When I was planning my IB ride back in 2010 I noticed as we were getting closer to the date that my riding partner had more or less disappeared. I was putting a lot of thought into the ride and focused particularly on the mental preparation. I felt this wasn't the sort of thing one should enter into lightly. Long rides lead to fatigue and fatigue leads to stupidity and poor decision-making. I really wanted to talk about it with my partner and he had seemingly checked out. After tracking down and pestering him enough to finally get him to respond, he wanted to know just what in the world I wanted to discuss with him. I said I thought it was important that we get together to discuss the ride to make sure we were on the same page. In exasperation he replied, "What's the big deal and what is there to prepare for? You get on your scooter and go. It's just a ride."
It's just a ride.
I was stunned. I don't know what, if anything, I said in response. I should have decided then and there that we were poorly matched to do this together. Instead another week or two passed and several days before the ride he got in touch to tell me he couldn't go because his mother-in-law was coming to visit that weekend. (I still hold a grudge, not so much because he called off the ride but because he used such an insultingly pathetic excuse.) In retrospect I'm glad it didn't come off as planned but it took me some time to get to that point. I remained disappointed for a long while. And I will admit that there's some pleasure to be taken in the fact that I'm planning this current ride for the exact same weekend in May as we were three years ago.
It's just a ride.
Well, okay, on a basic level it is just a ride. It's longer than most but like any other ride you sit down, fire it up and head down the road. But it's just a ride in the same way that rafting the Grand Canyon is just a boat trip. It's a ride designed to test your physical and mental stamina and your machine. Call me crazy but I think that demands my attention and respect.
So now that I've made a case for this event being a really big deal, let me explain why I think it might be best not to make a big deal out of it...
There are competing schools of thought on whether an Iron Butt ride is best done alone or with a small handful of riders. If you go alone it's just you and your scooter. You and your own thoughts. You and your own mechanical issues, hunger, thirst and fatigue. There's no one else to worry about. On the other hand, there's no one else to worry about you either.
If you travel with other people you've got some support. You know someone else has your back. If you're starting to have doubts about your ability to finish, the others can help buck you up and keep you going. If your scooter dies you're not left all alone on the side of the road (and least not at first). But with other riders there you have someone else that you might want to impress or you may be concerned about appearing weak if you can't continue while they're feeling fine. Suddenly what felt like support can morph into peer pressure and you keep going beyond your ability.
Along the same vein, since riding with others can be a negative because of the potential pressure you can put on yourself, what about telling the world that you're about to set out on this ride? What about telling a bunch of people on, say, a scooter forum that you're going to do an Iron Butt ride and they get excited and want to follow your progress online. They want to hear all of your stories at the end and they want you to succeed. So now you've got this other chorus in the back of your mind as you're tooling down the road and beginning to think maybe you've reached your limit and that maybe you kinda sorta should stop? Now you're really going to look lame after you've spent months telling everyone you're gonna do this thing. So I am - or I guess was - of the mind that it would be best to keep it quiet and just report in after the fact. I'll put enough pressure on myself to succeed; I don't need a crew of onlookers. It went another direction and became very public but that's a story for another day.
Is it still just a ride?
I'm inclined to over-think and over-prepare. I often get ready for the worst so I'm frequently pleasantly surprised when things turn out well. I want to get home from this ride and think, gee, that really wasn't all that bad after all. But because of the way I'm wired I can't help but go into it thinking of it as the Bataan Death March for scooters. And I can't possibly think of it as just a ride.
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