...I don't think there is a better place or time to do it than here in your birthday thread, for all you do for others and your awesome sense of determination.
I'd like to share exactly what it is I've alluded to in my own journal, when I said I used to do some insane bike riding on a daily basis as a teenager/young man. This was created using the Google Maps Pedometer, where you can plot a route, point by point, and get a fairly exact distance and handy map.
24 years ago, I was living in North Las Vegas but attending a Vo-Tech high school on the opposite side of the valley. 16-year-old Ege B. had previously been close to 300 pounds, but I really wanted to do something about that. I also -- this being Vegas and all -- wanted no part of being crammed on a school bus full of ruffians (seriously, ruffians) and being carted across the valley and back every day. My answer to this was to have my mother buy me a marginally decent 10 speed bike so that I could cart
myself back and forth. I spent my sophomore year of high school walking 3 miles back and forth daily to my prior school, and by virtue of that I dropped down to a slightly more reasonable 260-ish on my 6-foot-plus, doorway-blocking frame.
When my junior year at So. NV Vo-Tech Center started, I braved my own fear and the still-considerable late August heat and did this:
That ride culminated in a hill of about 1/3 mile in length and a grade of nearly 6% (as measured with the help of Google Earth). I didn't think there'd be any way I would top that hill my first day or any other, without getting off the bike and
pushing it up. Much to my surprise, I dropped my trusty steed into the lowest gear and pushed with every ounce of will I had... and made it up that sucker without stopping the very first time. I left at approximately the same time I would have had to in order to catch the school bus two blocks away, and as I later found out even on that first day I managed a time equivalent to what the bus would have taken. Over time I only got faster.
Out of all my long bike routes -- of which there were a total of three I rode for long periods of time -- this was the most grueling. It lasted until some horrific monsoonal rains came along and completely flooded out the bottom of that big hill by the school. I had no choice but to plow through a foot of water, since back in 1985 there was far less development in that part of town. I came out the other side with both tires flat and totally drenched and filthy. I needed my best friend's parents to come get me that day, and the brow-beating I took from his mother on the way home killed my resolve. I lasted well over a month before the flood stopped me, and I dropped to 235 lbs. and lost about 4 sizes in pants.
If only I knew then what I know now, I'd
never have stopped making those bike trips. But, I offer this as proof that long ago I really was quite the unstoppable tank of a kid.
Happy Birthday, Anna!!!