Batavia bicyclist taking rides of a lifetime

Paul Carpenter is always pushing himself to go further.

An 8-mile bicycle ride. Then a 30. Then a 100.

And in September, the Batavia resident entered his first 500-mile bicycle race, in Cleburne, Texas -- and won.

But for Carpenter, 48, meeting his own goals is more important.

"I was surprised more than anything else, but very pleased," he said. "With cycling, it's less about winning events and being first. It's more about seeing how far I can push myself."

Exercise permeates almost every aspect of Carpenter's life. He is the chair of the Kinesiology and Physical Education department at Northern Illinois University.

He is also on the board of directors for the St. Charles Celtics soccer club and plays with his team several times a week.

"Physical education is my life," he said. "It's a passion, and it's turned into a profession."

Carpenter was born and raised in England, where he played soccer and competed in long-distance running events.

He started riding his bicycle for a very practical reason almost 20 years ago -- the motorcycle he was riding to work broke down, and he didn't have the money to repair it.

The trip to and from work was an 8-mile journey each way. Carpenter soon used cycling as his main form of exercise, often adding distance to the straight route to work.

"When I was living in the UK, I lived two miles from my office," he said. "But sometimes it would take me 35 miles to get there."

Carpenter came to the United States in his early 20s when he took a job as the athletic director at a summer camp. He met his wife Melissa, who taught water skiing.

When the couple, along with son Sam, moved to Batavia in 2002, bicycling to Carpenter's job in DeKalb just seemed like the natural thing to do.

"It's on the edge," he said of the 30-mile commute. "If it was a few miles further, I'd have to rethink it."

He leaves his home at 5:30 a.m. and arrives at work about 7:30 a.m. The trip home after work also takes about two hours.

"The idea of each day spending 40 minutes in the car each way, to me, is not very appealing," Carpenter said. "This way, I get to workout, train and clear my head."

While he tries to bike to work every day, Carpenter accepts a ride if bad weather is expected. That doesn't include winter, however. He still rides to work daily during the snowy months.

"I know if I don't do it, later in the day I'll regret it and feel guilty," he said.

Riding at least 60 miles a day has prepared Carpenter for marathon races, he said. He usually throws in a 100-mile ride on the weekends.

As a member of the UltraMarathon Cycling Association, he competes in a season earning points each time he places in a race.

The farthest competition he'd done before September was a 24-hour time trial, in which he completed 435 miles.

For the 500-mile race, he had to do 25 laps around a 20-mile loop. Racers can stop whenever they want, but Carpenter estimates he probably spent about an hour total off of his bike, in no more than 10-minute increments.

He finished in first place with a time of 30 hours and 57 minutes.

He mostly ate energy gels and estimates he drank more than 16 liters of fluid in that time.

Now he's training to race in a 1,000-mile race from California to New Mexico next year. If all goes well, he hopes to compete in the 3,100-mile Race Across America in 2009.

"I've always had that as a fantasy," he said.

Carpenter raced his first 200-mile race at 40 "to prove to myself I'm not getting older," he said.

It only seems fitting that he'd do the Race Across America at 50 for the same reason.

To be officially counted as a finisher in that race, bicyclists have to make the trip from Lake Henshaw, Calif., to Annapolis, Md., in 12 days.

To Carpenter, it's the ultimate goal, both for the experience and the finish.

"For me," he said, "there's no boundary between work and play."

How far is it?

So far this year, Paul Carpenter has bicycled 19,202 miles. That's the rough equivalent of:

• Traveling from Chicago to Carbondale 60 times.

• Riding from Los Angeles to New York City 7 times.

• More than three-fourths of the way around the Earth's equator.