Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 17, 2006

Sedalia, MO
Some days start off as great riding days and end even better. Other days look promising to start with, but then don’t turn out to be the best of days. Today was one of those days for me. We started off from Fayette with full bellies, blue skies, and what felt like a cooler day.

But my high spirits were soon brought down a notch by the obnoxiously strong headwinds that seemed determined to blow me back to Baltimore. I felt like I was going negative speeds as I struggled up the rolling hills, and even on downhills, I had to use every ounce of energy just to stay in motion. Let me tell you, it was a rough day. By the time I rolled into Sedalia, I felt beaten and exhausted. Yet even as I braced myself against the biting winds, I had to be thankful that at least my skin wasn’t cooking in sweltering heat, and that we made it safely to Sedalia before we got caught in the storm that was just on our tails. I truly believe there’s something to be thankful for everyday, even when the struggle seems uphill and futile. Missouri is such a gorgeous state, and the winds were rippling through the golden waves of wheat, and had blown the clouds into these beautiful formations, so even as I was cursing the ridiculously difficult riding, I couldn’t help but think about how amazingly beautiful the countryside is. It’s something that most suburban/city kids will never get a chance to appreciate.

And as I grimaced every time an especially strong gust of wind threatened to blow me off the road, what kept me going was thinking about some of the cancer patients we had met, or whose stories were shared. One of our hosts in Fayette told us about his daughter Tina’s struggle with what started out as breast cancer, but then spread to multiple parts of her body, even though there were times when the doctors thought her cancer had gone away. How disappointing that must have been! I thought about her because in sort of the same way, though not nearly on the same scale of course, I had expected the day to be a nice, easy ride (55 miles) but it turned into a battle that was much more intense than I expected. I thought about the strength that kept Tina fighting for her life, and I thought about how grateful her family was that we were riding across the country for this cause, and that kept me going, because there were so many times I felt like quitting today and so many times when I just wanted to ball up and whine, but I kept going because of them, because I really have nothing to whine about. So in the end, even though my knees were hurtin’ and my I was dog-tired, I’m grateful just for being able to ride, and to meet the people I do. Plus it made the shower, and Sonic burgers and ice cream that much better! =).

~ Lauren J.