Anyhow- you don't need anymore of my wordiness gumming up her story- so without further ado, Kim!
 |
| Kim pictured on far right |
Up until two weekends ago, I had not been on a bike in about 14 years. So when a co-worker asked everyone in my office if they’d like to do a 30 mile bike race around Manhattan for the American Diabetes Association’s “Tour de Cure”, I had my reservations. Thankfully, the idea of cruising around the city on a nice summer day with friends and getting in a great workout, all the while raising money for a wonderful cause, trumped any hesitation I had in signing up. After all, riding a bike must be, well “just like riding a bike”. Right?
I’ll admit that I did not train as I probably should have for this event. I had every intention of renting a bike a weekend or two before the race, at the very least to just test my comfort level. But, life got in the way and before I knew it, race day was here without once going for a test drive. Thankfully, I had been keeping up with other workouts in my day to day life that allowed me to survive race day.
Roughly two and a half years ago, on my 30th birthday, I made the decision that enough was enough. It was time to get in shape, lose weight, and starting living an active and healthier lifestyle. Despite some ups and downs and though not yet near my goal, I’ve stayed (for the most part) on track with my workouts and have made great strides in getting healthy. I run fairly often, have completed some road races (including a half marathon) and thanks to the help of an ex-Army Airborne Ranger who I’m lucky to call my trainer, I feel stronger and more fit than I have since high school.
Three years ago, I could never have kept up with my group on race day. Some of the people on my team had done these bikes races in the past. I mean, they even had the outfits and gear that just screamed “I’m a bike rider!”. The others who made up the group were almost ten years younger than me. But, turns out that did not matter. Ten miles into the race and halfway up a steep hill near the George Washington Bridge, my quads started to burn, I was gasping for air and sweat was pouring down my face. But then I thought to myself that these feelings – the pain, the desire to keep on pushing to just get this part over with - was the same feeling I’ve had a million times in the past two and a half years. It was the same feeling I have with my trainer when he makes me do what feels like a million squat jumps. It’s the same feeling I have when running, on my last mile and can see the finish line off in the distance. You have to just keep repeating “you’re almost there…!” and soon enough, I would be, the burn would go away, the hill turned to flat land and all I had to do was keep pedalling.
Race day turned out to be wonderful. We raised nearly $3800 as a group for a very important cause, had beautiful weather, and I saw parts of New York City that I otherwise never would have seen from that perspective. But most importantly, from a personal standpoint, we were able to cross the finish line as a team. I was right there with my group, no worse for wear than anyone else, as we cruised across the finish line and celebrated a job well done.
Congrats to Kim and her whole Tour De Cure team! Kim's fund raising website is still active. If you would like to donate to her Tour DeCure fundraising site, raising funds for Diabetes, please click here
Have you recently completed a race and would like to be a Monday Motivation featured writer? Email me at millie at seemillietri.com and let me know!
0 comments:
Post a Comment