Defining the Ineffable with Jay Allred
An interview with my boss
Jay Allred is one of those guys you meet and quickly hope you’re like him when you grow up.
He’s the publisher of Source Media Properties, president of a marketing firm and an AI tool changing the game of sports journalism. He skates. He’s a girl dad. He’s a photographer. He’s a cyclist and the host of an annual bike ride through north central Ohio that he calls the Peckerhead Invitational Bike Ride and Weenie Roast.
He’s also my boss.
One day, in like 2015, he came over to my apartment. Knocked on the door. When I opened it up and saw him standing there, I thought maybe I was being fired or something. He had a Kenda bag in his hand. I let him in and we talked for a minute, awkwardly. He then handed me the bag and told me there were some things in there I might like. DZNuts chamois cream. SPD clips. Clipless shoes. Some other miscellaneous things. He told me I’d need this stuff and invited me down to his car.
In the truck lay a road bike. And it clicked. He was giving me a frikin’ bike. I couldn’t believe it. Until this point in my life, the bikes I had owned were from Walmart and garage sales. I had never clipped into a pedal and I had never shifted gears with pedal shifters.
He gave me three rules for owning the bike.
You must ride the f**k out of it, but never sell it.
You must become a Peckerhead, become one of us by riding with us and all that.
You gotta read this book.
He handed me a red book. It was a posthumously published memoir of a man’s trek across the country. The bike belonged to this man, and his life meant a lot to many people.
Honored, I agreed.
I jumped on the bike and flew down the road. And then I fell off the bike because I had zero idea how to ride it properly. I called him and he came and picked me up. Put the bike up on his stand in his garage. He showed me what part had broken. Cracked a beer and said:
“Don’t worry about it. Shit happens.”
Amen to that. Thanks Jay for giving me a bike, the best teacher of getting through the shit-happens of life.
Who are you?
Jay is 52 and lives in Mansfield, Ohio with his wife, Amy, and two daughters, Ellie and Maggie. They have two dogs — Summit and Byline.
Tell us about the Peckerhead Invitational. How did it start, where is it now and where is it headed?
We started the Peckerhead Invitational in 1998, the year my first daughter was born. She was born in February and, understandably, I hadn't been on the bike a lot. So, for my first Father's Day, I gave myself the present of a long ride with about 8 buddies. Once of them used the "peckerhead" as a term of endearment and I sent dopey invitations to these guys. Hence the name.
From there, it just kind of grew organically over the years into a Father's Day weekend tradition. The thing I always loved about long group rides was the opportunity to be together over hours. You laugh, suffer, help each other, talk shit, goof around, work hard, and have this sort of self-contained adventure. I always try to think of the PKR (that's kind of the acronym for it) that way. How can I make something that is super fun, takes beautiful routes, offers a challenge for all abilities, feels welcoming, and has a sense of humor?
This year will be the 20th edition and it might be the last at least in its current form. I'm on the hunt for someone to take it over who can bring it to new heights.
As a fellow cyclist, I know you have bikes. Can you list off your steeds?
-1988 Pinarello single speed
-2010 unbranded carbon road bike with Campy Record 10spd
-1999(?) Specialized Stumpjumper (last year for steel frames)
-1989 Schwinn Sierra townie bike
What is the length of your last ride in hours and miles?
Something like 40 miles. 2 and a half hours.
What is your earliest memory of jumping onto a bike? Where were you and who was with you?
Easy. I was on a junkyard bike that my Uncle Ernie rescued and built up for me. Custom airbrushed paint job (purple with white pinstripes), white banana seat with a HUGE sissy bar and a dragster slick rear tire. 5 years old. Thought I was so dope.
You wrote something in April 2012 that has stuck with me. It was a blog post after Guiseppe Maino died, honoring him. You wrote: "You want to know what cycling does? Over time, it reveals exactly who you are as a human being - regardless of your talent. Are you a cheat? Do you look out for others? Do you have anger issues? Are you fun to be around? Can you carry on a conversation? Eventually the people you ride with are going to know these things. You will be exposed." This really resonated with me, because I totally agree. But it made me wonder, have you ever met a cyclist that, when riding with them, revealed that person is a cheat, has anger issues, is not fun to be around and couldn't carry on a conversation? If so, how did you navigate that relationship?
First of all, I miss Beppe so much. Here's the post in case you're interested. Yeah, that has happened on rides. There's so much time, right? And you're in all these situations where it's so easy to be a dick. You can drop a weaker rider to make yourself feel good. You can gossip or be self-involved. You can sit in the wheels all day and then talk about how fit you are. The possibilities are endless, right?
When stuff like that happens, I just am less likely to hit them up to ride again.
Describe the feeling that cycling gives you.
It just makes my mind quiet and I feel free. On good days, there's a rhythm and a flow that almost carries you along. But even on bad days or when I'm out of shape, it's still so fluid. It's why I like skateboarding, motorcycling ... anything that moves where I'm in the wind.
Thanks for reading today, cycopaths. I hope these words inspire you to get in the saddle for more “shit-happens” moments that suck in the moment, but that teach us about ourselves and help us get through the mundane.
Next week, we meet Kyle Trudeau — a pro mountain biker from Arizona who is getting better and better at winning races like the Mohican 100, the Quick and Dirty, Grizzly 100 and many others.
That bike has been ridden and ridden well. If a bike could speak ..