I rode up through Huddart today, trying out my climbing legs, challenging them more and more every weekend after my hip replacement. As I passed the Pad, went by the Rock, and climbed through the park, I was suddenly struck by a real sense of gratitude and appreciation for what we have and what we do.
For about twenty (!) years, we’ve been running together, riding together, laughing mostly at each other, and now getting each other through all of these ailments of middle age. The Dipsea, the Relay, the Oyster, the Death Ride – we’ve done all of these crazy athletic events, some of us more slowly than others, but we’ve always accepted the challenges before us and had fun doing them.
And it hit me that NONE of this is guaranteed. I’ve done fine since my surgery, getting closer and closer to my previous level of activity. But it did not have to be this way. A complication of some kind, a bad outcome, and I’m not pedaling past the Pad and looking at the Rock, wondering what they’re doing to this beautiful place. To be able to ride like this, to experience the world in this way, to clear your head like this, has never been ordained.
So thank you everyone, all of my partners in suffering, for inspiring me to keep moving and experiencing the beautiful place in which we live (“The Cathedral”) in new and different ways, because I’m going to stop taking this for granted. See you next weekend!
The Dips Bike Club 