Last ride

This was my last ride of September and my last for this year’s GCC fundraiser. I did not have to ride today. I had finished my mileage goal in the rain yesterday. I wanted to ride. To honor my dad.

Some of you know that my dad died of esophageal cancer almost 14 years ago. He was a great father, my hero, and a good friend. He put others before himself and has inspired me to do the same.

I also rode for my brother’s niece. She has undergone chemotherapy and a surgery for a bone cancer. I realize that I had not given an update since her surgery a few weeks ago. She did not have to have her leg amputated and now has an artificial patella. She is currently doing physical therapy to help her acclimate to this change.

Thank you for your support this month. It has truly meant a great deal to me. I know that many of you are animal lovers, as most of my Facebook friends are. We are a passionate bunch and are always looking for ways to help. I love you all. Now let’s get out there and make a difference, however we can.

Ride # 25 Chickamauga Battlefield

Today I biked my circuit around the Chickamauga Battlefield for the third time this month. Well, actually it was my fifth and sixth laps this month. It is probably my favorite local ride. I have never been chased by dogs while riding it and there is minimal car traffic.

Today was also a rainy day, as most of you who are local know. I could not ride at my usual O dark thirty due to rain. I watched the radar and I saw a chance this afternoon and took it. I got drizzled on for my first lap, but the second was dry. I rode quickly to try to avoid more rain and was faster than my two other Battlefield rides by 16 minutes.

I have two days left to get my remaining 6 miles and $133. The forecast calls for rain tomorrow but Monday looks dry as of now.

The photo is me trying to show off the 2024 GCC jersey. I hope you have a good Sunday. I am planning one last blog post for the thirtieth. Thank you for your support and thanks for reading along. I have really enjoyed writing these.

Ride # 24

We are rapidly approaching the end of the month and the completion of this fundraiser. After this morning’s ride, I have 35 miles left to ride to reach my mileage goal and $343 to raise to reach my fundraising goal.

I have never been a quitter. My parents instilled a strong work ethic into me from a young age. They taught me to finish what I started and modeled the biblical principal of always doing your best.

I may not get to ride tomorrow morning because of rain. But I will finish my mileage goal by Monday. Even though my body is beyond exhausted. I will not quit.

Thank you for your continued support.

Ride #19

I have not yet missed a day of riding this month. I certainly had a short ride on Sunday after getting a flat tire and then accidentally poking a hole in my spare. But I still rode.

And I am exhausted. Physically, but also mentally and emotionally. I feel like a freshly squeezed lemon. Yesterday morning I was frustrated, talking both in my head and aloud to people that were not there, people that were likely still sleeping.

This morning’s ride was tough. I didn’t want to ride. I did anyways. I knew that my brother’s niece was having surgery today. She probably didn’t want to go through surgery. Didn’t want to possibly have her leg amputated. So I rode. But today was different. Today I prayed throughout the ride. My physical, mental, and emotional batteries were drained. As I neared home, my headlight battery life indicator changed from green (good) to yellowish orange (running out). Metaphorically, the battery life indicator was a more optimistic reflection of my own battery level.

After my ride this morning, I inexplicably managed to sprain my ankle. Adrenaline got me through the day, but as the day wore on, it began to ache. I likely will not ride tomorrow to give my ankle a chance to heal. A weekend working in the kitchen at Skymont will keep me from riding on Saturday. I will have nine days remaining this month to complete my remaining approximately 90 miles.

Thanks to each of you for your support this month. It is a huge encouragement to me.

Soddy Lake ride (#14)

Because of rain yesterday morning, I skipped my morning ride yesterday. It barely rained all day and then the forecasted rain for last night did not occur. I decided to ride last night in spite of leaving work 1 1/2 hours later than I was supposed to. I stayed close to home, so that if the rain did, in fact, occur as it was predicted to I could be home quickly. It was a boring ride, and I did not push myself, but it did give me a chance to clear my mind.

This morning, the weather radar showed a band of rain approaching from the west. I decided to ride from home rather than my usual Chickamauga Battlefield Saturday loop. It was still dark when I left the house, but the sky appeared to be clear, so I did a couple of loops around the neighborhood to warm up. I decided as I rode that I would do a longer ride but wanted something different. I had not done my Soddy lake route since last year. So off I went.

It is a straight route out and back with some large and relatively gently sloped hills and some long downhill stretches. Overall, it was a good ride and a good start to the day.

Patriot Day ride (#11)

I had not intended to write another journal entry today, for several reasons. I was not sure that I could come up with anything to say, especially considering I have written blog posts each of the last two days. Also, I learned something yesterday that I had not been aware of: donors get emails of each blog post (Matt, my first donor this year, is smiling right now and saying, “duh”). You see, I have wanted to do a blog in past years but never have.

I need to write today because I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to each and every one of you. Thanks to your generous gifts, and the matching grant for those that gave yesterday, I have surpassed my original fundraising goal for the month. On day 11.

I am acutely aware that this is a team effort. It is not about me at all. It is about the worthy cause of raising money for children’s cancer research. I am actually going to raise my fundraising goal. Those that have donated or followed my progress in past years will know that this is not new for me. I have raised both fundraising and mileage goals fairly regularly. It is for the kids, after all.

