http://www.krgv.com/videos/police-report-2-attacks-on-mcallen-jogging-trail/
I was on the news today. Seems we have a bit of a pervert problem on our running trails. Now that my bike has been shipped off to Vegas already for Viva Bike Vegas, I’ll be spending more time on the trails. Times have changed though. More predators are out and about.
I WILL NOT LET THEM DEFEAT ALL THE WORK I HAVE DONE SO FAR BY DRIVING ME AWAY WITH FEAR.
I was on those trails first!
Run safe girls! Run smart.
Momma’s birthday was this weekend. It was bittersweet. All this week I had learned of friends who had lost loved ones and with as much experience as I have had and so many people telling me kind and comforting words, I still felt I had nothing comforting to say to them.
Maritza (one of the triathletes that trains with me and a beauty queen I have been mentoring for years now) lost her brother this week. It was a complete shock for her and her family. He was just 31 years old.
Jaime (my high school boyfriend) celebrated his birthday on the same day that his father passed away.
You would think that sufficient time has passed for me to be able to offer words of wisdom and attend a rosary or funeral with poise. But I still can’t. I break down too easily. And the harder I try to be strong, the worse off I am.
When does it get better? When does it get easier?
I spent Momma’s birthday on the streets again riding. Everyone warned me of the rain storm that was predicted to pummel us that morning. I have to roll my eyes now. Seems no one believes I have weather angels. *that was sarcasm but kinda true*
The weather was perfect. Absolutely perfect!!!
Halfway through my ride, I got this incredible urge to go straight home. I don’t know what it was but I just had to get home to Dad.
I’m so glad I did. He needed me there. He took today harder than I expected. Sometimes I’m too used to looking up to him to remember that he lost his wife, his sister and his son this last year, too. He is human.
I spent the day listening to him. We played pool, ate some lunch, had some birthday dessert and remembered her quietly in our own ways.
I chose to rest on the hammock in the porch and found myself staring at the swing she so enjoyed every morning with her cup of coffee. She loved her back yard. I don’t blame her. It has the most amazing flowers and birds. In a way, I could still see her on that swing.
I know we all have to go through this throughout our lives. I just wish it didn’t happen this early in life. I wish I could take the pain away.
I wish.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) kicked off Blood Cancer Awareness Month. One of our goals for September is to create a keen awareness of the critical needs so many patients have for therapies that can save their lives not someday, but today.
Since its beginning, LLS has focused on finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for all blood cancer patients. We have one goal: A world without blood cancers.
With that goal comes our responsibility as the voice for all blood patients to disseminate crucial information about treatments and access.
The results of our national consumer survey point to knowledge gaps that we aim to address with our education efforts, so that we can continue to fund our mission:
82% of adults were surprised to learn more than 1 million US adults are living with a blood cancer.
76% of adults did not know LLS funds promising cancer therapies.
87% of adults were surprised to learn about every 4 minutes someone in the US is diagnosed with a blood cancer.
Knowing the facts is important in deciding where to give your charity dollars. To learn more about Blood Cancer Awareness Month click here.
Where does the $$ you raise go??
18,300 patients received LLS Co-Pay Assistance in FY13
More than $41.2 million dollars were disbursed in FY13
Again… My mother battled cancer for 6 1/2 years. Someone out there in the world ran a marathon(s) for her treatment. My Sissy battled cancer for 2 years. Someone out there in the world completed a triathlon for her co-pay.
In about two weeks, I will complete the triple crown – a marathon, a triathlon and a century ride – so that someone I will probably never meet will be able to get their treatment… or hopefully a cure. That person is just as important as the loved ones that cancer stole from me.
I was watching Good Morning America today and was brought to tears by Mandisa’s new song that was debuted. The video was so powerful. Here are the lyrics:
Staring at a stop sign
Watching people drive by
T Mac on the radio
Got so much on your mind
Nothing’s really going right
Looking for a ray of hope
Whatever it is you may be going through
I know He’s not gonna let it get the best of you
You’re an overcomer
Stay in the fight til the final round
You’re not going under
Cause God is holding you right now
You might be down for a moment
Feeling like it’s hopeless
That’s when He reminds You
That you’re an overcomer
You’re an overcomer
Everybody’s been down
Hit the bottom, hit the ground
Oh, you’re not alone
Just take a breath, don’t forget
Hang on to His promises
He wants You to know
The same Man, the Great I am
The one who overcame death
Is living inside of You
So just hold tight, fix your eyes
On the one who holds your life
There’s nothing He can’t do
He’s telling You
Saturday is Momma’s birthday. I’m still not sure what I should be feeling. I know what I do feel.
From the moment I began this journey, I dedicated myself to doing this full force 110% the way I’m supposed to – the right way – the way my coach tells me to.
Up until today. Forgive me Coach. Today was an exception.
I got a text yesterday asking if I was going to ride because she needed to ride. She needed to ride with someone. Someone she trusted. Someone who understood. Someone who could get her to escape into the wind, under the moonlight and stars and away from the reality of her hurt. She needed to be where the sunglasses hide the tears and the wind sweeps them away from her cheeks before anyone can notice. She needed to be where she and her brother loved to be… on two wheels. She needed to be with someone who understood the loss that she was feeling. The loss of her very first best friend. The loss of the only other person in this world who experienced her childhood memories. The loss of her only sibling, her brother.
