Immortalized in the 1979 movie, Breaking Away, the Little 500 is an annual bicycle race at Indiana University. My junior year, I inherited the job of mechanic for my frat. Senior year, I decided to ride so our house could field a full team.
Unfortunately, I didn’t train as hard as I should have. I blamed it on wanting to spend more time with Jenn before she graduated, but all the beer didn’t help me either.
One overcast afternoon, my roommate, Clarkin, got fed up with my lack of dedication and shoved me off my bike. (Which I wound up throwing at him.) After we stopped screaming, we didn’t speak much at all. It was the only time I’ve ever gotten into a real fight with a friend.
As we took the track on race day, he told me he wanted to put our differences aside and just ride. So our friendship survived and I even managed to survive the race.