3,000 miles a year and counting
SUGAR GROVE – It’s safe to say most people probably don’t set a yearly goal like Ron Burris does.
He’s an avid cyclist who sets the annual goal of riding 3,000 miles per year, a goal which he regularly achieves.
“I’ve been cycling all my life,” the 58-year-old said Tennessee native said. “As a kid that was my way of transportation. Then as an adult, of course, you get a behind-a-desk job and you start picking up weight because you don’t exercise like you did when you were younger. So I started running and ran eight miles a day for many years after I picked up the weight.”
But after running for eight or 10 years he developed knee problems, causing his doctor to recommend cycling over running or face knee surgery. Burris has been cycling now for about 12 years and said he has no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Burris is a mechanical engineer at Diamond Power and is a manager of boiler cleaning equipment, controls and diagnostics and engineering services. He has been at Diamond Power since 2001. Before that he was vice president of sales and marketing for Diamond Electronics, which Diamond Power bought.
He has a long list of community work that includes being a member of the Fairfield Medical Center board of directors and the Lancaster Port Authority board of directors.
Cycling is not just a warm-weather activity for Burris. He rides all year and has seven bikes in various price ranges.
“I’ve ridden in 5 to 10 degrees above,” Burris said. “I’ve even had issues where I’ve taken off on a bike and about 20 miles into the ride I went to get a drink of water and my water bottle was frozen. That’s when it’s pretty cold.”
While Burris loves cycling, his passion also benefits The Recovery Center, a drug-rehabilitation center in Lancaster. Six years ago Burris and the late Dan Peters started Tour de Cause, a long bicycle ride with all proceeds going to the center. Tour de Cause has donated about $330,000 to The Recovery Center so far.
Burris said Peters’ 2013 death wasn’t necessarily a shock because he had been suffering for some time with cancer.
“But there’s not a day goes by that I’m on my bike that the flashback doesn’t come back,” he said. “He was a dear friend. He was like a younger brother to me.”
Burris said he uses the memory of Peters to climb tough hills while biking because Peters would never back down from a hill.
“When I feel tired or when I feel like it’s time for me to give up and I just can’t make it to the top, Dan gets me up those hills,” he said.
He said Peters would usually ride with him on 2,000 of the 3,000 yearly miles he racked up.
While Burris rides a lot with other riders, he said he also enjoys riding alone at times.
“It gives me time to think,” he said. “It gives me a time to burn off the day of activity of work. It’s relaxing. You’re burning calories and you’re working hard, but it’s actually relaxing to me. And it clears my mind. When I’m done riding I’m in a much better mood than when I started. I can go out and ride 50, 60 miles and come back tired, sweaty and exhausted from riding, and my mind is in a lot better shape than when I took off. It’s a relaxation to me.”
Along with cycling, Burris hikes and plays the drums.
jbarron@lancastereaglegazette.com
740-681-4340
Twitter: @JeffDBarron