Episode 54
“Anyone that’s heard this, you see me out on a bike, or a watering hole, stop by.”
Chances are you’ve seen this week’s guest snapping some photos around the track– join us this week as Joan talks This week’s guest may sound familiar to you, as he’s been on the podcast before! This week, Joan sits down with Dave Pryor, marketing and communications director of the Rodale Institute. Dave was last on the podcast to talk about PPRAC (Pennsylvania Perimeter Ride Against Cancer). Joan and Dave touch on a plethora of topics from organic farming to road riding to PPRAC, UnPAved, Monkey Knife Fight, and much more. Be sure to check out the show notes for links and more information!
Websites:
https://pelotonmagazine.com/features/the-organic-mission/
RodaleInstitute.org
https://www.pprac.net/
https://theunpavedhub.com/event/monkey-knife-fight/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/dqpryor/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/rodaleinstitute/?hl=en
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/dqpryor
https://twitter.com/RodaleInstitute
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/davepryor
https://www.facebook.com/rodaleinstitute
Thanks to B Braun Medical Inc. for sponsoring the Talk of the T-Town Podcast. BBraun is a global leader in infusion therapy and pain management, B Braun develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical products to the healthcare community. They are also strong believers in supporting the quality of life in the communities where their employees work and live.
Transcript
Joan Hanscom:
Welcome to the Talk of the T-Town podcast, where we discuss all things track cycling. Broadcasting from the Valley Preferred Cycling Center, I’m your host and executive director, Joan Hanscom.
Joan Hanscom:
Welcome to the Talk of the T-Town podcast. I’m your host, Joan Hanscom. And I am joined this week by the fabulous Dave Pryor. Dave is the director of marketing and communications for the Rodale Institute, which we don’t say the, but I said it anyway. But you also-
Dave Pryor:
You can get away with that.
Joan Hanscom:
… you may also remember Dave is a previous podcast guest. We had him on last summer to talk about his gravel adventures, and most particularly about the Perimeter Ride Against Cancer. So, we’re going to talk about all the things. We’re going to talk about him in his capacity of his hashtag day job. We’re going to talk to him about his hashtag side gig. And if you are followers of Dave on social media, you’ll know that those are things. So, Dave, welcome back to the podcast. We are thrilled to have you.
Dave Pryor:
Thanks, Joan. So, good to see you and hear from you again. This is exciting. Very happy. So, thank you.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. So, the last time we had a guest from Rodale Institute on the pod, it was your colleague, Jeff Tkach, whose podcast remains one of the top 10 most favorite podcasts. So, you have a high bar to step over.
Dave Pryor:
I have to try and beat that? All right. We’re competitive. I can play.
Joan Hanscom:
Jeff’s pod was pretty great.
Dave Pryor:
He’s pretty great on these things. Yeah, he’s pretty good.
Joan Hanscom:
He was awesome, and he was super energizing. For me, that podcast was absolutely inspirational, and it led to a really cool project that Jeff and I did last summer, which was a video project that was about the importance of maintaining the organic farming culture in the Lehigh Valley, and the importance of that to the cycling community, and why local cyclists should support local organic farms if we want to have nice roads to ride on around The Velodrome.
Joan Hanscom:
And that lovely little video snippet that our partners at Discover Lehigh Valley shopped around, led to an article that I saw today, breaking news, in Peloton Magazine. So, it was super exciting on this day that we’re talking, today, that that article just is now coming to life. So, talk to us about that, first and foremost, because I was really stoked to see you published.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, they came, Clive came out. It was in November. It was shortly after I had started at Rodale Institute. I started in September. And that was one of the first things is, all right, this video is coming out with Discover Lehigh Valley. It’s us, it’s bikes, it’s farms, it’s this. And it reminded me of, I helped start the Seed Farm Ride with Aaron Frederick back … This is probably a good 10, 15 years ago. I forget exactly when it started. And one of our premises was you’d see stickers on cars saying, “No farms, no food.” And then I also happened to have one that said, “No farms, no beer.” These things are real. We don’t have the farms. We don’t have the things. And then we made promos around it, “No farms, no farm roads.” Because there is such a gem that we have here, and we wanted to show that off.
Dave Pryor:
And the Seed Farm is another one of those great programs that’s helping preserve all these great farms, and thus all the great farm roads that we get to ride on. So, Peloton, the magazine, sent that out from the videos that came out, and promotions Discover Lehigh Valley did to get the word out, and a writer called up and said, “I’ve heard a lot about this. I did an article about Pittsburgh and said how great it was. And the Eastern side of Pennsylvania said, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about. This side is so much better than that side,'” because we’re competitive. I often say Pennsylvania is-
Joan Hanscom:
And also true.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. And also true. I often say Pennsylvania is the Belgium of America because we have all this great road riding. We have all these great breweries, and the two sides really don’t like each other. So, it makes sense. He came out-
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, that works.
Dave Pryor:
… and he had a great time. He rode with Jeff Tkach out on some of the great farm roads. He went to Fifth Street Cross one of the nights. So, he got to really experience the culture that we have here. And he also fell in love with Rodale Institute. I mean, it’s what’s been happening there for almost 75 years. The 75th anniversary will be coming up this year.
