travel without your little bundle of joy, well, is it selfish to set up a system in which security depends on your presence, and then you are suddenly absent? My wife sometimes goes to conferences and is away for a night or two. And then on the occasional parental outings, like this bike trip, our daughter is forced into a system in which there is neither an available breast to nurse nor bed to fill. Should I teach her to sleep on her own for the infrequent occasion of our absence, or continue with my beloved co-sleeping, forcing her to deal with occasional lonely nights? (Or, door number three, am I over-thinking it?) After giving it a good bit of thought,  I actually felt ok with the decision to leave her with her grandparents for four nights. Note: these are the grandparents that have watched her two out of every seven days a week since she was .001 seconds old. So she knows them practically as well as she knows her mama and daddy. Plus, although the Texicans in my familia tended to share beds with the kids until the child was old enough not only to complain about lack of bed space, but do so in two languages, I have no intentions of co-sleeping indefinitely (3). So it was going to happen at some point.

Among my ever-growing circle of new parent friends, we have also breastfed longer than any family I know (though at a mere 15 months, we hardly broke any records) (1,2). So she would also have to go without her beloved midnight snack. Nonetheless, she goes without breastmilk often, and it is clearly a dietary supplement,(and designated mama and baby time), not her main source of calories.

So we biked. She played with the grandparents and the dog she loves so much. We biked more. She played more with said dog. We got back, and, curious to see if she had weened herself off of the milk or not, we just went ahead and asked her. She didn’t answer however, because she was too busy nursing. So she jumped back in our bed to celebrate our 11PM return, had her (multiple) midnight snacks, and all was well in the world.

So other parents out there, what do you think about your sleeping choices? When you chose how to sleep with your baby, did you make a conscious choice (ie, im gonna travel alot, Ill teach em to use a crib) or did you make it out of necessity (ie, damn, i need more sleep)? And has anyone transitioned from a solid co-sleeper to crib-user?

(4)

Giving purpose to your hobbies

I have written a few times about the difficulty I have spending large chunks of money on myself and my hobbies. The fact that my wife and I were both spared death by malaria when we were in Tanzania because we had 12 expendable dollars has cursed me into thinking of all expenditures in multiples of $12. Hence, the 900 or so bucks that my road bike cost (before any fancy upgrades) could have saved 75 people from malaria.  And entry fees? Yeah, try entering an Ironman (upwards of 500 bucks) without the old  global consciousness kicking  in. But this time, my wife, two other Notre Dame amigos and I decided to go the Pink Ribbon route and raise money for something we believed in. We chose World Bicycle Relief, whose mission is to “provide access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles.” And what do they mean by “independence and livelihood” exactly? Well, after the tsunami devasted Sri Lanka in 2004, they provided 24,000 locally manufactured bicycles to aid in recovery, allowing individuals to bike to, say, the doctor, work, school, etc. They later provided 23,000 bicycles to home-based care volunteers, disease prevention educators, and vulnerable households in Zambia. Then, in 2009, they began the Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program, that gave 50,000 bikes to kids in rural Zambia who are at risk for extreme poverty and high rates of HIV.

But what is most impressive about WBR is not what they target (after all, many great NGOs target increasing HIV rates and lack of access to education and health care), but the way in which they do so. First of all, the bicycles they use are manufactured locally. That means that the populations benefiting from the bikes are  manufacturing them themselves, rather than simply taking a donation from yet another  aid organization. And the research is clear, we treat goods that take time, effort, and money far more responsibly than goods that are given to us for free. Second, in addition to giving bicycles, WBR trains mechanics to maintain the bicycles, thus  creating opportunities for employment in areas where such opportunities are often scarce. Third, they ASSESS WHAT THEY DO (just check out their Field Reports on the right hand side of this page. These things could make a MPH student cry they are so thorough). Anyone that has done any readings on NGO work either here or abroad knows that the road is paved with good intentions, built with empathy, and painted with a big, open heart. However, so many programs lack long term vision of sustainability, and fail to question if the program designed to help actually helps. Don’t get me wrong, good intentions, empathy, a big figurative heart, are all the fuel of social movements. But its when the  analytic brain and empathy-filled heart mix things up that you end up with sustainable systems that help vulnerable communities grow for decades on end (5). Plus, let’s be honest, bikes are pretty cool. I love em, but really, that I can ride for fun so as to allow others to ride to school, now that’s pretty awesome.

We were able to raise a good sum of money for WBR (thanks to everyone who helped!), and I am strongly considering adding this fund-raising component to any race in which the cost of entry is greater than, say 5 rounds of anti-malaria medication. Damn, when you put it like that….

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1-Is it strange to anyone else when guys say “we breastfeed…” or “we are pregnant”? I never thought about it, but apparently people have some pretty strong opinions on it. Whachya think?

2-The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, and breastfeeding with appropriate supplemental foods for “two years and beyond.” My guess is that this is not only for the health of the child, but also as a means of preventing a second (or third or fourth) birth. Either way, works for us.

3-For an excellent comparison cultural and social influences on co-sleeping, check out Dr. McKenna’s

Cultural Influences on Infant and Childhood Sleep Biology, and The Science that Studies It: Toward a More Inclusive Paradigm

4-I love this picture. Remember kids, co-sleeping can be dangerous if done incorrectly!

5-There are many good examples of charitable organizations that have created sustainable systems of social change. Micro-credit lending, started by Grameen Bank in Bangladesh,  is a great example. The founder of the bank, Muhammad Yunus, just won the Noble Prize for his efforts “to create economic and social benefits from below.”

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