Last weekend was the weekend of my epic win - doing a lap around Prospect Park on my bike. This week Brooke and I did a sort of debriefing interview with Superbetter designer Jane McGonigal about my experiences playing the game to recover from being run over by a car. In the interview, I described my feelings about riding my bike around the park, but my comments didn't make it into the final cut. Brooke has entreated me to write a blog post about my ride to share with the people who have been following my progress over the past 6 weeks, so here it is!

First of all, even though I hate this kind of cheer 'em on, rah-rah type of attention (which is why everyone thinks I'm a selfish, ungrateful curmudgeon), it was very flattering and encouraging that a lot of my co-workers and friends came by to show their support. Bear witness:

(from left: Intern Doug Anderson, Producer PJ Vogt, my wife Sarah, me, Brooke, Intern Gianna Palmer, Producer Chris Neary, Chris's wife Michelle, Producer Jamie York, friends Lindsay and John Mark)

I have to say, after 6 weeks of mentally psyching myself up for the ride, when it came time to actually do it, it seemed like pretty small potatoes. And, honestly, even with a brutal hill at the end of the loop, Prospect Park is not a particularly difficult ride. Before my accident, I was riding about 12 miles a day, almost four times the distance of the Prospect Park loop. Still, the ride was definitely a symbolic victory, in that it was the first time I'd ridden my bike outside in six months. Even though I did only minimal riding on the street, preferring to ride in a park without any cars, it was a big step toward my psychological convalescence. Now that I've taken this small but significant step, it certainly made me more confident to do more outside riding in the future.

(John Mark, me, Lindsay, Jamie)

Honestly, though the best part of the day was after the ride when we all went back to Brooke's house to eat bagels and eggs and bacon. Unfortunately, there are no pictures from this period of the day because we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures. So, in lieu of pictures of us eating food and goofing around, I will show you an inspirational video set to the Vangelis theme from Chariots of Fire. How's that?

(I had an incredible amount of fun creating this video. It might have been better than the epic win itself.)

Thanks again to everyone who participated as an ally, and everyone who showed up to cheer me on last Sunday. I fully plan on using Superbetter in the future for other goals, though, as yet, I'm not sure what. I might try and use it to train myself to ride my bike more regularly. In the mean time, please check out this weekend's episode to listen to the interview with Jane McGonigal. And, as always, if you have any questions about my experience, feel free to ask in the comments.

(Follow the links for other superbetter articles: Segment from September 30th episode of On the Media; Entry 1; Entry 2; Entry #3; Entry #4; Entry #5; Entry 6; Entry 7)