Countdown to Triathlon – 159 Days, 22.71 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 71 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

It's Snowing.  Check out the ground.  It looks like snow and is the only "snow" we get in the central valley of California.  (It's the pedals of the flowers that drop and look like snow.)

The Journey - Installment Seventy-One

God gives me a gift-wrapped gift of enormous value!

 Early the next week, after that Sunday at church and the episode with the bird flying beside me, I continued to try to contact Lisa.  The amazing thing was that if this were the Lisa I knew what a true miracle it would be.  Of all the people who could have signed up for the northern California ride, including people from southern California and even from other states, the fact that there were only going to be twenty riders and someone I knew would be on that list was truly amazing.  I contacted another former Tupperware manager who knew Lisa well but she wouldn’t give me her number.  I wouldn’t give up the quest.  When I finally reached Lisa, several days later, I told her how excited I was that she was going to take part in the bike ride.  She said that she had signed up the same month that I had signed up, January 2001.  However, she said that she had not been riding and had not sought out any donations and was probably not going to participate.  I surprised even myself when the next words out of my mouth, “Oh yes you are, Lisa!  You are going to ride because God gave you to me as a gift, just as if He had put you in a gift box and wrapped you up with paper and a big red bow. You have to ride!”  I was absolutely sure in my heart that she would be riding.   After talking to her she said she would talk with her family and get back to me.  I had no doubt in my mind that Lisa was going to ride.  I knew God had given her to me so I wouldn’t have to ride alone. 

        She called back a few days later and said that she would ride.  I already knew in my mind and heart before she even told me.   For the first time in all of these months of training I was feeling assured and confident.   We talked and caught up on our lives since we had last seen one another, about sixteen years before.  We made arrangements to meet at her house later in the week for a bike ride together.  We did meet and it was as if that sixteen year separation never was.    We took up just where we left off all those years ago.  She showed me through her beautiful home and then we took a bike ride in the area around her house.  Lisa is about eighteen years younger than myself and not overweight like I was, but she had not been training.  We were still not on the same biking level as she had much more energy and strength than I, but we were nearer in our abilities than I would have imagined.  I cannot remember exactly, but I think it was the only time we rode together before the ride.