A Needed Push

Today was one of those in which I was praying for an energy injection – wasn’t really feeling it after going to bed last night with great intentions: start early, maybe get in 30 or 35 miles before the heat set in. It’s the end of Week 3, and together, so far, the Great Cycle Challenge community – raising money to eradicate kids’ cancer – has pedaled 1,409,611 miles and raised $6,810,130. Me? 352.9 miles, 147.1 to go, 1,854 dollars, hoping for $2,500 – and special thanks to Cheryl Barnes McLane for her Sunday morning donation.

I know and pray for some children who have had to fight their entire lives to still be here. Overall, I’ve heard and read about more kids than I know, that spend every day battling. But I have known, loved, laughed with, and cared about many who have already passed from cancer. Children of God, I like to think. It is on days like today, when I’m blessed with the freedom and health to leave our home pedaling a bicycle, that I keep them in mind.

That Jody Jividen and Marina might be gearing up to watch his team, the Detroit Lions, and how the Lions’ assent and predicted success would have him on Cloud 9, or how he may have been thinking of a great lede for tomorrow’s column while on a run. Or that Mike Cherry might be hitting tennis balls with his wife, Carrie, and daughter, Julia, before writing his story about WVU’s last minute victory yesterday.

Loren and Hollis may have awakened hours ago in Paris, their home away from home, and taken to the street to a café for beverages, their ears still ringing from a concert the night before. For Judy Koontz Belcher, never enough hours in the day for all she demanded of herself, her jewelry, her writing, just as Kelli Hill Kukura might be thinking of everyone but herself – her kids, John, her friends and neighbors – as she went about her business on this day.

And, my sister Kelly, present every day in my mind, on every ride, I wonder if she might have made Sunday morning calls to her kids, Chloe or Logan, or momma Ruthie or me, before heading to a football game, or relaxing with friends and Chip. Or perhaps they’d be traveling, looking for early fall foliage. She’d encourage me to tough it out, push, get it going, not be lazy – to wave, not shrug my chin. I have to say, the last five miles – out of 27 – seemed easier than the first five today.

Maybe those I ride for were with me, giving me a lift over the knolls and the hills, and into the final flatlands of my neighborhood.

If you care to donate to this important cause, please click on this link:

Great Cycle Challenge USA – Riders – Andy Spradling

Thanks again to Cheryl, and to all my other donors thus far. Thanks for reading and God Bless!