I was able to call Cal.E. earlier today. The quartet stopped at a rest stop in West Texas, and Cal.E. answered her phone when I called her. This is how that conversation went.
d.: How are you, my fickle feline friend?
C.: Omm!! OMM!! NOT so good, d.c. I am trying to find inner peace by meditating. That puppy is driving me crazy! Have you ever been locked up inside of a car with a puppy for twelve hours..
d.: Actually, I have..
C.: and been a CAT?!!!
d.: No, Cal.E. I have not. Other than that, how is the trip going?
C.: IDK, d.c. The problem pup is ruining everything. I may rethink this whole emancipation thing when I get back home. Spending a few months alone in a cell at a rehab facility would help me get my sanity back. ANYTHING is better than having a puppy watch every move I make! It is exhausting! Gotta go. The warden is warming up the car! I will try to call you tomorrow, d.c. Take care.
d.: Namaste, Cal.E.
And now, chapter nineteen of Beyond the Thirteenth Mile; The Iron Man Chronicles
Chapter 19: THE RIDE
Run Course; Mile eighteen: Well, this is where the “rubber meets the road, so to speak.” I still can finish in fourteen hours. I feel stronger after quoting that verse. It is helpful when I am tired and discouraged. I remember the first time I ran this far. It helped boost my confidence to believe that I could finish this course. So did finishing“The Ride” in Austin. That told me that I was in the best shape of my life.. *********************************************************************Officially it is known as the “Ride for the Roses" - Lance Armstrong's annual 100-mile and 100- kilometer bicycle ride to help raise money for cancer research. To three of my friends and me, it will always simply be known as "The Ride." The course itself is ideal, just challenging enough to be fun, but not so hard as to be discouraging.
What really makes the ride enjoyable, however, is the participants themselves. Most of them are experienced riders, and they are a joy with whom to ride. The courage of the ones who have survived cancer is awesome. Two riders impressed me more than any of the other riders.
The first was in a pack of riders just ahead of me in the staging area. Three or four in this pack of riders had pictures of a two-year-old girl pinned on their backs with a notation under the picture that read, "in loving memory of Melinda Brown." The last rider to my left had two words added to his notation that almost ripped my heart out. Those two words added to his notation were "my daughter."
I thought about Ali and the fact that I hadn't seen her in seven years. In my heart, though, I knew that she was doing fine. I also thought about how much Seth had become a part of my life, and how hard it would be to lose him now. These two thoughts almost overwhelmed me as I choked back a tear. Mercifully, the air horn sounded, and my group of riders was off for the ride.
I rode about forty miles, noticing all of the riders with yellow cards on their backs. This signifies that they had overcome cancer. In the distance, I saw one rider who appeared to be doing one-legged isolation exercises.
"It's kind of a long ride," I thought, “to be doing one-legged isolations." As I drew closer, my eyes revealed the truth -this courageous rider only had one leg, and he was riding a "regular" bicycle.
If I could have, without endangering my own safety, I would have tipped my helmet to him. Instead, I could only offer a little fist-pumping and some shouted words of encouragement as I rode by.
I realize that there are more important things in life than riding a bicycle for 62 miles, like almost anything. But besides the fact that it is fun, it can be as satisfying or frustrating as you yourself allow it to become. The arrangements that I had to make to do this particular ride were only slightly easier than doing a graduate-level calculus problem-in a language with which I am not familiar.
I think that doing this ride was so important to me because cancer is so prevalent in my family. I rode for my uncle who succumbed to this horrible disease just a couple of months beforehand, as well as for my grandmother and grandfather who also died of cancer well before enough was known about it to treat it properly. Not only did I ride for them, but I also rode for my cousin, who has overcome Hodgkin's Disease twice (as well as leukemia at a later date. The doctors believed that the last cancer was caused by all of the chemotherapy that my cousin was obligated to take with the first two rounds of treatments for Hodgkin’s Disease).
Lance Armstrong himself has overcome cancer when he wasn't even expected to live through the treatments for it. To all of the survivors-I salute each and every one of you and wish you good health in years to come. As for the rest of you - if you ever find yourself in the vicinity of Austin, Texas the first weekend in April, bring your bike along, pick a distance, and do this most enjoyable and encouraging ride!
(Aside: Even though Lance Armstrong has since been disgraced by an unproven scandal, I still hold this ride in high regard {although this was the one and only time that my schedule allowed me to do it.} This is especially true now since I have had my own minor brush with this awful disease.)
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