It's been about a month since I returned from the 540 mile Pennsylvania Perimeter Ride Against Cancer (PPRAC). And I'm still not sure I have the words to articulate the experience.
Before August 3rd, my longest bike ride was 80 miles, and that was only once... the week before. Prior to that 80 miles, the longest I had gone was 50. To say I was nervous about this ride was an understatement.
I decided to do the ride two years ago when I met my parents and sister-in-law at a church in Palmerton, PA to greet my brother as he rolled in on two wheels from Erie, PA. There was a big dinner and a ceremony. In typical little sister fashion, I wanted to try what my brother had just done. At that time, though I was in great condition from climbing, I wasn't riding the bike much other than my 2 mile daily commute to work. I didn't even have a road bike.
I committed and got a bike. Last summer I even completed one of the various charity rides from Philadelphia to the shore. 67 miles. Flat, but straight into head-wind. It was so hard and my knees hurt for two days. I did learn some lessons on that ride. 1. Avoid people who have Lockheed Martin jerseys on and tri-bars.(they want to run you over) 2. Training and preparing will make my knees hurt less which will make me much less miserable. 3. I also learned the powers of drafting and Elk, my husband, has a very steady wheel. Drafting is when you ride right behind someone else's wheel and reduce your effort by about 30%. But you've got to be sure to get behind someone who is very steady, if they make a jerky move and you touch their wheels, you are going down.
I knew that I needed to start training. My plan was to do some mountain biking in the winter and longer road rides as the weather permitted. Then I got the news I'd need surgery. Then I got the news that cancer was back and I'd need chemo. Then I got the news that I would likely never get better. Then I got the news that was a mistake and my cancer was an early stage and I'd likely get better, they think --- they never really saw this before. Ugh.
The good news is that I knew that I'd only have 6 treatments of chemo and that would be finished in January. I did really well during chemo in 2005, treatments would keep me down for a week but I was able to rock climb nearly every day on the two weeks between my treatments.
I didn't finish chemo treatments until March. And I couldn't do much during treatments other than knit. It was much rougher this time.
But--- the good news is that I FINISHED. And I got a clean bill of health in May.
I spent the few months riding as much as I could... but between work and rainy weather it wasn't as much as I would have liked. Plus, just because chemo stops doesn't mean that I'm back to 100%. My energy levels were low to say the least.
There were times when I'd ride my bike and I'd be in so much pain. I'd be exhausted. I'd look at my odometer and see that I had only gone 40 miles. I'd burst into tears. How would I do 100 miles a day! I spent a few days seriously considering dropping out. I wondered if the folks who already donated to my fundraising page would be disappointed in me. I thought about going to the ceremony at the end of the ride, did I want to be a spectator or did I want to be a participant. I realized that being a participant, even if I didn't finish the whole ride, would be much much better than standing on the side lines. Determined, I wiped away my tears.
In June I got myself a coach. We knew we had a lot of work to do with a limited time to do it in. He wrote up plans for me every week. I don't think I could have done the ride without Chris Mayhew. Thanks Chris!
Soon enough, it was August and my brother's family was back from Belgium. Here is a picture of all of us before we got into the van for the 6 hour drive up to Burlington, VT. We're going to ride our bikes back? That's insane! I did what I do best in stressful situations and I knit myself a hat on the ride up to VT.
This photo was taken in Palmerton, PA before we left. The four adults all rode our bikes. My dad who is not in the photo joined us in the support vehicle. 
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