Get Out Get Healthy Coye Balok

Get Out Get Healthy

By Coye Balok

It’s easy, It’s like riding a bike. You don’t ever forget. Ever heard that one? If you haven’t ridden a bike in 20 years you may not fully believe it. It is more or less true. Biking hasbecome a big deal in our little town of Gallup. The two main types of bikes are road bikes and mountain bikes. Mountain bikes are for sure more abundant in our beautiful, rugged high desertclimate. You might ask what the big deal is and how can a bike save someone’s life. Bear with me as I lay this out. Back in the early 2000’s a group of Gallup residents wanted more for our community and part of that vision was to build and maintain some dedicated trails that could be used in a multitude of ways, including mountain biking. Many people helped and more than I even know to name, so I won’t. The High Desert Trail system was established starting on the Gamerco side of town and running all the way to the Mentmore side of town, 20+ miles of maintained trails. Lots of work, organizing, permission, and dedication was used. We now have a great system of trails to walk, run, hike, or bike on right here in town. Later trails were developed in McGaffey in a similar style, but on a larger scale. Somewhere around 50+ miles exist in McGaffey for the benefit of our use. There are plans to add to these mountain trails.

How can a bike save a life, possibly your own life? Many different ways.

1. Anyone have ADD or ADHD? Have a kid at home with it? Any of you older folks that are 40+ have it as a kid and didn’t know what it was or how to deal with it? I think I did. Cycling has been proven to help kids and people with this disorder get focused, release energy, and tire the brain and body out. This tiring of the brain and body helps you sleep and rest better. Better rest helps you focus. The owner of Specialized bikes knows this. He had the same problem and used his bike to help cope with it. He set up a program called Outride that gives bikes and money to communities that need help and want to help kids. A few years ago, with lots of ground work by Silver Stallion Bikes and Coffee, they donated 29 bikes through a grant that was awarded to Rehoboth School. Those bikes gave kids an opportunity to start learning how to ride a bike even if they didn’t have one. This opened up a whole new world to parents and students. They could use a donated bike to ride to see if they liked it and then decide if they wanted to buy their own bike. It also provided much needed exercise for kids. The Outride foundation has awarded another grant to our area this past year. Hozho School was awarded 29 bikes of their own to start their own bike club and continue saving lives with bikes. 2. Exercise. Good ol’ fashion get out and burn muscles and sweat exercise for the body. We all need it. It is good for our bodies. Its low impact to our joints. Also, much research has been done showing that people who are suffering from depression or dealing with tough social situations will relieve those mental problems by getting exercise. The suicide rate in our local community children is high. If we can get kids on bikes, go ride around in nature, get them to challenge themselves, and have fun at the same time, it will save people’s lives.

In the last two years our local bike teams: Rehoboth School, Gallup Composite, Dine Composite, and Hopi Composite competed in a Mountain Bike racing series in Arizona. It was sponsored by NICA (National Intercollegiate Cycling Association), a great organization that is dedicated to all kids riding bikes, at all levels. The races are very competitive, very supportive, very inclusive and lots of fun. A typical race has student riders from 6th grade all the way through 12th grade. Usually about 800 riders at a two day race. That’s a lot of bodies and spandex in a short period of time. Lots of positive energy and support. This has been great for a lot of kids in Gallup, the Navajo Nation, and the Hopi Nation. The confidence and courage that these kids develop while getting in shape is amazing. It also helps the adults. We have lots of parent/volunteer coaches that ride with the students and help them train and learn. From my point of view, it has helped me as much as anyone get back into shape, learn, fail, laugh and push myself to get better. This program is open to anyone who wants to join. If you want your kid to try riding a bike, if you want to try riding a bike but need some better info, reach out to me. I can point you in the right direction: coyeshannon@msn.com.This program is open to all kids 6th-12th grade. Doesn’t matter what school you go to right now. Rehoboth has a bike club that is running and functioning and we could get one at every school if we have enough dedicatedpeople.

Get outside, be part of God’s creation and shred some gnar!

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