Dave Pryor:
It has changed agriculture. By changing it, it’s brought it back to what it was for centuries, and really struck home with it. It’s also interesting. I was just flying back up Arizona. So, he grabbed a copy of VeloNews and was all like, “Oh VeloNews is changing with Peloton. They’re merging,” that sort of thing. And the article’s in there as well. So, if you go to Barnes & Noble or wherever and pick up of VeloNews, that’s where the article about Rodale Institute is right now. So, we can get in your news stands today, which is pretty sweet.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. So, it’s so cool that we’re talking today, because I wondered when it was going to come out because we … Obviously we knew this story was being done. And I think it’s really cool that all of it really started from this amazing just chat with Jeff. And that inspired the video that inspired the art. So, it’s super cool that Jeff was the progenitor of some cool stuff. He has a way with that sort of thing-
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, he has a knack for things. Yeah. Chief Impact Officer is a good title for him. He has a way to do that. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
It fits. So, tell us about your day job at Rodale, because obviously when we spoke to you last, you were not at Rodale, but you’re still doing the bike side gig, but tell us a little bit about Rodale, and what you’re doing there, and why we should care. Because I think there’s a lot of reasons why we should.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, I think it was probably … God, it might have been right around that time we were doing that podcast. So, I was going for a ride with Jeff, and we actually reconnected because of podcasts. I was on one for talking about UnPAved, putting it on during COVID times, The Athlinks Podcast. And I really liked the host, we hit off, I kept listening to his podcast. And like a month or so later Jeff Tkach was on, they had a relationship, and they talked about the importance of clean food and all of this same thing that goes on with athletes. And I was listening. I was like, “I forgot that Jeff’s back in the region doing this. I should connect with him again and just say hi.” So, we did. And we started going for bike rides regularly, and we were on one right around that time and just talking about work, what was happening.
Dave Pryor:
And he said, “Oh no, the director marketing just left. We got to figure out, I got to start hiring for that.” And he looked at me and he goes, “Would you be interested in that job?” And I looked at him and said, “I’m glad you asked because I was about to ask you if I could be interested in that job, if you’d have a friend working for you.” And it worked out. So, I started there in September, have a great team that had been doing amazing work for the last three years. There’s press and PR. there’s brand management, working with our ambassadors, with our influencers, the people who are really passionate about the organic movement, regenerative organics. Social media, amazing videographer, the events that happen on the farm in the Institute, which there’s so many.
Dave Pryor:
I had no idea until I started there. The in-person events, the webinars, the virtual events, the 19 weddings we host there a year. It’s really full, the visitor’s center is really flourishing with great merchandise, and we’re going to start selling produce there on Thursdays and Saturdays this year. So, it’s a lot-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s awesome.
Dave Pryor:
… happening, and it’s great. It’s the best place to get eggs and pork. I will tell you that right now, too. That’s been a great perk-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, I believe it.
Dave Pryor:
… to have that store in my office.
Joan Hanscom:
Right. Right. Your menu just got better at home?
Dave Pryor:
Menu is better, and better, and better. And then my job is really to highlight the great work that happens at Rodale Institute. We’re doing the research to see how organic and regenerative organic farming and agriculture is different from conventional. So, there’s acres that have been set aside for the past 40 years. And some of them grow things with pesticides and tilling, some go with the pesticides, no tilling, then next to it … With a buffer so there’s no cross pollination or contamination. Next to it is organic, either with manure compost or with non tilling, there’s a whole series of things. And so, for 40 years, and that report’s coming out shortly, what’s been going on in the soil. What’s been going on with the nutrients what’s been going on with water capacity. How well do these things grow? What’s the yield, all of that. And it’s amazing what’s coming out. A lot of times, conventional farmers don’t want to switch to organic because the yield, how much they can grow, is “not as good” in organic as it is with conventional, which can be true for sure.
Dave Pryor:
But we are finding and in times of floods and in times of drought, IE extreme weather, I’m not sure if anyone’s paid attention to your local daily weather forecast, but things have been pretty extreme-
Joan Hanscom:
That that might be happening.
Dave Pryor:
… it seems to be a thing. Organic does outproduce it because the soil holds everything better. So, if there is a drought, there is a flood it can actually continue to grow food better than one that’s been heavily pesticided, or been tilled up. And so, it doesn’t have the same nutrient … Not nutrients. It doesn’t have the same makeup. It doesn’t have the same biomes going on. It doesn’t have the same microbes, it doesn’t have all that stuff holding it together. Organic one does, so we can continue to grow food through what’s possibly climate change, possibly.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s fascinating.
Dave Pryor:
It’s actually working. We’re having the results coming out shortly that proves it, which is so exciting. And the group is growing, and growing, and growing. We’re hiring five to six people it seems like a month. Researchers and consultants that help farmers make the transition, because it’s a three year process from the last time they used a pesticide or used a GMO seed, it takes three years before it can be certified. So, how do they make that transition, continue to make a living? We have consultants that will do that to help them make that move and continue to have a business that’s actually become a better business as they become a certified organic farmer.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. It’s amazing to me. And I think while our listeners may not be organic farmers, I think everybody that’s one of our listeners does have an interest in having access to nutrient dense food, to having healthy options for food, having food that’s available, to your earlier point about, “Hey, you need farms to have food.” And so, I think the work that Rodale’s doing, particularly for athletes who want to maintain that healthy lifestyle-
Dave Pryor:
Yes, exactly.
