Let me start by saying how proud I am of my dad!! I can’t imagine how disappointing it must have been to prepare for the trip of a lifetime only to have it be derailed by a global pandemic, of all things. What are the chances?
It’s very like him, though, to persist through adversity and rise to the occasion. It’s so delightfully inventive to do the ride ‘virtually’, but I also have to imagine that it’s MORE difficult mentally. You don’t have the group support, the excitement of a changing environment, etc. You could, every day, make a very easy decision to stay home instead. But my dad is nothing if not hard-headed, and I can’t say I’m too surprised that he’s made it through.
He’s always been something of an endurance athlete–something I am decidedly not.
I’ve only started enjoying running now that I have a dog to run with (and there’s a statewide lockdown preventing me from going to the gym). The furthest I’ve ever run is just over 4 miles, and I have no real ambitions to top that. Don’t get me wrong, I like exercise and I like playing sports, I just don’t like the repetitive endurance challenge stuff.
I did actually participate in a ‘sprint triathlon’ about 4 years ago, however. A friend wanted a buddy to train with, and I thought hey why not!
It seems relevant to mention here that I didn’t own a bike when I made that commitment.
I eventually borrowed one from friends with an extra they kept around for when their parents came to visit. It…wasn’t exactly a road bike. Definitely closer to a mountain bike, not that I know enough about bikes to make a more accurate diagnosis as to type. I actually still have it.
I trained by swimming twice a week, running twice a week, and biking twice a week – I never combined all three in one day. In fact the best I ever did was combining some biking and running…once.
The day of the race I misjudged the starting time and arrived almost too late to sign in.
The swimming wasn’t a problem (I’ve always been a water baby), even though the lake was full of seaweed. I actually passed some young guy on a road bike. Me! On what was basically a mountain bike! The running slowed me way down, but I still finished right in the middle of my age group. Not too shabby.
I guess what I’m saying is, it wasn’t some perfect magical experience. There were all kinds of snags, road bumps, and ways that I could have been better prepared. Best laid plans fell through – the friend I signed up with wasn’t even able to go at the last minute, and I did the race by myself.
Heck, I don’t even LIKE endurance exercise.
But it’s still something I remember fondly. It’s something I’m really proud of doing–not in spite of the difficulties, but because I worked with and through them. I came through the other side and kept a commitment to myself.
Maybe it’s something I got from my dad.
The Necessity of a Place- 30 years at the Water’s Edge 