Countdown to Triathlon – 123 Days, 17.5 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 90 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -

"When you're on the starting line of your first century ride, it's not wise to sit there and think, 'I've got to ride one hundred miles today.'  I remember my first one.  My goal was to get to the first rest stop. I made each succeeding rest stop my goal.  When they're about twenty-five miles apart, you don't get intimidated by what seems an impossible distance.  All you need to ride is twenty-five miles, four times. "

-- Seana Hogan

Just think about it.  We had ridden 92 miles the day before. 

That is just 8 miles short of a century ride. 

Amazing!  Who would have thought I could do such a thing.

In the beginning of this blog I asked, "How do you eat an elephant?"

The answer - "One bite at a time." 

Yard by yard it's hard.
Inch by inch it's a cinch. 

The Journey - Installment Ninety

Day Two

       

        We all awoke early and met for breakfast in the hotel eating area.  The most miraculous thing had happened.  I had been on a bike the day before from 7 am to 9:15 pm (less breaks, lunch and flat tire fixing). As I walked into the breakfast room, many of my fellow riders asked me how I was doing.  They all knew that I had had such terrible knee trouble the day before and that I had been on the bike for so long.  I replied to each one of them that my knees felt fine and that I could never believe that I had been so many hours on a bike the day before. I didn't even have to use the muscle stimulators for the rest of the trip.  Good thing, because the batteries had run down halfway through the first day and since they were specialized batteries, I didn't know how to replace them.   The miracle was that thighs, bottom and knees were just fine.  In fact I didn’t feel as if I had ridden the day before at all.  Unbelievable perhaps to unbelievers who don’t realize the power of the Lord.

           

         However, Yvonne was having a very difficult time because her behind and thighs were so chaffed and she was in a lot of pain.  Lisa and I were upset with the person who sold her bike to her and sold her that seat.  She had ridden all day on a road bike with the tiniest seat.  Since she was so overweight, you couldn’t even see any part of the seat when she was riding in front of us.  I don’t think that anyone had given her the suggestion of applying the personal lubricant to her sensitive parts and she was even having difficulty walking.  We felt so badly for her.  We approached one of the volunteers and asked them to go and buy her a wider seat containing “gel” which really softened the bumping along the roads.  They agreed to get her a seat as soon as the stores opened.  They may have even had a spare one in the Focus van.  At some point, her seat was replaced and we shared our “little secret” with her.  I am not sure she could have continued for two more days without these adjustments.

        

 (Ryan Dobson in front of the van to speak with us the morning of the second day.

Sitting with him was mascot of the team, Traveler who accompanied the stafff on

all the 50 rides from January 2001 through July 2002.)

        After breakfast, we all gathered in the parking lot in front of the Focus van which was parked at the end of the hotel parking lot.   We had devotions and words of encouragement for the day and congratulations for the ride from the day before. Ryan Dobson stood before us and spoke about his life.  At the restaurant, the night before the ride, the reader may remember that I had prejudged this young man based on his appearance.  At the restaurant, he wore black wide rimmed glasses and had red spiky hair and to my 58 year old eyes, he looked like a freak.  The last time I had seen him was the morning of the beginning of the ride when we were at the State Capitol in Sacramento.  He had injured himself and rode in one of the vans on our bike ride and was unable to ride with us.  The day before while we were riding, he had cut his hair and actually looked “normal”.  He told us that he worked with the youth and therefore he would dress and wear his hair to  look like them.  He was not very old himself, probably in his early to mid twenties.  After telling us his story and how he came to the point in his life where he now was, it was very moving.  He told how difficult it had been to tell his parents that he and his wife were getting a divorce.  After his talk, I felt so ashamed of myself that I had judged him on appearances only.  After all, the Bible says we are not to judge others.  Only God is the holy and just Judge.  Will I ever learn and stop judging others?

Countdown to Triathlon – 124 Days, 17.7 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 89 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  ~G.K. Chesterton