This morning, I and three others, Mike, Mike and Cheryl, rode with Maritza so that she could ride for her Joey. It wasn’t our normal Tuesday and Thursday morning ride. It was special.
I had to stay in the back behind her so that she could not see me cry. This was her loss not mine. But the reminder was still too fresh for me as my baby brother was just as dear and a shocking loss way too early. I couldn’t contain my tears. Thankfully, the wind was just as generous sweeping my tears as it was with hers.
Maritza and I popping off the 5AM Wake up ride this morning to share a cup of coffee and have a good old heart to heart. Sometimes strong women need to be allowed to break down for just a while in the safe surroundings of trusted friendships that understand.
My big ride this week was an 80-miler scheduled for early Saturday morning. Funny how I had planned all week going over route after route and getting advice from all the local experienced bicyclists… and I ended up not doing any of the discussed routes!!! But everything worked out in the end.
Here’s how it went:
3:45 alarm blares. I smash it into snooze oblivion.
3:50 alarm blares again. Ok Ok!!! I’m up! I’m up!
4:10 I’m all dressed, teeth are brushed and hair is braided back. I grab my garmin and the two lights charging in my office. I get my water bottles out of the kitchen. I make my coffee and bagel and say a cuss word when I see that someone ate all the peanut butter!! (I’m not nice in the morning)
4:30 I put air in the tires, attach the lights, pack my chomps, gu and check the brakes. Slip on my clips, take a spin around the block to make sure all is well and zoom off the parking lot to wait for the rest of the gang.
4:45… the gang no shows
5:00 Wheels down. I head North. I had spoken to all the other bicycles gangs in the area and took note of their departure times and routes so within a few minutes, I had already hooked up with a new gang that I had never met around Edinburg. Their pace was a bit slower than mine so it was easy to have that familiar discussion… “Hey, your bike! That’s the orange bike! Are you Myssie?”
It was early and I still had a long ways to go so I did the “click click” after a short while and jumped onto the next group along the familiar 5am Wake up ride route going South on Jackson. While it was surprisingly cooler than expected, it was still quite humid. I was going through water pretty fast.
7:00 I see the 2nd street overpass and tell myself to attack it with all I have. I set my gears in place, I fire up my quads and mash it with all my might. I did it!! One gear and seated!! The runners along the trail whoop and holler and my arm shoots up with proud fists. As I descend the hill, I see the Team in Training group… AND THE WATER STATION!!! I zoom by for a free refill and snap some goofy shots of us together and I’m on my way again.
Once I hit Military Road, I feel like Switzerland. My mind goes back to a conversation about bicycle gangs and how it was expected to be a part of one or be shunned by all. I smile, relieved that all the groups that had congregated along the road over the next few hours all waved at me and welcomed me to join in with them along their rides. All up and down from Edinburg to Pharr to McAllen to Mission to Granjeno to Penitas and back, every single bike group welcomed me… or was it that they welcomed the “orange bike”??? I have to admit, my bike is quite famous now.
At my midway point, I stop for fuel and to check my stats at the corner convenience store on the corner of Shary Road. It is where most of the cyclists meet for the same reasons. While I’m there, several bikers surround me to check in and see how I’m doing. A few ask about a close friend of mine who also cycles and triathlons (is that a verb?) with me. Maritza had lost her brother just two days before while he was on his bike in a tragic tractor trailer accident shortly after he returned from his tour of duty. The news had begun to spread quickly and left us all with heavy hearts.
The group made sure I was ok and I was off to meet up with another group at the Butterfly park. However, it was this short little time when I was alone that my worst nightmare came true.
I had traveled the road a hundred times. I knew how to go over rail road tracks correctly and did so each time. But this one time… when I was alone… it all went awry.
In a split second, the tracks seems to catch my tire perfectly. I was thrown, attached to my bike with my clips, into the middle lane and right in front of oncoming traffic. I remember it in slow motion… Falling slowly…I had to have flown at least ten feet into the air and onto the next lane. My head hit the street and then my elbow and then I hear the crash of my bike. “Don’t get up Myssie. Don’t get up. The 18-wheeler is going to run over you right now. You’re going to die. You’re going to die now.”
I turn my head slowly under and to my left. The 18-wheeler had stopped just in time. I was not going to die.
A kind stranger, Joel Sanchez, saw the whole thing unfold before him. He stopped. He drove an Aggie maroon colored hunting truck with camouflage upholstery and picked me up from the street. He swooped up my bike into the bed of his angel guided vehicle. This wonderful man took me to the same corner store to help clean my scrapes and put my chain back onto my bike. And just as he appeared from nowhere… he escaped to nowhere once again.
Just as I was about to throw in the towel and call someone to pick me up… the next group of angels arrived. He was a preacher and he had with him a child, a 15-year old bicycle prodigy trying to escape a life of gangs and drugs via the world of bikes. God speaks to me. Some times quite loudly.
We went on for another 20 plus miles after that. They even escorted me home to make sure I made it safely.
A few blocks from home I asked myself how I really felt. I was surprised that I felt like I could easily go another 20 more miles… easy. Granted, not FAST… but easy. I could do it. I feel really good about my training. I had a good scare. I am lucky. But I feel my calling now more than ever before. There must be a reason I am here doing what I’m doing. Someone really important is going to benefit from my fundraising. I may never meet this person but I know deep in my heart, this person is just as important as my mom was to me.
RunMyssieRun 