Joan Hanscom:
… and it’s incredibly-
Dave Pryor:
We want to have cleaner fuel.
Joan Hanscom:
… important work.
Dave Pryor:
We want to be able to burn this fuel efficiently, cleaner fuel lets you do that. It makes your body work better just as a whole, the biome works better, your gut works better. Everything works cleaner without chemicals and other things going on through there. So, there’s been studies that almost every consumer has bought something organic at least once in their life. Now, how do we make that more of a regular thing? So, we do that. It grows, and grows, and grows.
Joan Hanscom:
So, I have a question, and forgive me for not knowing this in advance, but say I’m a person that lives in Macungie, or lives in Colorado, or California, and I’m listening to this podcast. And I don’t have a farm. I don’t live on a farm. But I have a yard-
Dave Pryor:
I don’t either. I don’t have a garden, so I get it. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. But does Rodale offer resource, and education, and classes for people who do want to become a backyard gardener? So, for example, you want to learn how to do your tomato plants in the backyard without Roundup, which is a terribly obvious example to use. But as a resource, what does Rodale have available for normal non-farmer people?
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. We have a number of both virtual online classes that you can watch anytime. Or we also have a number of events happening at the Institute. So, there’s an organic gardening 101 happening this spring, where I believe it’s a $60 fee and you come in and we give you the 101 on how to have an organic garden in your backyard. There’s so many gardens that were being grown during the pandemic, because people hunkered down and stayed local, and said, “I can grow my own food if I can’t necessarily get everything I want, I can do it right here.” So, that movement has come back in a big way. There’s a lot of online classes too, but there’s also classes, we just launched one in the last few months, on how to be a better regenerative organic consumer. So, how to look for the things, why you should look for the things-
Joan Hanscom:
Wow, awesome.
Dave Pryor:
… that’s a free course online, that’s at RodaleInstitute.org. You can find that pretty, pretty easily. And that will give you a lot of the what to do, what to look for, and why it’s important to you. There’s a doctor who’s on it, Dr. [Stole 00:13:32] who used to be in this region at Coordinated Health. He’s now started the Plantician Project down in Tennessee. And he was one of my doctors at one point. And he has a lot of reasons-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s so great.
Dave Pryor:
… why we need to look at the fuel that we put in our body. Food is arguably the most important thing we can do for ourselves, and why it’s important.
Joan Hanscom:
And I think, and I don’t want to go down too dark of a rabbit hole on this front, but in the last, just couple of weeks, I mean, I’m not old, you’re not old, we’re still relatively young and healthy people. Our peer group-
Dave Pryor:
Spry.
Joan Hanscom:
… are still-
Dave Pryor:
Thank you. Spry.
Joan Hanscom:
… we still have a relatively young and spry peer group. Right?
Dave Pryor:
Yes.
Joan Hanscom:
And I’ve heard in just the last couple of weeks about several people who are, I would say, in our peer group who have died of cancers that you would normally expect to see in somebody who is a lifelong smoker, or somebody who’s been exposed to asbestos forever. And I think we do need to have this awareness, even if you aren’t an athlete, of what are we actually putting in our bodies? And why are people who should be in a healthy age group, a young and otherwise healthy person, developing these just incredibly odd illnesses if it doesn’t have something to do with the environment and what we put in our bodies?
Dave Pryor:
We seem to think that we can … The earth is to be formed to our liking, and I’m having a hard time believing that because the earth does seem to change based on what it needs. Speaking of Roundup, and Monsanto, the company that develops that, has to continue to create new products and new things because the weeds change. They’re bringing all these things in to kill weeds, and the weeds adapt as fast as they can create new pesticides to kill those weeds. Why is that? Because nature’s going to find a way, and we … It’s going to be fine. I often say like Rodale Institute is not going to save the earth. We’re going to try and save mankind, but I’m pretty sure the earth is going to figure out how to continue spinning with or without us.
Dave Pryor:
So, we can do that to help protect us. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Right. I think that’s it exactly. It’s how do we live harmoniously with it. That’s the bigger …
Dave Pryor:
And we’re proving that we can’t. I mean, we are proving that if … We’ve really only been doing this high intensity agriculture with heavy pesticides, and separation of livestock in the grains and the produce, it’s really only been a thing for 50 to 100 years, but really intensely for the past 50 years. That’s a blip in the radar. It’s a drop in the bucket of humanity’s time on earth, let alone the earth as a whole. We can make changes. We can go back to a lot of these things. We can do things. There’s new research showing that if organic soil in Virginia, organic soil can … It breathes carbon. What do plants do? They bring carbon down from the atmosphere, they breathe, it. And then if there’s healthy soil for the carbon to go out from the roots to, all these organisms that use it, and eat it, and keep it there, and trap it there, sequester it there is the catchphrase, it doesn’t go back up into the atmosphere.