I still have more than half of my miles yet to go and we are just over a third of the way through the month. Thank you again for your support. It is and has been incredibly encouraging.

Kick Cancer's Butt Day Ride

The big day is here.

I decided to push myself today. I rode a loop that added three miles and a very steep but relatively short hill that has traditionally kicked my butt. If it is Kick Cancer's Butt Day, then I figured why not?

As I rode on Lake Resort Drive, I was already tired. My dogs were barking, so to speak. I rode down the hill approaching Gann Store Road and it really snuck up on me. I had not ridden this way yet this year and I had forgotten how close the turn was. There were no cars approaching and none behind, so I turned left and geared down. I tried to stay focused on the few feet in front of me, but then I glanced up for a second. I did not have far to go, but it was steep. Very steep. I pushed harder...and leveled off at the top. I had made it.

This old man then took a few minutes to catch his breath. I did it. It kicked my butt, but I did it. Then came my favorite part of this route: downhill to Hamill Road. Coasting and braking so I do not go too fast. No cars around, so blissfully peaceful.

When I arrived home, I felt good. When I saved my ride to upload my mileage, I noticed that my donations had increased by over $600 during my ride. That could not be true, I thought. I had misread. I checked my emails. It was, in fact, true. Several people had given what they could during my 75 minute ride.

Thanks for those that gave and will give today. You encourage me more than you know. By the way, the photo is of the Chickamauga dam and bridge. It is a good resting point for me as I ascend a pretty long hill.

Ninth ride (beat the sun part 2)

I really want to hit snooze on the alarm clock. It’s Monday. Mondays are the worst at my work. So much to catch up on from the weekend, from last week, from previous months even. I sometimes am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work that awaits me.

And I am tired. I had ridden 122 miles in eight days. I deserve a break, right?

Then I think about my brother’s niece. A high schooler who should be enjoying the school year, but who instead just finished her last round of chemotherapy last week and has been in and out of the hospital. She will have surgery to remove her cancer next week. Is she complaining? Is she overwhelmed? Is she exhausted?

So I ride my bicycle. It’s not that much, really. Not too much for me to do. Not overwhelming. Not even exhausting. It even does my body some good. My mind, too. I even ride a little farther today (for a workday). Not much, but it gets me closer to the mileage goal I set for myself.

Tomorrow is Kick Cancer’s Butt Day. It is a very important day for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. A generous donor has pledged to match up to 1.5 million dollars of donations given tomorrow. This is the biggest donation day for CCRF. So much so that they will likely receive more than the matching grant. Your gift tomorrow likely will not double. But it will go farther.

Day 7 (first Saturday ride)

This morning, I did my two loops at the Chickamauga Battlefield. I actually did not even get to my starting spot until 8:00 am, so I did not ride in the dark at all, which is unusual for me. I was in no hurry, though, so I really just tried to enjoy the ride.

It was very cloudy and overcast for the majority of the ride. There was a pleasant breeze for much of it. I even felt a few sprinkles. Either that, or a bird peed on me.

I decided to not look up the entire huge hill toward the end that I had to walk up both times on my Labor Day ride. I just looked at what was right in front of me and gradually geared down. I actually shocked myself by riding up it not just the first lap, but on the second lap too. The lesson here is that trials are best faced one step at a time.

Overall, today’s ride was a good one. I am tired afterwards, but not overly sore.

You may have noticed that yesterday’s ride was partially titled “dead armadillo.” I have been seeing dead armadillos closer and closer to Chattanooga in recent years. I have even seen them recently north of Chattanooga. Yesterday, I saw one on a neighborhood road on my route. I stopped to take a photo, but I thought that I ought not show it here.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I am quite enjoying writing it.

Day 2

Labor Day

I did not have to work today, but my daughter was going to leave for college this morning. I usually try to get as many miles as possible on weekend and holidays, but I truly dislike riding in the heat. So I ride in the mornings, often before the sun rises.

I decided to drive down to the Chickamauga Battlefield. There is a route there that I have saved on my phone that gets me 14 miles per lap.

I normally record my rides on my Great Cycle Challenge app and on my Ride with GPS app. I noticed after my first lap that my GCC app only showed 0.1 miles ridden after almost an hour and a half. Luckily my Ride with GPS app had recorded my mileage. I fiddled with my GCC app and managed to start it.

I still had some energy, so I rode around again. I truly love this route. Almost no cars and I have never been chased by dogs while riding it. There is a steep hill at about 80% completion. I had to walk it both laps. Hopefully, by the end of the month I will be able to ride up it.

I managed to make it home before sending my daughter back off to college. Yay.

Day 1 flat tire and ride

I started the morning with a flat tire...before I ever left the house. I had inflated my tires several days ago and checked over the bike. Unfortunately this morning, my front tire was flat. I inflated it and prepared for the ride, thinking I would just ride around the neighborhood to be safe. Before I had finished putting on my water bottles and loading my keys, wallet, and phone, the tire was flat again.

So I changed it with my "house" spare. I still have a spare in my toolkit bag.

It is definitely good to familiarize myself with changing a tire, I just had rather not it have been on my very first ride of the month.

I am thankful that I had a spare and that I was able to change it quickly and get on with my ride.

Oh, I discovered another thing. I am more out of shape than I had anticipated. Yay.