The Journey - Installment Eighty-Nine
      

         With darkness approaching and having reached the bottom of the last hill, we rode like the wind.  I looked at my speedometer and we were going 20 mph.  I had never ridden that fast on the flat land, ever!  This was after riding all day and just finishing four steep hills.  As we rode toward the hotel, Tom would call periodically to the FOTF team up ahead who were waiting for us at the hotel to let them know where we were.  It was almost dark.  To our left were the Marin Hills that we would have to cross on Sunday to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. That thought of that crossing  never entered my mind.  I was solely concentrating on getting to the hotel before dark.  As I looked to my left (that would have been west), I saw the sun go down behind the last hill.  Soon it would be dark.  I remember that I had my left hand up in the air, like a traffic cop, and I was crying and begging the Lord to “hold back the dark, please, hold back the dark.” We were riding on the side of a busy highway. With my arm outstretched and my hand raised, with fingers spread out crying out to the Lord, any motorist riding on that highway passing us must have thought I was a nutcase.  I begged and pleaded with the Lord to let us finish the day’s ride before it got dark otherwise we would have had to get into Bob’s pickup. At one of the stop lights, we turned on our bike lights.  After about 20 minutes of riding as fast as we could we reached the hotel.  As we pulled into the driveway of the hotel, many riders from the team were there to greet us and cheer.  Just as we drove into the driveway, the curtain dropped.  It was dark.  NO KIDDING!  God held off the dark until we arrived.  It gives me goose bumps now, just thinking of it.  We had just completed 92 miles of riding.

         Some thoughtful people had set aside some dinner for us.  We were too late to get our clothes washed, but fortunately Terri and I each had a spare suit.  We went to our rooms, ate dinner and I stripped down to take a shower.  I put some cleansing cream on my face and was totally shocked because my face was caked with grit from the wind.  I could actually scrape it off.  I don’t think I have ever been that dirty.  Bob and I went to bed and slept very soundly after a very long day of riding.  Just think – we had started the ride at 7 AM from the hotel in Sacramento and when we rode into the hotel parking lot in Napa, it was 9:15 PM - Fourteen and one quarter hours on a bike (minus 2 break stops, lunch and time to fix a tire.)   Who would have ever thought I could stay on a bike that many hours?  I certainly never did.  That was the end of day one of the bike ride and I was a very grateful rider, thanking God as I fell asleep..

Countdown to Triathlon – 127 Days, 18.1 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 88 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

And are we ever doing that?  Well, not me exactly, but I'm Laurel's sidekick, handing her what she needs, sterilizing breast pump paraphernalia, changing diapers, etc.

The Journey - Installment Eighty-Eight

        When I reached the top of the hill, Bob was pulled over to the side of the road; Tom and Terri were straddling their bikes waiting for me.  As we began to ride again, I asked Tom if my wheels were okay. I remember telling him that I could feel every pebble in the road. He looked down and said, “Well no it is not  okay; your tire is flat!”  Amazing!  I had ridden up the last two hills on a flat tire.  No wonder the first hill was so hard to ride.  I was riding on a flat tire.  The really amazing thing is that God protected me from flat tires the whole eighteen months I had trained.  I had ridden out in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception and no human beings in sight and had never had a flat.  Now, when I had a flat I had people to help me.  We pulled over to the side of the road and Terri, alias “MacGyver” went to work.  We called her that name throughout the ride because she was always fixing tires and bikes with only a few tools.  MacGyver was a 1980’s television character who was an intelligent, optimistic, laid-back, resourceful secret agent named Angus MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson.  He was shown as a resourceful agent able to solve complex problems with everyday materials he found at hand, along with his ever-present duct tape and Swiss Army knife.  I don’t know who dubbed Terri “MacGyver”, but it stuck.   She was always being helpful, fixing flats or whatever she could do to help. Remember that it was she who pulled me over earlier that  day and raised my bike seat.  That small action was the one thing that allowed me to continue riding when the pain in my knees would have caused me to be unable to finish the bike ride.
      
         With Bob and Tom standing by, Terri fixed my flat.  The tube had several holes in it and she repaired them.  After re-installing the tire on to the bike, we found that it still wasn’t holding air.  At that point, I remember saying, “Just forget it.  We’ll just ride with Bob to the hotel.”   I was ready to quit but Terri was insistent.  It was getting close to dark and I think that it was the final straw for me.  Terri was not so easily discouraged.  She took the tire apart again, and looked for more holes which she repaired.  We were then off for the last two hills which we accomplished in short order.  What a difference riding hills can be when your tire isn’t flat.  How would I not know I was riding on a flat tire?   I had never had one so I didn’t know what it felt like.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Come back Monday for the last installment of Day One, Focus on the Family Bike Ride.  Two more days of riding to go.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
Winston Churchill

Countdown to Triathlon – 128 Days, 18.2 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 87 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – There are no thoughts when it's 3 am and I am waiting for water to boil to sterilize breast pump parts. 

