Sunday morning, September 19, the day after the metric century ride, I woke up feeling a bit like my toddler children when they’d proudly proclaim, I did it! I learned a lot from this wet, soggy ride about riding long distances in the rain, myself, and how God always watches over me.

The easy to explain things I learned for next time:

• Consider using RainX on my glasses to improve vision
• Your phone and watch will die – bring a brick for charging
• Bring a flat kit even with SAG support
• NOTHING will keep you dry on a bike for 60 miles in the rain
• Add waterproof bag for dry things – like eye glass cloths
• Train for more hills
• Turn your insulin pump down further and don’t bolus for carbs
• Observe your head space when you feel like quitting
• Guardian angels are real

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I can do hard things. Hard things are easier when faced with friends who help get us out of our head. I trained with friends but rode this ride alone. I can do brave things. Physically hard things take both physical and mental training. Mental training because pushing your physical limits can trigger your fears, the “I can’t” thoughts, and lead to feelings of wanting to quit in my head and heart.

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The desire to sit down and cry came on strong toward the end of the ride. I faced the two longest and steepest hills in the last ten to fifteen miles when I was exhausted, sore, soaked to the bone, and felt a bit lost since my phone died. Then all these elements triggered my fear of abandonment which made me feel a bit panicked. Thankfully, I realized that almost immediately and started to talk to God about it and intentionally slowed my pace and my breathing down.

Once I got to the top of the last hill, wouldn’t you know, I ended up with a flat front tire. As I continued walking my bike up the road, I began to contemplate what I could do. No emergency phones in sight. Plenty of homes but most sat off the road a ways so didn’t feel safe approaching them. I kept praying. I stopped at the next street, Shuhn Lane.

Before long a gentleman driving a truck pulled in and asked if I was okay. I said no… my tire was flat. My phone was dead. I was on a long bike ride and I had no idea how many miles – less than ten at best guess – I had left. Thankfully, he cycles too, lived five minutes back down the road, and offered to go get what I needed. Sure enough less than ten minutes later, Will (his name) was back with a bike tube, a tire pump, a charging brick, and an iPhone cable. As he handed me the brick and cable he took my bike wheel out of my hand and began to change it. I was so relieved. We chatted while he fixed my flat and then before he let me get on my bike and ride away, he wanted to make sure I could access my map and knew where I was headed.

My phone charged enough that I knew the next turn was about one and a half miles away. Here’s one last nifty thing I learned – if your iPhone charging port gets wet and you plug it in, it won’t charge. It will give you an alert recommending you dry the phone first. Thankfully, I learned at lunch, if you pull it out and plug it in again, it will give you an emergency override option the second time. Anyway, Will then asked more questions about the ride and where it ended. Once he understood more about where I was headed, he reassured me I was only about five miles from the end (thank heavens!) and then he described what he believed would be the remaining part of the route. As I rode toward the finish line and realized how accurate Will’s description of the remaining five miles had been my exhaustion gave way to relief and a tiny bit of exhilaration in actually finishing the soggy 62 mile ride. I also rejoiced and felt like God sent a guardian angel to show He saw me and to help me make it safely to the end.

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Today, September 23, I received an email from the Communication Manager at World Relief. She shared that thirty nine riders collectively raised over $70,000 to help purchase another moving and passenger van which is crucial to welcome and transport families in Sacramento. All remaining funds will also help provide housing, job placement services, driving classes, English classes and more. In the month of August alone, World Relief welcomed 195 Afghanis and anticipate 400 more in the next few months. So to my sponsors on behalf of World Relief, THANK YOU!!!