Breast Cancer

I know, you are asking me: what does a bike blog have to do with breast cancer? Well, I guess my answer is that maybe this is a life-blog that talks quite a bit about bikes. Anyway, breast cancer has been on my mind a lot for the past month.

This weekend was the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk in San Diego. I did not walk (I never do fund raising events because I can't ask people for money), but I did support my friends who walked. I met them each day, bought them beers and gave them snacks, and tried to make them laugh (I rode my bike to our meet up spots so there is a bike in this story).

I ended up waiting for them in places where other supporters were also congregating. I was a little surprised by the zany outfits, brazen slogans, and kookie attitudes. I was not surprised to see people limping and doggedly marching on despite pain, exhaustion, or bad weather.

My work partner is a breast cancer survivor. She walked the whole thing and others walked along beside her. Today, the final day of the walk, is her 47th birthday. No one I know makes me laugh as much as she does. No one I know is loved by so many people from different walks of life, and different cultures. Tania is my hero today, and she does not even ride a bike...

Cheers to you ladies in pink!

Livestrong

I don't know what this means exactly. I think the meaning changes as it is applied to different people and different situations. I feel it though. Right now, to me, it feels like taking my mother home from the hospital after surgery to treat breast cancer - not a recurrence, but a whole new breast cancer - different than the one she had 25 years ago - and she says "that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, they've gotten better at this". It feels like how I immagine my coworker feels the day after her husband died of cancer - too young and too "healthy"- and she talks about the good memories she has of him. It feels like my neighbor telling me her metastatic tumors are growing again "I want to re-do my backyard to improve my 'outdoor living'. All of this in the past couple of weeks.

I haven't been riding much these past couple of weeks. I haven't been too obsessed about it either. I just decided that sometimes life happens in ways that throw us off track. I can still get back on track again later...It just happens that this weekend is the 2nd annual Bike the Coast ride in Oceanside, CA. We had such a good time last year doing the ride and making it a long weekend "stay-cation" we decided to do it again this year. Even though I haven't been riding much, and there is a lot going on around me, we stuck to our plan and headed north.

San Diego had its first winter storm yesterday, rained day and night, but today dawned crisp and clean. It was a beautiful day to be on the bike. I had lunch on a bench sitting on a cliff above the breaking waves of Moonlight Beach. I saw a school of dolphins playing in the surf and remembered how I used to spend my summers boogie boarding in those very waves when I was in high school. I felt at peace for the first time in a couple of weeks.

When I am feeling overwhelmed by people and events around me, sometimes my bike helps me to Livestrong.