Biking Away Depression

This morning I set out for the usual ride with the cycling club and was quickly asked if I was up for a different ride than our normal route. Most of the guys out this morning were much faster than I and the 2 guys I could hang with were interested in changing it up a bit. I said I was game as long as we stuck together.

We headed downtown along the Corniche, the main road paralleling the Nile. We rode past an ancient Roman aqueduct that is still standing among the buildings downtown (so cool) and through some crazy traffic circles when we came upon a large group of cyclists gathered on a side street. As it happens a local cycling club (The Cairo Cycling Club, not to be confused with our group: The Cairo Cyclists) was putting on a charity ride to bring awareness to depression as a part of World Mental Health Day (who knew?)

This was hilarious and cool at the same time. There were probably 100 people, men and women, gathered for the event. We stopped to ask about it and the organizers asked us to participate. They signed us up as a team and gave us free T-shirts (we tried to pay for them but they would have none of that). We drew quite a bit of attention between our bikes and specialized gear such as helmets and other crazy accessories (clear signs that we were foreigners). We were interviewed by 2 local news stations (I wonder if any of my students will notice me, yikes.)


A pick up truck pulled up with a pile of 50 or so bikes in the bed. We assumed these were being loaned for the event as people just walked up and helped themselves. The bikes were cracking us up. Many had the seats, handle bars and frame wrapped in either plastic wrap or cardboard. These were bikes people owned. It turns out this is a common practice as people don't want to scuff, dirty or otherwise sully the condition of their bikes by riding them.

After an hour or so of standing around and asking if people could take their photos with us we got antsy and decided to head off to complete our regularly scheduled ride. I'm not sure if the charity ride ever officially got under way, but if it is anything like the Breast Cancer Awareness run taking place next weekend it was a short spin around the block. The Breast Cancer run is 1.5K.

Quite a spontaneous adventure. Here's to venturing off the beaten path!