Countdown to Triathlon - 229Days, 32.75 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 31 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank

where they have no account.  ~Oscar Wilde

Boy I hope that's not true Oscar!



As I go out to exercise, I'll think of PEA who has been up to her
ears in snow. I guess I won't complain about 47 degrees.

The Journey - Installment Thirty-One

Take a look at Central Park.  I have absolutley no idea

where the Plaza Hotel is or where I was when I started walking

back to the hotel after seeing Cindy on the street and getting

lost from Patti.  Look how big the park is.  Amazing! 

It doesn't look that compact and neat when you're on foot, though.

        When I couldn’t find Patti, I asked a man at the corner where I would find the Plaza Hotel  because going back to the hotel was the only thing I could think to do. The man told me to stand up tall and look in the direction he was pointing and I would see the trees of Central Park. All I had to do, he told me, was to cross central park to the hotel and ask for directions when I got to the park.  I would guess I walked about ten blocks before I came to Central Park.  There was a bride and groom in all their finery and the wedding party walking along a path so I stopped and waited for them to go by.  I walked a short distance and came to barricades with runners going by.  I hadn’t realized that they would be going through that location to Village on the Green, the ending point of the race.  The point at which I was standing was two miles to the finish line.

        As I stood and watched, many of the runners had on crazy costumes.  Many had their faces painted with the Stars and Stripes.  Some of the runners who had completed the race were walking toward me with thin aluminum sheets for a blanket wrapped around them which they had been given as they completed their run.  There were people who had come over 24 miles that were sitting in wheel chairs with the backs of the chairs facing forward as they propelled themselves solely by pushing the wheel chair with their feet.  Many were limping, some receiving help from a friend.  A blind man walked past with a friend on each side of him, substituting as his eyes. When I saw the condition of some of the runners who were about to complete the 26.2 miles of the arduous and grueling course, or what appeared to me as pure torture, I realized that those of us without physical handicaps should never complain about how tough life is.  Never! Not for the rest of our lives. I was totally amazed to see how much encouragement people gave to the runners.  By this point in the race, with only two miles to go, some people were absolutely looking as if they were ready to quit.  Most wore makeshift signs or masking tape on their jerseys indicating their names.  As they passed, the crowd would shout, “Come on Susan!  You’re almost there – only two more miles to go.  You can do it!”  “Come on Roger.  Wow!  You’ve almost made it.  Think of what you’ve accomplished!”  It was visibly noticeable that after such encouragement, these runners literally perked up, stood upright and increased their speed. Never before had I seen how much encouragement from others affected someone who was fading and about to quit. It reminded me of a flower that had not been watered and was drooping.  When water was applied, the flower stood upright on its stalk. I would experience firsthand this same type of encouragement on the bike ride the following June and feel how that encouragement does literally pick you up.