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• June 29, 2017 • Oceana’s Herald-Journal
Sports
10-day, 1,000-mile bicycle journey ends in Pentwater for retired track coach By Andy Roberts Herald-Journal Writer
• Photos courtesy of Bill Gallagher
Above, Bill Gallagher poses for a photo with his trusty bicycle while taking a break from a 10-day, 1,000-plus mile journey at Pickles Restaurant in Brimley. At right, Gallagher’s bike sits on an overpass above I-75 on the Mackinaw Trail during another short break in the ride. Gallagher, age 60, bicycled from his home in Ashland, Ohio, around the state of Michigan before stopping in Pentwater Sunday.
“I refuse to grow up. You can’t make me.” There’s probably no simpler way of describing what motivated 60-year-old Bill Gallagher to pedal over 1,000 miles in 10 days around Michigan this last week than those words from Gallagher himself. Gallagher arrived in Pentwater Sunday evening fresh off accomplishing that exact feat, one that would be wildly impressive for someone less than half his age. Starting at his home in Ashland, Ohio, on June 16, the retired Ashland University track coach rode just over 110 miles per day for nine consecutive days, actually passing the 1,000-mile mark on day nine, before ending his trip with a short jaunt to Pentwater Sunday from his starting point in Ludington. In Pentwater, he met his wife, Deb, who came over to pick him up — using a more conventional mode of transport, a car — after visiting her family in Holt. Neither Gallagher is from Pentwater or from Oceana County, but the couple has visited in the past and loves the area. The choice of Pentwater as the final stop on Bill’s trip mostly came about by accident, simply the most logical nearby stop after his originally projected 1,000-mile mark. “It’d be a nice place to stop to end the madness,” Gallagher laughed. “It just so happened, in the planning stages, that 1,000 miles hit at Pentwater.
Some friends turned us on to it a few years ago and we liked it. You have a great little town there.” Gallagher coached the Division II Ashland University track teams for 25 years, retiring in 2005, and is regarded as a legend there for building the program into a powerhouse, so he’s never lacked for motivation to stay in shape. It wasn’t until six years ago, though, that he was turned on to bicycling as a way to do it, a move that he jokingly referred to as heresy in the world of runners. “Running, as you get older, it’s tougher on your knees and hips,” Gallagher said. “You don’t get the same gravitational stress from cycling. I think it’s a better return on your exercising investment. You can really go places, take destination rides.”
“Why not?”
Cycling is far from the first sport Gallagher has tried to conquer. He and wife Deb, who mirrored her husband’s career by coaching track and cross-country at Ashland High School prior to retirement, were so devoted to water skiing in their youth (particularly Deb) that Gallagher himself actually built a lake for the purposes of water skiing. “We started getting into water-ski tournaments (when we were younger),” Gallagher said. “The more you ski, the more you knew you didn’t know anything, so I decided, I’m going to build my own lake. We bought a house no one wanted and renovated it. I was turned down by six banks, and we literally built a tournamentquality water ski setup. That’s
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Oceana’s Herald-Journal • June 29, 2017 • 3b
1,000 miles what we did for recreation. My wife was arguably one of the best female tournament skiers in Ohio.” Unfortunately, Deb’s water skiing days ended when she was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, which has curtailed (but not stopped) her outdoor activity. Bill didn’t want to water ski without Deb, so the couple sold their property, including the man-made lake, and are now, Gallagher said, “goofing around”. The kind of drive to be outdoors that leads one to build a lake for water skiing, though, can’t be extinguished, so Gallagher has continued searching for challenges. He said he logs about 7,500 miles per year on the bike, and last August, he and a friend decided to plan a 10-day, 1,000-mile journey across Michigan for this June. “A lot of times, we come up with ideas, and we think they’re really good ideas, but we never really act on them,” Gallagher said. “I thought this would be a cool idea and, screw it, I’m going to do it. I’m 60, and it’s like I tell my friends, ‘You don’t get these years back.’ Am I going to be able to do this in two or five years? I’m going down swinging. “(Some people will ask) why, and I say, ‘Why not?’. I don’t think it’s male menopause or anything. I know it’s challenging and I want to do it.” His companion was forced to back out due to a family conflict, but that wasn’t going to stop Gallagher, who decided to undertake the journey himself. In preparation for the trip, he dropped 20 pounds from his already-slim 176-pound frame, putting in over 4,500 miles on the bike since New Year’s Day, to ease the strain 1,000 miles of bicycling would impose on his body. On June 16, he left his home in Ashland, Ohio and rode 102.9 miles to Toledo. The journey was underway. The journey
Gallagher is an Ohio State graduate, so any compliments directed to the state of Michigan are going to be wellearned. With that in mind, he gushed about the availability of bike trails and paths in the state that created a pleasant riding
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• Photos courtesy of Bill Gallagher
Bill Gallagher in action on his bike.
experience. “I’m a Buckeye, but Michigan has their (stuff) together,” Gallagher said. “Your state has a ton of bike routes. I’ve not frequented a lot of them, but I’ve researched and read. “One of them in particular (Wednesday), leaving Rogers City and to a state park. It was a winding road, in between (M-)23 and the (Lake) Huron coast, and it was absolutely beautiful. I was on M-25 and M-13 and 23, and the roads have a berm that’s like another lane. The roads, 95 percent of the way, are in great shape, so I’m just hammering along. The views over my right shoulder have been spectacular.” Gallagher isn’t a techaverse mountain man, though. Throughout the trip, he stayed at hotels and brought charging cables for his devices. He used an app called Relive to document his rides; friends on Facebook could see, using satellite technology, a map-style view of his entire daily path, and he had his GoPro camera set to take a photo of his surroundings each minute, the best of which he shared with friends. Among his overnight stops, once in Michigan, were Shelby Township near Detroit, then Port Hope, Pinconning and Alpena, all on the east side of the state. He stayed consecutive nights in Mackinaw City, using Thursday as a chance to explore the Upper Peninsula. (Riders can contact the Mackinac Bridge Authority when they reach one side of the bridge and, for a fee, can be transported to the other side.)
From the northernmost point in the Lower Peninsula, Bill rode south down the west side of the state, stopping in Elk Rapids Friday night and in Ludington Saturday prior to his abbreviated final ride Sunday. His rides usually began early in the morning, and he arrived at his destinations in the early afternoon. “I don’t think it’s psychological, but when you get into the triple digits on the device on your bike, you start to run out of gas,” Gallagher said. “I feel like I’m accomplishing something. It’s a bucket list-like thing.” What next?
Now that he’s explored much of the state, what’s next for the adventuresome Gallagher? He doesn’t know. Maybe that’s part of the fun. Whatever it is, you can bet Gallagher will throw himself into it full bore. “My wife calls me a border collie,” Gallagher said. “Border collies are like the last domesticated wolf. When they’re focused on something, they can’t hear you.” Needless to say, Gallagher enthusiastically recommends cycling to anyone of any age looking to stay (or get) in shape — even if you have no plans to ride 1,000 miles in a week and a half. “It’s really a great lifetime sport,” Gallagher said. “I hope to be doing this until I’m way older. I would recommend it to people. Buy a bike from a bike store and see if it sticks.”
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