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08-25-21, 09:09 AM

#21

_ForceD_

Sr Member on Sr bikes

Join Date: Jul 2015

Location: Rhode Island (sometimes in SE Florida)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by shelbyfv

"....I ride harder for them. I know they would do the same for me." I don't understand this.

How does riding hard benefit someone else?

I sort of get it. Years ago when I was working (in my 40s), I would frequently go for a run during my lunch breaks at work. A guy that I worked closely with was a complete leg amputee due to bone cancer. On those days, when we’d get back to work after lunch, he would question me intently about my run. How long, where’d I go, how were the conditions, etc. Sometimes it made me feel kind of guilty, as if I were disregarding his disability. But sometimes he’d start asking before lunch if and where I was going to run. Then I discovered a close friend had known him since grade school. The friend informed me that in middle school, and early h.s. the guy was the preeminent distance runner on the middle school, and early h.s. track and CC teams. He’d be seen running all over town, all throughout the year. It’s what he was known for. Then the bone cancer struck and his leg was amputated from about an inch below the hip. His running days finished. Evidently he queried every runner he knew about their runs. I soon met some others who he likewise questioned. It was apparent that he was visualizing himself in those conditions, experiencing and reliving them as if he was still running. And so often, on days that I really didn’t feel like running, I’d find the wherewithal to go anyway. Just as sort of an acknowledge to him. And for me it gave me a greater appreciation for my abilities.

Dan

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