Dave Pryor:
There is a possible way we can bring global warming down with regenerative agriculture, because it’s such a big impact on global warming. Yes, everything else contributes to it. But doing those things, the plants can do this. The plants have been doing it for centuries. We just stop letting the plants and the soil do what it does. We can go back to that. We didn’t do that much damage, but we continue there’s only 60 years left of growable soil, and that’s going to be a problem.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. Since I moved to California, I’ve had such an awakening, not on that front, but here, which is this completely off the topic of regenerative farming, but it is on the topic of nature doing its thing. Here, California’s in a drought. So, there’s water concerns are very real here, and what’s been so refreshing to me, living here, has been when the weather is crappy, when we have rain and it’s several days of rain, or deluge of rain, people are stoked for it.
Dave Pryor:
I’m sure. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
And I think-
Dave Pryor:
It’s important.
Joan Hanscom:
Right. And I think it’s interesting and energizing to live in a place where people have realized that. Instead, nobody complains about the rain here, which has been amazing-
Dave Pryor:
We shouldn’t complain about rain in California. It’s grows, I forget the number, but it’s staggering. It’s 60% to 80% of the food grown that everyone eats. From America-
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, and it keeps your.
Dave Pryor:
… a lot of it’s still out of the country that we import, but the American grown food? We need California to have rain.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. So, it’s amazing here when the weather people give the weather report, they’re stoked when there’s rain in the forecast. And I just find that so refreshing to not have people bemoaning the terrible weather, instead people are like, “Yes, please. More.” And it’s been an interesting mind mindset to observe. And I think that’s because here we’re, in many ways, living at a little bit further forward on the climate-
Dave Pryor:
Yes. [crosstalk 00:18:54]
Joan Hanscom:
… impacts than-
Dave Pryor:
American epicenter seems to be happening there. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. So, it’s super interesting, but like you said, nature will find a way. And whether that way is burning it all to the ground, or …
Dave Pryor:
Or if we can go back to working with nature, and being more seasonal, and being mindful in those things, and we can go back, and we can be okay, and we can live in harmony. So, it’s definitely possible.
Joan Hanscom:
Super interesting.
Dave Pryor:
There are days I wake up and I’m like, “Wow, this news about what’s happening is terrible.” Certainly, but there is hope with everything that’s happening with agriculture, and the changes that people are seeing.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, and it’s got to be great-
Dave Pryor:
I was in a conference and it was filled-
Joan Hanscom:
… to work where you do-
Dave Pryor:
… with young farmers. Just young farmers who are so interested. And there’s this entire growth of young farmers coming that are going to do it this way.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. I have a friend in New England who’s essentially doing it that way. It’s super cool to see what he’s doing, what he and his wife are doing with their farm, and yeah, it’s amazing. And yeah, where you’re working now being at Rodale, it has to actually give you hope instead of despair, and you can see a pathway forward, and you can see people embracing it. So, that’s super cool.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. There’s a farmer transitioning almost daily, and everyone makes a difference.
Joan Hanscom:
So, since this is a cycling podcast, kind of-
Dave Pryor:
Oh, right. We should go on a bike ride.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. Well, yeah. We should do that, for sure. We’re going to, which is very exciting.
Dave Pryor:
I know.
Joan Hanscom:
So, I can’t wait. We’re deep in our plotting for Grinduro PA, which you are part of with the hashtag side gig. And I am involved with, with my hashtag day job, and I’m super excited. I think it’s going to be amazing. And it’s in a beautiful part of the state, and-
Dave Pryor:
It’s such a part. I’ve never been before until last year. And it’s so great.
Joan Hanscom:
And so, I’m going to get to come back and hang out with my PA friends, and ride bikes, and throw a little bit of a Swiss party-
Dave Pryor:
Sweet.
Joan Hanscom:
… and ride bikes with you, hopefully.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, like I said, I’m not running, running this event, so I believe I can go out and spend the day on the bike, and no one’s going to necessarily miss me. That’s going to be great.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. I’m excited. I’m excited to come back and see folks, it’s going to be a good time. And hopefully-
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, the Worlds End State Park area-
Joan Hanscom:
… [crosstalk 00:21:18] will be there.
Dave Pryor:
… [inaudible 00:21:19] will be there.
Joan Hanscom:
Cool.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, I think I can drag her to that. Yeah. We did Endless Mountains last year, and it was really, really cool. And so, when Grinduro was looking for a spot, we’re like, “This spot would work,” because that was the time of year they were looking, and making it a NICA fundraiser on top of it just made it so … I mean, there’s a lot going on in Pennsylvania in June, and especially that weekend in June, but this is going to be a hallmark event. So-
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, no, it’s super cool-
Dave Pryor:
… looking forward to it.
Joan Hanscom:
… and I love the tie in with it with the high school mountain bike programming. And I think that’s amazing. And I’m stoked [crosstalk 00:21:54]
Dave Pryor:
Bringing an international level event like The Velodrome does all the time. Now there’s an international Gravel event saying, “Pennsylvania.” Didn’t say Vermont, didn’t say West Virginia, as much as I love those states too, but like, “Oh, so Pennsylvania. Yeah. Look at this. This works.”
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, it’s actually the perfect setting for their event too. It’s absolutely right for the vibe of that event. So, very excited to be involved with it. Very excited to come back and see you guys, hope everybody listening, who isn’t racing track that weekend decides to get their stoke on for some gravel-
Dave Pryor:
Same bike. I mean, I think the same bike would work for most of it.
