Countdown to Triathlon - 284 Days, 40.5 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 9 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."  

Helen Keller

Today has to be a day for catch up around the house, also to go online to do some research on how to train for this triathlon and to get my mind straight.  I'm feeling frazzled and need to re-group.  I must put down in writing what I plan to do so that I will keep myself accountable to those who read this blog.  Even if no one reads it, the plans are in writing and I feel that I have to do what I say I will.  I will begin to post this blog early in the morning because I see that many read it at that time and in the future it will be the account of what I did the day before.  I cherish comments as it is encouraging to know that someone is reading this blog.

Enjoy your day!


The Journey - Installment Nine

As Don and I continued to ride each week, we marveled at the fact that gravel trucks coming from the gravel plant by the river and cars or trucks on their normal routes would not even slow down when they passed us on country roads.  I understood that they wouldn’t slow down when we rode along side of highways, but when there was no traffic whatsoever on a country road, they would move over only slightly so as not to hit us.  But I estimated their speed at least 50 miles an hour and more.  Rocks would fly from their tires.  Many times when I was alone riding, rocks would hit my helmet.  I marvel at the fact that God protected me even from rocks.  Many times a rock would hit my helmet, but never did one hit my skin, body, or glasses.  I don’t remember thinking at the time about the protection that God put around me to keep me from flying objects, but as I look back at those times, I have to believe that God made sure I wasn’t injured.   If a rock had hit my eyes or glasses, especially when I was riding alone, it would have been disastrous since I was usually miles away from help.

            One day, Don and I rode to Denair, about four miles from the town of Hughson; about five and half miles from my house.  On the trip to Denair the wind was blowing furiously.  Naturally, we were heading into the wind. It was really tough riding.   We kept encouraging each other by stating that at least when we turned to go home we would have the wind at our backs.  In fact, we were counting on that.  However, when we rode through the small town of Denair and turned toward home, somehow the wind had turned the opposite direction and it was once again in our faces.  I still don’t know how that could occur so quickly.  Perhaps God used the wind as part of our training because I would be subject to terrible winds in my face the entire first day of the actual ride in June of the following year.

            One of the real dangers of riding alongside the well-traveled roads such as the road between Hughson and Denair  Puncture Vine or Goat Heads were prevalent along all the roads and fields and was a real menace to bike tires so it was important to keep from running over them or they would cause a flat tire.  Coming back from Denair that windy day, we kept to the shoulder of the road because there were so many trucks and cars.  When the trucks passed us, we had to concentrate to keep from being blown over into the weeds or worse yet, the wind was strong enough to actually cause us to fall.   The really dangerous part for me of having trucks pass was that after the truck passed by I started to move back over into the roadway forgetting that many trucks pulled trailers.   On that ride home from Denair, I was moving back onto the roadway after the truck passed by.  Only the grace of God kept me from being flattened by the trailer.  It was scared me half to death.   The scare from that incident cause my heart to feel like it stopped.  Unfortunately, I made the same mistake at least one other time but my Heavenly Father was looking out for this fool.