To Helen Back

My dear friend Lindsey, rest assured I don’t have misconstrued perceptions regarding the size of my butt. No, no, I save those for other issues. The comment in my previous post was my lame quotation of a lyric from a song by Queen, in which Freddie Mercury enthusiastically instructs us to “get on your bikes and ride!”

Awhile back I did just that, along with my friend Stephanie (who travelled from California just to do this!) and my cousins Kim & Tina. This was the Little Red Riding Hood bike ride near Logan that raises money to fund Women’s cancer research.

The night before the ride, we stayed up way too late. Stephanie survived the initiation to our family & even fell asleep amid our hysterical laughter (I’m not so sure our neighboring hotel room occupants were as lucky). As someone put it best, it was reminiscent of sleepovers at our Grandparent’s house on the patio.



Brrrr...it was cold.

The morning of the ride came quick. Team Bad Ass felt more like Team Dragon Ass, but we got there in time and jumped on the road for a beautiful, scenic ride. I admit I had a lot of reservations about the distance we set out to accomplish. I had more than a few mental blocks in place, I hadn’t trained at all like I’d intended prior to the ride and it was freezing cold to start. As the day went on, the blocks came down, the sun came out and cussing & cursing (under my breath of course) at some of the climbs helped everything come together, all 100 miles of it.

This ride was significant to me, not just the cause or the distance alone, but who I did it with. All three of these women are so important to me, they were there at my diagnosis, throughout my treatment, and my completion. They’ve all had their own challenges and faced them with courage & dignity. When we were little I always tried to keep up with my cousins in everything they did, especially in the pool. I was just a little out of my depth or lacked the endurance to swim as long as they could, but they’d encouraged me to keep going. I’ve always admired Stephanie for her compassion (a true challenge to maintain in her profession) and willingness to give and help others. Doing this ride together and in the company of such amazing women seemed a perfect conclusion to a very long ride.



Rolling hills - no serious climbs..whatever! 
It was worth it even if my downhill speed was only equivalent to Lance's normal cruising speed.



Kim finally found the highly coveted Oreo at one of the stops!



Some days you can't escape being surrounded by asses.



Four gargoyles at this house somewhere outside of Lewiston & the middle of no where!

I got back on my bike earlier this week.  A few wounds still healing, but it was nice to be on my favorite trail, find my cadence, lower my head, and watch the yellow dashes flash by on the side.  It's a strange tranquility too, when I look up and see the blue flax and red poppies in bloom with splashes of orange wildflowers, deer grazing near a pond, all to the sounds of Robert Plant singing in one ear & frogs croaking in the other.

p.s.  Good luck to all you Ragnar freaks this weekend.  That requires an entirely different type of insanity.