Joan Hanscom:
Sure.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Sure.
Dave Pryor:
I mean, you have to turn right once in a while, but other than that, it’d be very similar.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, absolutely. No. But I hope the folks that who are … Believe that’s UCI weekend at The Velodrome, so hopefully-
Dave Pryor:
Two international level events happening a couple hours apart in Pennsylvania.
Joan Hanscom:
Two international bicycle events happening in Pennsylvania, just hours apart, which is super rad for Pennsylvania-
Dave Pryor:
Are there other events? Yeah. There’s not other events. We only think about bike events.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, no, we got the two cool ones going that weekend. We got-
Dave Pryor:
Absolutely.
Joan Hanscom:
… The Velodrome with UCI making a big international push back that weekend, because people are traveling a bit more-
Dave Pryor:
Eyes of the world on Pennsylvania, on the Commonwealth. I love it.
Joan Hanscom:
For a magical few weeks of bike events.
Dave Pryor:
Heck yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
So, that should be rad. And then let’s circle back around to what we talked about on the podcast last time you were on, because we were talking about the last ronde you were on-
Dave Pryor:
The last track. Yeah. Last [crosstalk 00:23:34]
Joan Hanscom:
… the last of that was. Yeah. So, what’s up with PPRAC?
Dave Pryor:
So, PPRAC, which for those who don’t know, the Pennsylvania Perimeter Ride Against Cancer, PPRAC, started in 1983 with Bob Freed, who was on the podcast with me, his dad and another family member were dying from cancer, and he was fed up and needed to do something about it. So, he was like, “I’m going to ride across the country and do it as a fundraiser.” And his pastor was like, “Everyone rides across the country. What else can you do? Let’s think about this.” And they thought, “Let’s do the perimeter of Pennsylvania. No one’s ever done that,” which was true. And I’m not sure anyone’s done it since. They did it over over two weeks, 1983, before cell phones, and mapping systems, and devices-
Joan Hanscom:
I was going to say, no GPS back then.
Dave Pryor:
… no ways to call the car and ask for help. No ways to book things ahead of time, no internet, and they made it. And they raised thousands of dollars. And unfortunately Bob’s dad died during the ride, but it was really meaningful, important thing. And they said, “We have to do this again.” He said, “But you don’t have to do that again. That was a bit much.” So, they transitioned it. They kept the event name, because they’d already set the business and that stuff, and made it a six day ride, point-to-point, from basically a five to 600 mile radius. We looked at from Ben Lehigh Valley and then moved to Palmerton where we could ride over six days. So, the ride had started in Portland, Maine before 9/11 had started, in Montreal. It started in West Virginia. The last one we did started in Pittsburgh, and we did a little bit of zigzagging since it was …
Dave Pryor:
Could be a 300 mile ride. Well, let’s just do some of the highlights in between. And that was fun. So, over the course of every other year, almost 40 years of doing this, and raised over two million dollars for the American Cancer Society.
Joan Hanscom:
Wow.
Dave Pryor:
And also a lot of the money goes to the Dream Come True Foundation, which is one of the great local charities we have in the Lehigh valley that helps terminally ill children go on trips to Disney, and Hawaii, and those amazing things and really makes a difference in their lives. But we were the people who’ve been working on it for a while, and we were like, “We’re done, we’re done. We’re done.” We were like, “We’ve been doing this. Let’s have one last hurrah. How would we do this as a last hurrah?” And we realized, “Let’s do it completely different. We don’t need six days right across where everyone’s very tired of the end, and each day was a bit much. Let’s do it so we can really get to hangout and enjoy each other this last time together as a big group.”
Dave Pryor:
So, we decided to make it a one location. We picked Louisburg, Pennsylvania, because I know that area well from UnPAved, Susquehanna River Valley, I have a lot of connections there that we can make the housing and all that stuff work pretty well with Bucknell University. Plus the riding up there is fabulous. It’s-
Joan Hanscom:
Mint.
Dave Pryor:
… I often say what I … Yeah, it’s what the Lehigh Valley probably was before a lot of population growth. It’s very quiet roads. It’s rolling hills. There’s some big ones. There’s some larger mountains they have there than we have here. But we’re going to try and avoid those for the most part. I may add one or two because I’m on-routing and I like to spice things up. So, we’re going to do-
Joan Hanscom:
You?
Dave Pryor:
… three days-
Joan Hanscom:
Make it spicy?
Dave Pryor:
Me? I may. It’s not going to be Monkey Knife Fight hard, but it’s going to be [crosstalk 00:27:04] I’ve been told not to make it like a Monkey Knife Fight hard, and I agree. I have to ride it too.
Joan Hanscom:
I think that’s best. Yes.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. Agree. So, yeah, we’re going to do it July. I forget the dates. It’s something like the 14th to the 16th, somewhere in that middle of July. That’s on P-P-A-R-C.net. You can find all the details. It’s a few hundred dollars to register. We also have a $2,000 fundraising minimum that’s always been a part of the perimeter ride is you have to raise money to fight cancer. That’s harder than doing the bike ride itself. So, everyone has to raise, I forget the numbers right now, but let’s just guess $2,000 or so. It might be a $1,500 to … But the great thing about this event and the organization is for the last … Since I’ve been a part of it. So, almost 20 years, 100% of that goes to the charities. We find places who will put us up for free, or next to nothing. We use some of the registration money, we get some sponsorship money to help cover some of the expenses so that every dollar a rider raises goes to the charity.
