75-Mile Bike Ride In Works For 75th Induction Birthday
There are plenty of ways to celebrate the Baseball Hall of Fame’s 75th anniversary Induction – concerts, games and new exhibits and old memories.
But for county Rep. Linda Rowinski, D-Oneonta, a bike trip is the perfect way to celebrate.
“The Hall of Fame wanted a year-long celebration of community involvement,” she said. “Downtown Oneonta has started to become a popular destination for mountain biking, and the ball just went off – a 75-mile bike ride for the 75th anniversary!”
The first Bike Otsego 2014 event will be Saturday, Sept. 20, starting and ending in Damaschke Field in Oneonta’s Neahwa Park.
Main Street in Oneonta will close down to allow the cyclists to pass through before breaking off onto their individual routes: a 75-mile loop, a 30-mile, a 12-mile, family-friendly route and a mountain bike trail. “Everyone can participate,” she said.
Rowinski is an avid cyclist herself, biking between 25 and 40 miles on a good day. She took up biking in 2011 after her last New York Marathon. “I knew it was going to be my last marathon, but I wanted to do something,” she said. “Someone suggested a triathlon, but I don’t swim – so I bought a bike!”
She didn’t expect the idea to catch on, but it did. “Everyone I talked to thought it was a great idea,” she said. “Everybody’s been coming up with different ideas; it’s networking at its finest.”
She put together a committee that is currently planning the four routes through the county. “I want to make it a tourism event,” she said. “Promoting tourism increases the quality of life for people who live here – they can participate too.”
She was inspired, by part, by the Pit Run, which she says has elevated running in Otsego County. “You didn’t used to see a lot of runners, but that got popular and now you see runners everywhere,” she said, pointing to a couple jogging by on Main Street. “People look at them and say, ‘I can do that’.”
