Great story. Reminded me of two stories from my hometown:
1. When I was in high school, a kid skateboarded the Boston Marathon, I think the first person to do so. He was younger than me, probably 15. The local paper asked him why, and he said something like "no one else has done it, and I want to see if it can be done."
2. When Boston's big ring road (Rte. 128) was built in the 1950s, people were allowed to ride bicycles in the two right-hand lanes (!). I was surprised to learn that a bunch of kids (15 or 16 year olds) used the road to bike from Boston's western edge to Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire (1), about 80 miles. A lot of people might say "big deal, I can do a century" but this was using 3-speed bikes. These kids didn't think "it's too far, can't be done" but rather "we have these relatively modern bikes, can take the highway for part of the way, let's try". And they did.
1. When I was in high school, a kid skateboarded the Boston Marathon, I think the first person to do so. He was younger than me, probably 15. The local paper asked him why, and he said something like "no one else has done it, and I want to see if it can be done."
2. When Boston's big ring road (Rte. 128) was built in the 1950s, people were allowed to ride bicycles in the two right-hand lanes (!). I was surprised to learn that a bunch of kids (15 or 16 year olds) used the road to bike from Boston's western edge to Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire (1), about 80 miles. A lot of people might say "big deal, I can do a century" but this was using 3-speed bikes. These kids didn't think "it's too far, can't be done" but rather "we have these relatively modern bikes, can take the highway for part of the way, let's try". And they did.
1. http://www.wickedlocal.com/newton/news/x1084479703/Bob-Burke...