b hamon

Dear Friends --
After an entire winter and early spring in which I have been forced to assess -- and accept -- the changes in my aging body, the time has come for me to admit that my singlespeed racing days are over.
While my muscles remain strong, and I can still stand on my feet for hours at a time at work, my joints are aging. For the last five months, I've been waking up with hands so stiff some of the joints in my fingers pop before bending. My knees ache when I climb and descend stairs. And I've ridden Stompy a whopping four times since New Year's, returning home each time regretting that I'd taken my singlespeed out because my knees ache.
The joint issues were beginning to bother me last year, even before short-track season began, when I was still just working out in the gym. So this is not a rash, last-minute decision. It's a decision made while glancing up at the calendar and knowing that short-track season begins in less than two months, and there is no way I can be ready for that.
Since I don't have health insurance, I cannot afford knee replacement surgery now or in the future. My only alternative is to listen to my body and recognize that the time has come to call it a day. I most likely rode in my last race back in November at PIR, and will not toe the starting line at all in 2012. I am sad, but also honestly relieved to have arrived at a decision.
It has been a lovely, albeit short, trip through bicycle racing. I appreciate OBRA's ability to keep it accessible, affordable and down-to-earth. I love OBRA and think other sports organizations could learn an awful lot from the example set right here at home. And I love Team Slow for keeping it real and unpretentious and fun! I remain a Friend Of Slow, now and always.
Thank you --Beth Hamon
http://www.reverbnation.com/bethhamon

http://beth-hamon.blogspot.com/