Race Day is Here!

I woke up this morning too early. Last time I was in California, I loved waking up naturally at 5 am. But today I had wanted to bank some sleep hours. I think I’ll need them sometime in the next week.

Yesterday was an exciting day of prepping bikes, getting ready for inspections, team pictures, official RAAM meetings, team meetings and a team dinner. First time the twenty of us (eight riders, twelve crew) were together. Very exciting!

We’ve got our plan. Now it’s time to execute.

I learned last night that George Linney will be the captain of my team of four, which includes also my daughter, Jenny, and Henry McKoy. The other team (Lance Condray, Henry Kaestner, David Hofmann, Christopher Gergen) will ride eight hours and then hand the race off to us. We all begin with a parade start from the Oceanside Pier at 2:30 Pacific Time. The whole team will ride together for 7-8 miles and then we’ll send Lance or Henry off for the real racing, first leg. That means our four-person team won’t see the road again until 10 pm—which really means that we won’t see the road very well at all for our first leg. Not what I imagined, but then when I signed up I knew that I was enlisting for the Unimaginable. So here we go. By 10 pm we’ll be well into our climbing through California and Arizona. It’ll be interesting to find out whether a hill is better or worse when you can’t see it coming or going.

There’s an irresistible temptation to think that we’re doing this because we’re good at it, because we’ve trained. Wrong. We trained for this and made ourselves as ready as we are because we wanted to tell loud and clear the story of a city where people help people, the story of some great organizations:

A Helping Hand’s Program

Achievement Academy

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Citizen Schools

Communities in Schools

Crayons2Calculators

Dress for Success

Durham Eagles

Durham Rescue Mission

Durham YMCA

Habitat for Humanity

Housing for New Hope

Kramden Institute

Pregnancy Support Services

Project Compassion

Sales & Service Training Center

Samaritan Health Center

TROSA

So here we go. And as we go, I remember this psalm:

I lift my eyes up to the hills;

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121