Seeing God on the Road

Yesterday (Saturday) was so amazing, I thought it deserved it's own blog post!

Day 13 Rehoboth, NM to Shiprock, NM

Distance 161 km (CENTURY!)
Time in saddle 5:56 (a significant improvement from my previous century at 7:08)
Average speed 27 kph
Max speed 70.9 kph
Ascent 795
Descent 1286

Total distance so far: 5479

 

Amazing day today!  First 90km were smooth sailing.  Fast riding and downhill meant for a really fun morning.  I originally was planning to aim for a goal of less than 6.5 hrs for the century, but when I saw how fast the first 80 km went, I decided to aim for less than 6 hrs and split from my riding group with one other girl to see if we could make that goal.  10km later and we had picked up another rider (Harold, a pastor-slash-bike-mechanic who had previously fixed a wheel problem I had) who had gotten dropped from his group.  At 90 km, I was shifting as per usual when my right shifter lever felt funny and definitely went too far.  The next thing I knew, I was holding the lever in my hand.  Oh.  No.  Fortunately, my rear derailleur had ended up sort of in a  middle gear and I could still shift between the two front chain rings.  As the day was mostly downhill and I had 2 gears now (quite hard and medium hard), we kept riding.  We got a headwind, which I initially really struggled with as I couldn’t downshift to accommodate for the wind resistance, so Harold and Alexa (my riding buddy) generously pulled me for the next many kms.  We picked up another puller (Katie) and between the 3 of them, I made it to Shiprock with slightly sore knees from riding up a few rolling hills in a much higher gear than I would have preferred.  At the last SAG stop, I borrowed a phone and called the bike shop in Farmington (the next town over from Shiprock – about 30miles east) as there is no bike shop in Shiprock.  I explained  to the mechanic what the issue was and he said he thought he might be able to pull shifters off another bike but to call when I arrived in Shiprock.  I asked Deb (more on Deb later) if she would be willing to drive me to Farmington to the bike shop and she agreed.  After we finished our century (in less than 6 hrs!!!), Deb, Karel (who had broken a spoke) and I headed off to Farmington.

The mechanic was waiting for me at the shop, new floor model bike in stand, ready to pull the shifters off this brand new bike and put them on mine.  He changed the shifters out, repaired my bar tape (which had been shoddily done by the shop in Medicine Hat) and, as a bonus, cleaned my chain and rear cassette with an ultrasonic cleaner (not sure what exactly that means, but when I saw it, I thought he had put a new chain on!).  He also had some advice re: the previously mentioned wheel issue I was having.  When I went to pay, he charged me only the wholesale cost of the shifters and NOTHING for labour!!!!!  A serious discount!  I gave him a Sea to Sea card and he offered to post the info on their shop FB page in order to solicit donations.  Truly amazing!!!  It was an incredible experience of both God’s provision in general as well as a peek at some God characteristics through the people I was with today (the servant spirit of those who helped to pull me through the day, the amazing kindness of the shop owner).  It was an amazing glimpse of God’s glory!

Now, about Deb.  Deb and Mark are a couple who joined the tour just  for this week and Mark only rode part of the day on 3 days.  Mark was diagnosed with liposarcoma of the leg in Nov or Dec of last year, spent Feb having radiation therapy and then had surgery this spring to resect the tumour.  They removed a 3.5 lb tumour the size of a football from his right thigh, which was complicated by the fact that the tumour was wrapped around the sciatic nerve and associated vascular structures.  Mark was initially told he needed to have his leg amputated, but he signed up for Sea to Sea anyway.  Eventually, the surgeons decided he didn`t need amputation, but because of the location of the tumour, there was no guarantee that he would have good leg function post op (in case of damage to the sciatic nerve or the blood vessels).  He was still planning to do Sea to Sea even though he had no idea what his operative outcome would be.  We was only discharged from hospital 8 weeks before riding.  He started riding a trainer at his house post op and was up to 45 min at a time when he developed severe lymphedema of the leg, prohibiting activity.  Still, he planned to do Sea to Sea.  After intense physio and compression therapy, he received the green light to go ahead and ride short distances (he rode a total of 60 miles this week).  He was especially fun to ride with today as he grew up in the area we were riding through, including one of the Navajo communities and Shiprock itself!  Deb is his wife, who told me a lot of the story while cheerfully driving 45 min out of her way to Farmington bike shop.  She was an absolute delight and the joy that comes from that woman is absolutely contagious.  I was amazingly inspired by their story of faith and providence. 

So, all in all, I`m pretty fired up right now!  An awesome day riding, a look at God`s heart, an experience of providence and an inspirational story of faith:  bring on the climbing in Colorado, Sea to Sea!!!!