Good Morning America adventure

Yesterday morning I was minding my own business and getting stuff done at the office when I received an interesting phone call at 9:30. It was a producer with Good Morning America and she wondered if was willing to be interviewed about my alternate form of commuting to save money. After asking me a few questions she wanted to know if I could meet with a film crew later in the day. WOW, talk about a scramble! I had not ridden my bike yesterday as I had some errands to run later in the day. Since they were really hoping to interview and film me in my biking gear, I agreed to go retrieve it from home...18 miles and 35 minutes back north.

Now properly attired and looking the part, I met the crew (well, just 3 people) at Riverfront Park. The following 3 hours were quite fun and interesting. Jim (the cameraman) fitted me first with a helmet cam while Robin handled sound stuff and other details. They are a great freelance team called PEAK Video Productions and do various shoots for GMA in this region as well as other exciting and informative productions. After that we moved the camera to a short mast above me, then to my front fork, and finally to a variety of panning shots that they thought would be visually appealing. My biggest oops was when they told me to hold the view at certain positions for at least 10 seconds. When you do that for 10 seconds on a bike... well...uh...unanticipated things can happen; like wall and flexible pylon encounters. Toddlers too!


Later, after the interview with Tamara from The Inlander, and some additional filming, we drove over to the big hill above the Spokane River along N. Pettet Drive. Anyone who knows Spokane knows what that is...DOOMSDAY HILL, the infamous incline known to cause cramps and heat exhaustion for runners and cyclists alike. Earlier, Jim had assured me that if they were going to do any video there the work would be easy and they would just do short segments. Well, on the way over, they got a call from the producers in New York asking them if they could feed the video by 4:00... this was shortly after 3:00. We quickly got set up and I followed them down the hill with Jim hanging out the back of their Yukon. Then we turned around and headed up...ALL the way UP... in 78 degree heat! Jim encouraged me the entire way; much like a personal trainer would. I want them along on every ride now!

The segment appeared on GMA this morning around 17 minutes in. You can see me in several parts as well as a section from my interview. One brief shot is from the helmet cam. Several show me riding at various locations. Too bad they can't capture the smell of sweat. I think I look good in bike shorts!