The first time anyone mentioned the idea of riding my bike across America I was walking in my front door, returning from climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. I was NOT interested! The thought of a cross country ride was not even on my radar. My poor blistered, swollen, aching feet were still very early in the recovery stage from the 50 plus miles of abuse I just put them through to climb the world's tallest freestanding mountain. The thought of riding for 3,100 miles did not appeal to me in the least. In fact, I almost punched the friend who suggested it as he admired my road bike hanging in my foyer. "Cheryl, you should ride that across America as your next adventure." In a word NO!
Then, a couple weeks later I had dinner at a friend's house and oddly enough, her dad was contemplating a cross continental ride. Talk of the grandiose adventure consumed our dinner conversation and spilled over into a 20 mile bike ride two days later. My friend's dad rode shoulder to shoulder with me the entire 20 mile ride as we talked about what it would be like to do such a thing. That was it, from that point on, I couldn't sleep, all I could think about was riding across America! I had to do it.
At first I struggled...should I do this? Is it too hard on my body? Could I even do it? Was it selfish of me to even want to. It would be a huge time commitment. I would have to spend many hours on the bike training and then 3 months out of the office to travel and actually do the ride.
Then, in the middle of the night, I felt like the Lord awakened me with the phrase "own it." I needed to own my crazy life that He has given me. I needed to own that many people love living vicariously through the accounts of my crazy adventures. I needed to own the fact that God created me with a need for living out the things on my bucket-list. I needed to own the fact that I had just seen God use our climb of Kilimanjaro to raise nearly $50,000 for our scholarship fund. I need to own who he has created me to be and forgo the naysayers and negativity and go for it!!! After all, who knows how much money we will raise to help support ISF through this next adventure! Clip in and let's do this!
Then, a couple weeks later I had dinner at a friend's house and oddly enough, her dad was contemplating a cross continental ride. Talk of the grandiose adventure consumed our dinner conversation and spilled over into a 20 mile bike ride two days later. My friend's dad rode shoulder to shoulder with me the entire 20 mile ride as we talked about what it would be like to do such a thing. That was it, from that point on, I couldn't sleep, all I could think about was riding across America! I had to do it.
At first I struggled...should I do this? Is it too hard on my body? Could I even do it? Was it selfish of me to even want to. It would be a huge time commitment. I would have to spend many hours on the bike training and then 3 months out of the office to travel and actually do the ride.
Then, in the middle of the night, I felt like the Lord awakened me with the phrase "own it." I needed to own my crazy life that He has given me. I needed to own that many people love living vicariously through the accounts of my crazy adventures. I needed to own the fact that God created me with a need for living out the things on my bucket-list. I needed to own the fact that I had just seen God use our climb of Kilimanjaro to raise nearly $50,000 for our scholarship fund. I need to own who he has created me to be and forgo the naysayers and negativity and go for it!!! After all, who knows how much money we will raise to help support ISF through this next adventure! Clip in and let's do this!