2007 Face of America Ride

When the alarm went off at 4:30 AM today the only thing I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep. When I forced myself to get vertical, I realized that not only was I tired but my stomach was not feeling great.

I had signed up as a volunteer in the 2007 Face of America Ride, a two day bike ride for disabled veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was to ride sweep which meant I would follow the last person and make sure they got to either the designated rest stop or to the Bethesda Naval Hospital, the finish for the two-day ride. I'll be honest, I did seriously think about not going and part of me debated whether that even required a phone call to the volunteer coordinator--I was acting nearly in anonymity, how would they miss me.

I managed to get to the ride start in Frederick, MD battling sleep as I drove. I found the Community College that hosted the disabled athletes between the two ride days and amazingly I found where they were on the sprawling, unsigned campus. No one seemed to know where the volunteer coordinator was and it also seemed that they had plenty of volunteers--riders, aid station workers etc. A thought passed through my mind that if I left, again, how would they miss me.

Sometimes, it is not so much what we do for others as what others do for us. Today, while I thought I was the one giving, I received. I rode 56 miles with many disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. These are the same images you see on tv--missing limbs, blindness, horrible scarring mentally and emotionally. These men and women were determined under any circumstances to get to the finish and I made sure they did. I stayed with the slowest of the slow. I encouraged them, I yelled at them, I was introduced to their life and families through our conversations.

I may be sunburned, I may have ridden the slowest 56 miles in my life, I may have applied my brakes going uphill just to stay with a rider. These were not altruistic sacrifices on my part but in fact my gift from the men and women struggling to embrace their new lives. Next time you feel a sense of dread over something you need to do remember that the most precious gifts can come from the things you least feel like doing.

PS And for JB, who arose at the early 4:30 AM hour with me and dropped me off in Frederick, MD, I hope you can vicariously live through this gift to.