Countdown to Triathlon – 129 Days, 18.4 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 86 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

We're up for the second time tonight for feeding the baby.  While Laurel is nursing, I figured I use the down time to post the blog.  This is the most contented baby I have ever encountered.  Have a happy day, everyone.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – "It's depressing when a butterfly passes you going up hill".

The Journey - Installment Eighty-Six

        As I struggled up that first hill, battling the wind and the hill, my cell phone rang.  I had an ear piece and microphone, so I only needed to turn the phone on to talk.  The voice on the other end was my son Hollen.  He said, “Mom, you can’t quit!”  I don’t remember the rest of the conversation other than he was reminding me of how hard I had worked for this ride, trained for eighteen months and I just couldn’t quit.  After the call ended, the phone rang again. I remember answering it with exasperation because I certainly didn’t need to be distracted from my efforts of trying to climb the hill.  The wind was blowing so hard that I couldn’t tell who was calling by their voice because of the whistling in my ears.  The person on the other end said, “QUITTNG IS NOT AN OPTION!”  I thought it was my son again. This person continued in the conversation until I asked who was calling. He said, “Richard.”  After he reminded me that I couldn’t quit, we ended the call.   I was so tired by this time and frustrated by the wind and the hill that it never occurred to me why these people would even think I might be entertaining the idea of quitting.  I had no idea that Bob had put them up to calling me because he saw how tired I was and how frustrated. Then the phone rang again.  I think I answered with an irritated tone of voice because these calls were very distracting.  It was a woman’s voice and she said, “Keep going Barb, it’s not that hard.”  That really made me mad.  “Who is this?’ I asked in a not very pleasant tone. “It’s Judy.”  She was a friend of Richard.  I remember asking, “Where are you Judy?”  She replied that she and Richard were just going into a restaurant for dinner.  I practically screamed at her, “Well then don’t tell me it’s not so hard, you don’t know!”  That was really rude of me, but then my exasperation level had reached its peak.  That should be a lesson to all of us. Never tell a person that something is not so hard if you’re not beside them doing the same thing. At the time I didn't realize she was just trying to be encouraging and helpful.

            Somehow, I made it up that first hill. I can’t remember exactly, but most likely I was going so slowly at some point that I would have had to unclick from my pedals and jump off the bike or I would have fallen over.  I had to walk up the rest of the hill, pushing my bike beside me. Bob, Terri and Tom were not in sight until I got to the top of the hill. Remember that my bike was a hybrid, not a road bike and as such was a lot heavier than the other’s bikes so riding up hills took more exertion and for me wasn’t possible to just ride up at a steady pace like the others.  At the top of the hill, I started pedaling as fast as I could down the hill’s other side in order to gain momentum get up the next hill.  I would usually pass everyone at this point until their steady climb would leave me in the dust .