By James Durand
Earlier this year we had a woman named Kelly come into the store with a few questions.
She was looking to sign up for an epic road ride.
She had never cycled much before and was basically clueless as to how to approach an event of this magnitude.
Being that Chenoa and I have both ridden some long distance races, we were instantly excited for her.
Maybe more excited than her at the time.
I think she was still in the nervous stage, but for us it brought back memories.
That first epic ride comes with some trepidation, a lack of confidence and a lot of unknowns.
You have no idea how to prepare in any way. I was bit envious.
These days when we prepare for something, it is still fun and challenging, but that original level of excitement and fear is gone. And we miss it.
To watch her go from a 10 km commute to riding the Hamm Road loop in such a short time has been impressive and I know there is so much more to come as she pushes through this huge challenge.
When I did my first big distance, I had already been racing smaller distances for 10 years.
I was experienced in so many aspects of racing that it had me half way prepared from the get go. But seeing Kelly start from scratch and in just half a year get herself ready for a 200km ride is inspiring.
One thing I had was good advisors in those early days.
Learning from another’s experience was priceless and it made the challenge much easier to accomplish.
Unfortunately we can’t ride the ride with Kelly, she will be on her own at the start line, but we really hope we can make her preparation just a little easier.
Thanks Kelly for letting us in on your adventure.
I’m James Durand and I’m Going’ Ridin’…