If you read my blog in May of this year you are already familiar with the beautiful spirit of Barb Burg. In her memory, my husband Marc and I have joined TeamBarb in the Dolphins Cycling Challenge. On February 8 of next year, we will be joining other family members and friends to cycle from Esplanade Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale to the Sun Life Stadium in Miami. We were originally supposed to cycle 50 miles (construction and safety concerns have resulted in a lucky-for-me shortening of the route to 25 miles) so Marc and I have been training all summer. My husband may have athletic bones, but I definitely do not. My athletic/biking experience brings to mind shoulder-length pigtails and multi-colored handlebar streamers. If it weren't for my friend Elaine's generous pink hand-me-down, I would be training with my 10th-birthday, footbrakes-only, blue Schwinn.
Pink was Barb's favorite color so I think it's fitting that I should be training on a pink bike. And I'm proud to say that I've gone from a single panting mile in the beginning of summer to last weekend's twenty-two miles (only a few of which required some not too serious huffing and puffing).
A few weeks ago I took a wide-turn tumble which skinned my knuckles and dislodged my handbrakes - which led to a more frightening fall (what happened to my brakes?) - which led to a sprained ankle and bruised leg - which reminded me why I was cycling in the first place.
There are stumbling blocks on every path we take. There are rocks in the road and snags in the pavement. Instinctively we pedal our way up, around, and through our lives. Sometimes we recognize the difficult terrain and move slowly, carefully. Other times the view before us is so breathtakingly beautiful that we zip along happily, not noticing the stumbling blocks until we take the fall. But as noted many times before ~ by people far more eloquent than me ~ it isn't the stumbling that defines us. It's the what we do next, the staying down or the getting up. The giving in to despair or the continuing on in hope.
In every step of her journey with cancer, Barb continued on with hope. The Dolphins Cycling Challenge gives us an opportunity to continue honoring Barb's hope.
Please follow the links below
to donate or to to learn more about the Dolphins fight against cancer.
Comments
Post a Comment