Saturday, August 08, 2009

For Susan

Early in the morning, cup of coffee at the table, gliding thru various web pages...the weather, Ray Lamontagne, checking bills...and bikes, all things bikes. Bike shorts, races, photos, wheels...power output, training, beauty and suffering. There are a lot of great blogs/websites/journals out there about cycling, too many to mention in one post (and part of the "fun", I think, is discovering another site dedicated to the bike and all that it brings to our lives). Today I came across one of those sites, Fat Cyclist. There are so many emotions that run thru my head and heart when I read something like this. Cancer SUCKS...totally, unequivocally SUCKS. Susan surely was, and will remain, a remarkable woman...as evidenced by the inspiration she provided her husband and all the beautiful tributes to her from various and far reaching places.
And one of those places, a big place...is cycling. And I'm reminded about what the bike does for me, for many of us. We all ride for different reasons...some of our reasons change daily...We want to hit wattage numbers on our Powermeters, we want to get a long ride in, we want to get some strength work in...we want to be fast on the wednesday night group ride, we want to spend time with our wives. We want to see our daughter take her first few rolls when the training wheels come off...we want to ride enough to have an extra beer or some more ice cream. We want to suffer, we want to laugh, we want to share time with friends, we want to be alone. There is nothing like riding our bikes...there is no beauty in effort that compares. And so today, on my ride with Kira, I will think of Susan for a moment, and will give thanks for how blessed I am to be able to ride my bike

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