Dave Pryor:
You can feel great about the work you do to raise money for this event, because it’s going to these two amazing causes, and that’s unheard … I mean, I’ve done all sorts of charity rides. And then I look back later, I’m like, “Wow, 30% went to the charity. That’s terrible.”
Joan Hanscom:
100% is remarkable.
Dave Pryor:
And there’s great ones that have been going on for a long time. But 100% is unheard of. That’s-
Joan Hanscom:
Unheard of, yeah.
Dave Pryor:
… crazy high. And so, we’re really proud about that. And really, it’s a tremendous group of people. We have 75, I think so far, signed up. We’re trying to get to around 100 to 150 people total. There’s three days. There’s also one-day option if you can just come up Saturday. We’re going to have a good party on Saturday night because we also do that as a group really well. So, highly recommend people who like to go spend a good time with a bike, with good people for a good cause, to check out the Perimeter ride.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. I’m actually surprised to hear there’s still spots available. So, anybody who’s listening who wants to do something amazing, this is your last chance, last [inaudible 00:29:09] by the way. We are-
Dave Pryor:
Last [inaudible 00:29:10]
Joan Hanscom:
… this is the last go round.
Dave Pryor:
We are going to [crosstalk 00:29:13] Cancer Society is going to take over and we’re going to talk to them about how they do things. We imagine it’s going to be radically different because the … Without the Freeds involved, it’s going to be riding different anyway. So, might as well make it a different event. So, we’ll see how it goes from there. But as far as this group, and the Freeds being involved, and they’re just … They are one of the best families in Lehigh Valley history. And that’s saying something, because there’s been so many. I work for the Rodale family. What a tremendous family, but how the Freeds have done so much for this community. So, it’s going to be great to send them off the right way.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, yeah. So, I encourage anybody who’s like me, who has heard of this event and has always been curious about it. This is the chance. This is the time, make your fundraising plan and sign up while you still can for those limited number of spots, and join in with the good crew of people, and celebrate what’s been achieved, which is pretty remarkable.
Dave Pryor:
Definitely.
Joan Hanscom:
And while we were bantering, you mentioned something else, which is a little bit closer to home for the Lehigh Valley. The Monkey Knife Fight?
Dave Pryor:
Monkey Knife Fight’s coming up.
Joan Hanscom:
Are you Monkey Knife Fighting?
Dave Pryor:
Yeah, the Monkey Knife Fight will happen. It’s on April 9th. We have a full-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, sweet.
Dave Pryor:
… 425 person field right now, going out for 70, 50 or 30 miles of beautiful road riding with some really, really dirty sharp bits thrown in.
Joan Hanscom:
With some really mean parts. Yes.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
I think I was-
Dave Pryor:
Like 30% grade on Goat Hill.
Joan Hanscom:
… I was riding with Celine … Yeah, I was riding with Celine, and she’s like, “Oh yeah, that’s … We don’t want to do that today.”
Dave Pryor:
We don’t do that.
Joan Hanscom:
I was like, “Nope.”
Dave Pryor:
There’s a great road ride around it. But then you take a look and go, “What’s Goat?” That’s mean. What’s Bull? That’s also mean.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. And so, I assume Monkey Knife Fight is sold out?
Dave Pryor:
It did sell out. Yep. We’re excited about that. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s brilliant, because Monkey Knife Fight is also a fundraiser doing good work as well. So, that’s exciting. And where does the Monkey Knife Fight start this year?
Dave Pryor:
The Mays Community Park in two weeks. So, this will be our third year there? Third or fourth year there, other than the year … The COVID year. Yeah, it seems to be our forever home now. We bounced around annually, but now we’re done with that tradition. We like the Mays Community Park.
Joan Hanscom:
Sweet. Very good-
Dave Pryor:
The beer trucks will be … Or the beer will be back, food trucks will be there, it’ll be a typical event again, which we’re excited about.
Joan Hanscom:
Right on. Yeah. It’s nice to feel events starting to get a little bit of normalcy. I think the COVIDs are not over, but it does feel like we’re finding a way to do our best to live with it. And …
Dave Pryor:
And outdoor events seem to be a good way to live with things.
Joan Hanscom:
Exactly.
Dave Pryor:
So, I know there’s not been scientific research on COVID and outdoor events because anyone doing research on COVID has plenty to research besides what a bike ride that goes up dirty hills impact is, but of all the major events, big triathlons, and marathons that have happened, there’s not been giant outbreaks that have come from outdoor events. So, knock on wood that continues, and variants don’t start thinking about outdoor events. It’s a great way to have community again.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, exactly. I was at a race this past weekend, and it was just nice to be around people, and nice to … It was nice to go out and race bikes with folks, and chat, and it was great.
