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Bike Around the World
By Brittaney Carter

Gerald Kennedy, D.C., meant to celebrate his 50th birthday by biking around the world. Kennedy, who bikes to his Oostburg, Wis., practice nearly every day, set a goal for himself to log enough miles to travel the circumference of the Earth before he turned 50 this December. In a poignant twist of fate, Kennedy actually finished his journey early. In fact, leafing through the pages of his mileage journal, he discovered that he completed his global “trip” on April 14, the birthday of his late father. Still holding his journal, he humbly recounts the most memorable rides, as well as a scary brush with the ever-unpredictable Mother Nature. Having reached his goal of biking around the world, he now hopes to motivate others to take up their bike helmets and pedal toward their goals.

What prompted you to start riding your bike to work?
I’ve had a bike ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in Madison, Wis., which is a very bike-friendly town. Then, I started to bike to work and I really enjoyed it. There’s no radio to bombard you, and it’s a six-mile trip each way. The roads that I take to get to work are nice and not a lot of cars pass you.

How did you come up with the idea of biking enough miles to circle the globe?
I have a small computer attached to my bike that logs my miles, and once I hit 16,000 [miles] I said to myself, “I’m over half-way around the world!” So I decided to try to do it by the time I turned 50. Then, on April 16, I called my daughter-in-law, Stacey, and asked her to Google the exact circumference of the Earth, and we found out that it’s actually 24,900 miles. So I said to myself, “Oh, well, I’m already past that.”

What kind of obstacles did you come up against while trying to achieve your goal?
Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate and you catch a crosswind or a rainstorm. I remember one afternoon, I was about halfway home when I looked up and saw a squall line stretching across the horizon. I just started pedaling really hard and praying that I would make it home before the storm hit, and I remember kissing the ground when I got there. But I had just barely made it, and about 12 seconds later I could see trees bending over from the wind being so strong.

Do you have any memorable experiences from your first 25,000 miles?
One of the most enjoyable things I remember is sometimes when I was about two or three miles from home, I’d look up and see someone on a bike coming toward me, and it would be my wife or my daughter. They don’t ever announce it, they just come as a surprise. I also see the most amazing wildlife, some of the most beautiful scenery. They’re just things that you don’t get to see while you’re zipping along at 60 miles an hour.

How did it feel to reach your goal?
When I made it around the world, I didn’t realize that I’d done it. It felt good, though. It was a quiet thing. Nobody really knew about it right away. Then the Sheboygan Press put my picture in the paper on National Bike to Work Day [May 18], and I started to think that maybe other chiropractors would like to do what I did. I’m not trying to be a big-shot or toot my own horn, but we’re paying $3.50 a gallon for gas, and I just thought that maybe there was someone else out there who would want to take their bike to work.

How has your outlook on life changed since reaching your goal?
One thing I’ve learned is that goals are attainable. It’s been a positive experience for me. It also solidifies my opinion about work and exercise. Work is exercise. I don’t go to a health club, but I do bike to work and back, and it’s enjoyable. I’ve got to go to work anyway, and it’s not a hassle. If I ever started to look at it like that, I think I’d stop doing it. But it’s peaceful. I get 30 minutes of peace on the way to work every day and on the way home.

What’s next for you? Any more goals?
I’d like to try to make it one more time. I’ve reset my computer, and I’ve got a little more than 300 miles since April 14. I joke a lot when people ask me about it. I always tell them, “Maybe this time I’ll go sideways.”