The Journey - Installment Eighty-Seven

        The second hill was higher than the first.  Even though I had pedaled fast at the top and down the other side of the first hill, about one third of the way up I slowed down, down, down until again I had to click out of the pedals and jump off the bike to avoiding falling over.  I continued up the hill on foot, pushing my bike beside me. Tom and Terri were already at the top, as was Bob.  From my vantage point I couldn’t see them; they were just over the crest of the hill.  I later learned from Terri that she had suggested to Bob that he at least go down with the truck and get my bike so I didn’t have to push it up.  I remember seeing Bob drive down toward me, make and U-turn and pull up beside me.  Rolling his window down, he told me that after this hill there were only two more and then it was downhill all the way to Napa.  He said he had driven to Napa and that he promised that there were only two more hills.  He then drove back to the top, leaving me to walk up the rest of the way.  Terri told me later that she was surprised when Bob drove back up the hill without my bike.

        Here’s where a miracle occurred. I called Terri the other day just to confirm that she remembers the same thing as I.  I wouldn’t want to make up any part of this story.  She believes also that what I am going to write next is fact.  The next thing I remember is riding up over the top of the hill.  I had been walking and was probably half way up when Bob came alongside of me in the pickup.  It is impossible for me and perhaps most riders, although I don’t presume to speak for them, to start up riding in the middle of a hill – not even to start up at the bottom of the hill. I don’t have enough strength to pedal from a stopped position to climb a hill.  I know that is true beyond a shadow of a doubt.  But here I was, riding up over the crest.  How did that happen?  There is no human explanation. It certainly wasn’t a matter of adrenaline taking over. I had no adrenaline left at this point.  There is only one explanation as to how I got up that hill.  That was the Lord’s doing.  Remember, He had told me to complete this ride and He assisted many times in helping me to complete it.  I would swear on my life that I could not have ridden up that hill on my own power.  The interesting thing is I have no recollection of anything from the time I last saw Bob while I was walking the bike until I crested the hill. This miracle was to occur again before the ride was over two days later. 

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 .

Countdown to Triathlon – 130 Days, 18.5 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 85 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

We are so exhausted.  Friday night I came and stayed with Laurel and Danny; I stayed in the guest room. The next night the consensus was that I would sleep with Laurel and the baby so Danny could get some sleep.  Even though I have four children and this is the eleventh grandchild, one forgets exactly how it was with a new baby. I guess that is God's way of insuring that man continues to populate the world.  Last night we only got up twice.  What a blessing that was! What a beautiful, contented little guy he is.  Well not exactly little by new born standards, but little nonetheless. 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – "It's just a hill - get over it!"

The Journey - Installment Eighty-Five

        As the minivans sped off, there was a minute when we felt abandoned, but we “got over it.”  We had only gone a short while when we saw, over our left shoulders, a large body of water which contained many ships.  It was the “Mothball Fleet” – the old World War II naval ship depository.  also called the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, Benicia, CA.  (see below) What surprised me was the number of vessels.  When I was girl and would travel to San Francisco with my parents, we would pass the "Mothball Fleet" and the bay was full of ships.  Now, I have to remember that the war was over in 1945 and in 1955 it had only been ten years.  I was eleven in 1955 so there were still a lot ships in the bay.

      






[Since the end of World War II Suisun Bay, located approx. 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, Calif., is home of a fleet of decommissioned, stricken, or inactive ships. These ships include US Navy warships, auxiliary vessels and merchant ships. Some of the ships are held in a reduced operation status meaning that they can be re-activated within a given time in order to make them available during national emergencies. The number of ships laid-up at Suisun Bay went from 324 in 1959 to less than 70 in 2009. Due to environmental problems with several of the ships, it's now planned to withdraw all ships from Suisun Bay by 2017. Ships are removed from the fleet on a regular basis but before they are towed to Texas for scrapping, they are taken to the BAE shipyard at Potrero Hill, South San Francisco, for clean up.]

 As we proceeded toward Napa, about 20 miles away, we had gone only a short distance when I saw a snake in the road and swerved, almost knocking Tom off his bike.  I apologized profusely, but that snake had really scared me.  As I came upon it there wasn't time to ascertain whether it was alive or not; a king snake or rattler.  I just saw "snake" and panicked.  Terri had been riding ahead and perhaps didn't see it. 

        With the snake incident behind us, we continued toward our goal of arriving at the hotel in Napa before dark overtook us.  We knew it would be difficult to achieve that goal, but I was confident.  We also had "an ace in the hole," Bob.  He was riding in his truck - never beside us as that would have dangerous on the narrow roads.  He would pass us and ride ahead and wait.

