For me, the first day of Cycle of Service yesterday could been titled, "Tara Facing Her Fear." I had a great day and reached a huge milestone for me, but it was not without some challenges. The route we took had lots of construction with barrels making the lanes tight, many bridges of varying height and arch, and it's a main trucking route. Any of you who've known our family more than 3 years will understand why I got an adrenalin surge every time a logging truck passed me in the same lane, which was about every 20 minutes. Can you say, hugging the white line? :) And although I've made significant strides in the past 5 years with my fear of bridges, driving over them is a completely different experience than biking~ where you are higher than the barrier and hugging close to the edge, therefore able to see the chasm below. Travis got some great pictures that I hope turn out. We'll publish those at a later time. But I'm proud to say I faced all of those down and road my best. And I'm all the better for it.
All the challenges aside, I reached a personal best yesterday! While training for this event, the longest distance I had ever biked was 25.1 miles. But yesterday I was able to complete 50.2 miles~ doubling what I had previously accomplished!! Yay! And I felt decent afterward and could still function. I smelled pretty rank, for we were biking in 97F that day, but I felt better than on the training day when I only did 25.1. That being said, I was still the newbie who came in last among the riders. But this isn't about comparing myself to others! It's about me setting goals and accomplishing what I can do and doing my best for the event. And ultimately, even higher than reaching our personal goals is the shared goal of helping those without adequate housing. We all rocked when it came to that!
Today, for the second day of the event, I only biked 25.2 miles. (Still better than my best practice distance.) A few miles into the ride, I realized I had a UTI (feel the burn!) that made it...um... challenging to ride, hence the lower distance. By mile 25, I was hurting and realizing I needed to lay down my pride and go to the doctor. I should still be able to ride tomorrow for the afternoon Tuskegee route. Now my personal goal is to exceed the 100 mile mark for the weekend. It should be doable, seeing as I've already ridden 75+ miles in two days. Hopefully I'll be healed enough tomorrow to finish what I started and to reach my event goal. I'm looking forward to finishing well. And it will be great to see how much money is raised for helping ARM help people. It's not too late to donate! If you'd still like to participate that way, send it in!! Checks can be made out to ARM and sent here:
Alabama Rural Ministry
P.O. Box 2890
Auburn, AL 36831
Last but certainly NOT least, I'd like to thank Travis for being my personal driver. I could not have done this without him! He would leap frog my bike every few miles and cheer me on as I passed. Just knowing someone was there and having the extra water and such on hand made it possible for me to double my distance. Trav and the kids did a fantastic job today of cheering me on to beat my best practice distance even when I was sick. I look forward to having them with me tomorrow as we end this challenge together. I'm very blessed!
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