Dave Pryor:
And talk later, and commiserate, and say, “Which part did you hate? Which part was … Yeah, that felt good on that hill. What are you talking about?” Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
There was definitely a lot of, “What did I hate?” In that. Oh, but, but yeah, it’s really … It’s great. And at the track, I know we referenced it earlier, we’re so excited that the international athletes are making plans to come back-
Dave Pryor:
That’s so great. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
… after the last … Well, so last season we had a really small international representation. We had a strong Canadian representation, but then a lot of ones and twos because athletes from the European countries, athletes from Australia, athletes from New Zealand weren’t allowed to travel. And so, it was a very small version of what is normal T-Town summer. And so, I think along those same lines, it’s really nice to be getting emails from people from New Zealand, and people from Australia who are saying they’re stoked to come back to Pennsylvania, and be at T-Town again for the summer. So-
Dave Pryor:
Absolutely.
Joan Hanscom:
… that does feel nice. And to-
Dave Pryor:
Stoked to be-
Joan Hanscom:
… your point, I think, it’s been safe. We’ve been open. We stayed open through the thing, and managed it safely, and did it responsibly. And I think, like you said, it’s proven to be one of the safer ways of gathering. And so, let’s do it. Let’s gather on bikes.
Dave Pryor:
Exactly. Or up on turn three.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. And gather on bikes, and shop at your farmer’s markets, get organic food and do all those great things. When Jeff and I spoke, the farmer market resurgent in COVID was amazing. If people wanted to-
Dave Pryor:
It’s real.
Joan Hanscom:
… to shop and get healthy food, but do it outside in a safer setting. So, it’s all these things are good.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. And making hyper local, people just became so refocused on what was close to them, because for a while it’s as far as we could go. So, we did pay more attention to what was happening, what parks we had around us, what markets were happening, what things … What shops we had that we could do that … Humans are pretty resilient. And that was one of the resilient things we did through all this was to get refocused on what’s closest to us.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. And I think a lot of those things will, to some extent stay, which is great. Speaking of-
Dave Pryor:
If it worked for us, then we will keep with it. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Right. Exactly. Speaking of COVID adaptations, let’s pivot to the next thing, because it’s super fun as well. Let’s talk about UnPAved.
Dave Pryor:
Right? Yeah-
Joan Hanscom:
Is UnPAved a thing this year?
Dave Pryor:
UnPAved is a thing this year. We were able to hold a seemingly safe, no one from the participants in 2020, because we held one in 2020 for 200 participants, no one came down with COVID, or at least that reported back to me. So, we consider that as success with all the steps we put in for that, which included start at your leisure, segment timing instead of mass start, and start finish timing, spreading out the aid station, things like that. And people had a really great time. So, we kept a lot of that stuff last year for the full 1,000 person field. And we said, “All right, you can still-
Joan Hanscom:
I loved it.
Dave Pryor:
… start … Right? Are you a morning person or are you a start a little later when it’s warmer in the day? Right?
Joan Hanscom:
I loved it. Plus, it took away the … I mean, you still got to be social and ride with people. But it took away the stress of being …. Well, and maybe not everybody finds it stressful. I find it stressful to ride with 1,000 people that I don’t know.
Dave Pryor:
Right.
Joan Hanscom:
Just in terms of [crosstalk 00:36:30]
Dave Pryor:
Especially on a rail trail for nine miles, or an open road with intersections. You don’t know if someone’s going to blow through the stop sign or not, or you’re 20 back and you can’t see if there was a stop sign or not, so you’re just using [crosstalk 00:36:42]
Joan Hanscom:
Right. Right. So, I thought it was a delightful adaptation. I had a blast last year at UnPAved, and was super fun despite the just absolutely horrific weather.
Dave Pryor:
The weather I did … Could not control. I tried and I could not control the weather. That was our first rain year. But it did prove that it’s still rideable in the rain. I look at other Gravel events and if it rains that much, then it’s 10 miles of walking. So, we don’t have that on our Gravel roads, which is good. So, thanks for proving that, Joan.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, it was terrific. I mean, maybe I just proved how good my BMC [inaudible 00:37:14] was that day.
Dave Pryor:
Damn. [crosstalk 00:37:16] Look at that. Easy sponsor drop. Wait, they’re not a sponsor. I can’t say that.
Joan Hanscom:
But I did, I had just an absolutely brilliant time that day. And I’ve decided that, henceforth, every rest stop should always have candy corn. That’s a polarizing topic.
Dave Pryor:
Candy corn, Pirogi’s, yeah. It is. But candy corn is good by me. I’m in.
Joan Hanscom:
I was very pro candy corn. That was my favorite rest stop of very rest stop I’ve ever been in my entire cycling lifetime, because I was like, “Candy corn? Can I have more?” And they’re like, “You’re the only one eating it. So, have all you want.” I was like, “Yes.”
Dave Pryor:
It’s October. There should be Halloween treats there. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, it was so great. Yeah. That ride was a blast.
Dave Pryor:
Great. Thanks.
Joan Hanscom:
So, glad to hear it coming back, and there’s so many good fun things you-
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. October 9th will be that one. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
You’ve got your-
Dave Pryor:
That’s a good.
Joan Hanscom:
… in all sorts of good stuff.
