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Amid walkout, extra workout
Fit commuters take to the bike.
At 7:20 yesterday morning, Craig Holm and his wife, Karen, stuffed hand warmers into their gloves to combat the autumn chill, and mounted their bikes for the 15-mile journey from their home in Bryn Mawr to their jobs in the city.
Craig normally takes the train to work, but because of the SEPTA strike, he decided to join Karen, who commutes three or four times a week from early spring to late fall.
Karen began traveling to work by bike in 1998, during a 40-day SEPTA strike. Yesterday was her 84th two-wheeled trip into town this year. For Craig, it was only his ninth, but, unlike many who have dusted off rusty 10-speeds to make it to their jobs, he was well-prepared for the physical demands.
Craig and Karen are elite athletes. Married 29 years, parents of three children, they met in 1979 on the victory stand of a 10K race. Craig, 55, a health-care management consultant in Center City, has run 30 marathons. Three times, he competed in the Olympic marathon trials.
Karen, 54, a health educator at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has run 35 marathons. She competed twice in Olympic marathon trials.
"The strike really hasn't had a big impact on us," Craig said. "I feel bad for people who don't have other options. We can just jump on our bikes and go."
Their stamina soon became apparent. As the rising sun ignited the foliage, they coasted down their road, turned left, and began a steep climb. They attacked the hill, standing on their pedals at times, showing their contempt for gravity by accelerating.
"That's like a wake-up cup of coffee for me!" Karen exulted at the summit.
Through Bryn Mawr and Haverford, the couple pedaled along back roads and byways. The route Karen takes favors quiet streets, and she revises it whenever she discovers a better way. She is conscientious about safety. She watches for drivers who seem sleepy or distracted. Her nemeses: SUVs, minivans packed with children, landscape trucks with swaying trailers.
Craig is more adventurous. Occasionally, he defied stoplights, veered across lanes of traffic, and darted across busy intersections. "A renegade," Karen called him.
As the couple glided through the Haverford College campus, Karen reveled in the joy of outdoor exercise, the splendor of the day.
"On the ride in, I'm planning my day," said Karen. "Instead of sitting in a car honking my horn, I'm getting fresh air."
As a cyclist, Karen might be careful and polite, but on Haverford Road in Wynnewood, she provoked a horn blast from an SUV driver who was offended when Karen gently patted her fender to signal she was passing with little room to spare. When traffic began moving again, the motorist leaned on the horn, then floored it.
At several intersections, cars were backed up far more than usual, Craig noted, a sure consequence of the strike, and roads where traffic is normally light were busy.
Passing the Barnes Foundation, Craig announced, "This is the halfway point."
Next: More neighborhood streets through Merion and Bala Cynwyd, then across City Avenue, and down Belmont Avenue to Fairmount Park. As the two cruised by the Belmont Mansion, they marveled at the skyline of Philadelphia.
They wound past the Japanese House and Garden, and behind Memorial Hall. There, Karen split for West Philadelphia and her office on Market Street, where she would shower at a neighboring physical therapy facility.
Craig rode toward Martin Luther King Drive. To escape the congested lines of cars on Lansdowne Drive, he headed for a sidewalk on the other side of the road. Misjudging the height of the curb, he took a tumble, the only mishap of the morning. No damage done.
Regaining his form, he whizzed by the Schuylkill and down the Parkway, where a fierce tailwind was whipping the flags. At 16th Street, he pulled onto the sidewalk. After walking through the subway concourse, he took a shower in the basement locker room of his building at 16th and JFK Boulevard.
His frame of mind when he got to his desk: "I felt self-righteous because I accomplished two things at once: I got from home to work, and I enjoyed some exercise. I also saved $9.50 in train fare and parking."
The trip had taken about an hour and 20 minutes, longer than usual because of the Heisenberg effect of being tailed by a reporter and photographer. Normally, it takes the couple about 50 minutes to make the inbound trip, about an hour to go home (more hills). In a competitive mood, Karen once clocked herself at a quad-burning 44 minutes.
All week at work, Karen has been hearing "horror stories" from fellow employees about the hardships of their torturous commutes. She is at once sympathetic and grateful, for she and Craig know that no matter what SEPTA and the TWU decide, on a bicycle, "if I leave the house by 7, I can be at work by 8."
Contact staff writer Art Carey
at 610-313-8106 or acarey@phillynews.com.