        About this time, we came to some very horrible hills.  Bob disappeared for a time and had driven ahead to see how far it was to Napa and how high and how many hills we would have to navigate.  He figured I would get discourage because there were four big ones coming up.  While he pulled over, unknown to me, he called our son in Hawaii and he called Richard, the CEO his bank and told our son Hollen to call me on the cell phone and tell me not to quit.  He told Richard to wait about five minutes and tell me the same thing. 

Countdown to Triathlon – 133 Days, 19 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 84 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – 
“When you're on the starting line of your first century, it's not wise to sit there and think, 'I've got to ride
one hundred miles.' I remember my first one, and my thought was to get to the first rest stop. I made each 
succeeding rest stop my goal. When they're about twenty-five miles apart, you don't get intimidated by what seems
an impossible distance. All you need to do is ride twenty-five miles four times."
-- Seana Hogan

Have you ever participated in “Paying it Forward?”  One of the common ways to “Pay it Forward” is to pay for someone’s coffee or fast food meal for the person in line behind you in the drive through.  In Acts 20:35 in the Bible, it reads, (quoting Jesus), “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  So here is a fun way to participate in “Paying it Forward”. 

            1.  Tell me in the comment section that you want to participate.

            2.  Email me your postal address.  My email address is barbiejoe44@gmail.com.

            3.  When you receive your gift, enjoy it.

            4.  Then post your own “Pay it Forward” on your blog.

            5.  Send three small gift items to people on your blog who wish to participate.

            6.  I will be accepting the first three participants who comment on their desire to participate.  If you would like to participate and get this little gift from me, leave a  comment saying so and realize that you are committing to send out small gifts to  three others bloggers.  The cost of the gift is not important, it is the gift of love that is.

            
Regular comments are still welcome and valued.  No one is obligated to participate in the “Paying it Forward”, but it is fun.  If you have some fun or inspirational stories that come from your “Paying it Forward” event, please forward them to me.

 

The Journey - Installment Eighty-Four

        After leaving windy Fairfield we headed toward Napa, over some really nasty hills with the wind still blowing.  Before we reached the last four terrible, and I mean terrible hills, the minivans were pulled over beside the road.  They signaled for us to pull over – us being about five or six ladies plus Tom who was a FOTF Vice President.  The drivers of the minivans told us that we done a great job riding, but that we were still twenty miles from Napa.  In order to get dinner, have devotions and announcements and have our outfits washed, we would need to load our bikes and get a ride to the hotel in Napa.  They had previously instructed us to write our names on all of our socks and riding suits and we had been given a plastic bag for our clothes.  Each night, one of the volunteers would wash our outfits and return them so that we would have clean clothes.  The riding outfits were expensive and most people only had one set.  I did purchase two sets which was really helpful on this particular day.

            All of us were gathered at the back of one of the vans.  As each lady moved forward and helped load her bike in the bike rack, I was starting to get anxious.  I felt that I needed to finish the ride.  God had told me to accomplish this ride and I didn’t feel that I could quit yet.  I hung back as each lady loaded her bike.  I can’t remember who all was there except I do remember Lisa, Yvonne, Terri and Tom.  I think there might have been two other ladies.  When it came time for me to get my bike loaded, I told them, “God told me to do this ride and I don’t feel I can quit yet. Besides,” I added, “My husband would be very disappointed in me if I quit.”  They replied that I would be missing dinner, devotions and getting my clothes washed and FOTF does not allow us to ride in the dark.

        I replied to them, “My husband is along with his truck. If it starts to get dark he can pick me and my bike up and take me to the hotel.”  They were not happy with this development, but I was very insistent.  At that point, Terri took her bike from the bike rack and said she was going with me.  I told her that she shouldn’t do that because she’d also miss dinner, devotions and clean clothes.  She replied to me that we are team and she was going to stay with me.  Even though I felt badly that she would miss all of the above, I was relieved to have her along.   I’m not sure at this writing if I would have been so insistent on finishing the ride if Bob had not been along as my safety net.  Tom unloaded his bike from the rack, and I’m sure he was quite disappointed to have to go with us because he could have been at the hotel in just a few minutes.  Because he was a member of the FOTF staff, he must have felt that he couldn’t let two women proceed alone, even though Bob was along.  I had the feeling that on all the bike rides until now, no one had ever thrown a monkey wrench into the works before because the staff in the minivans were not happy at all with me.  Nevertheless, Terri, Tom and myself mounted our bikes for the last section; the worst and hardest section of the day. 

I'm heading for Laurel's and Danny's house to help her with the baby and cooking, cleaning, etc.  I'll be gone about a week but will still post the blog so come back on Monday.  Grandpa Bob is staying home.  Maybe he'll get our garden planted.

♥♥♥