Dave Pryor:
There’s so much good stuff out there. I mean, it’s really-
Joan Hanscom:
To get your paws into?
Dave Pryor:
… I think it’s great. And I’m getting to ride my bike again too, which is nice.
Joan Hanscom:
Also, the upside of a great hashtag day job and hashtag side gig. That’s the [crosstalk 00:38:24]
Dave Pryor:
And that’s getting a start, like hashtag now just my hobby.
Joan Hanscom:
Funny. Anything else you’d like to tell the listeners of our podcast today, Dave?
Dave Pryor:
No. I hope to meet everyone out on a bike ride. Anyone that’s heard this, you see me out on a bike, or a watering hole, stop by. I love to talk about Perimeter Ride more, Monkey Knife Fight’s always a fun thing and hilarious. If anyone wants to come help volunteer, or cheer on people climbing up 30% grades on dirt roads, I know a course. You can come out, have a good time. Registration for UnPAved will open in the end of April. I’ve hired a new race director for it, Simone [Chiccone 00:39:03] who helped put on the first Rift Race in Iceland and such. So, Super Pro is coming out to help run UnPAved now.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s cool.
Dave Pryor:
So, look for more fun with that. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Maybe less stuff in your garage? Who knows?
Dave Pryor:
A lot less stuff in my garage. A lot less stuff.
Joan Hanscom:
Nice.
Dave Pryor:
We also got a storage unit in Mifflinburg, so yeah. It’s all going there now. [crosstalk 00:39:24]
Joan Hanscom:
Yay. And then hopefully we’ll see the folks, like last year I think we had the Rodale Institute was out with their farm stand for the closing night for the track. And so, hopefully we get to see Rodale Institute out at The Velodrome again this year. People enjoyed their night-
Dave Pryor:
Yeah. We’re going to figure out what those things are. I would love to do, because we’re also selling produce on Saturdays at Rodale Institute, find a way to do a farmer’s market to farmer’s market fondo thing. That’s one of my goals-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s cool.
Dave Pryor:
… for the summer is to make that route and say, “Here’s how you ride from The Velodrome one-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, I love that idea.
Dave Pryor:
… to … Because yours is …
Joan Hanscom:
Saturday as well, yeah.
Dave Pryor:
What time on Saturdays?
Joan Hanscom:
9:00 to 1:00, I think. 9:00 to 1:00?
Dave Pryor:
9:00 to 1:00? And I think ours is open till 3:00. So, there’s got to be ways-
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, there you go.
Dave Pryor:
… so people can shop at both and …
Joan Hanscom:
Get delicious pastries-
Dave Pryor:
Have a full day.
Joan Hanscom:
… at The Velodrome, and then ride to the Rodale Institute and get more deliciousness, and then-
Dave Pryor:
Fill a pack with frozen pork products, and maybe not ride back with eggs, but maybe. If you’re good, you can ride back with a dozen delicious eggs-
Joan Hanscom:
If you’re very talented, you can-
Dave Pryor:
There you go.
Joan Hanscom:
… do that. Or-
Dave Pryor:
All right. We’ll send Celine-
Joan Hanscom:
… pack carefully-
Dave Pryor:
… [inaudible 00:40:31] out on that. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
There you go. Right? Get him to design an egg carrier. Well Dave, it’s been delightful to catch up. I hope our listeners have enjoyed catching up with you, and hearing what’s happened since the last time you were on the pod. We will make sure that the show notes reflect links to Rodale, to Perimeter Ride, to Monkey Knife Fight. We’ll put the links all in the show notes for anybody-
Dave Pryor:
Drop a bunch of links. It’s going to be like NASCAR with a bunch of things on it.
Joan Hanscom:
I know it is. But we talked about a lot of really good and interesting things. So, hopefully people are curious and want to go check out things. I think particularly the Rodale Institute, just because I think it’s important, and we like the roads we ride on in the Lehigh Valley. So, save the roads-
Dave Pryor:
And if you’re still listening-
Joan Hanscom:
… save the farms.
Dave Pryor:
… save the farms, and share this with all your friends. I want to beat Jeff Tkach’s total.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, all right.
Dave Pryor:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
The gauntlet is thrown.
Dave Pryor:
I think we need to do some advertising boosting on this and stuff, so we can-
Joan Hanscom:
All right.
Dave Pryor:
Hashtag beat Tkach.
Joan Hanscom:
Hashtag really good numbers.
Dave Pryor:
I know. That’s good.
Joan Hanscom:
He had real good numbers, Dave. Not going to lie.
Dave Pryor:
I don’t know. I know. Pull some strings.
Joan Hanscom:
All right. We’ll see. Cool.
Dave Pryor:
Well, thank you.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s been delightful. Thanks for joining us-
Dave Pryor:
You too.
Joan Hanscom:
… this has once again been the Talk of the T-Town podcast with our guest Dave Pryor. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed what you heard, please give us a like, share, hearts, stars, thumbs up, all the good things to make sure that people can find the pod and we can continue to grow. Thanks for listening.
Joan Hanscom:
Thank you for listening. This has been the Talk of the T-Town podcast. I’m your host, Joan Hanscom. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode. Head over to our website at thevelodrome.com where you can check out the show notes and subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode.