"The Bear"

"You rode 100 miles last weekend, you aren't really going to attempt "The Bear" (with your brothers) 1 week later, are you?" I couldn't believe this thinking, this determination, this craze to exhaustion, but 5 days later we were driving to northern Michigan with bikes on the back, kids, and a dog.

The Black Bear begins at dusk when canoes take off to paddle 100 miles through the night ending near Oscoda - beautiful countr, by the way. The bikes take off in the morning and they do what is called a Lemans start - more crazed cycling behavior. The bikes are all corralled in one area and the riders are corralled in another. They take off at gunshot running in bike shoes to find their bikes and get on and take off - a wild beginning, adrenalin pumping so its filling the air all around.

The route is along 2 lane state highways that are mostly less traveled and scenic. We families in cars had strict instruction to provide drinks that had been prepared ahead in labeled bottles for each of the 4 riders we were 'supporting'. We were supposed to pull of the highway and stand with drinks ready to pass out to the riders - that was interesting. Those 'experienced' riders knew to slow down a bit to grasp the bottle in our outstretched hands, but my less experienced, and very competitive spouse, wasn't going to slow down at all as long as a brother and sister-in-law were ahead of him. So he missed the grab and the bottle went rolling to the ground, on the road, in between all the wheels approaching! That managed to PO a few riders..... I guess we learned something and thank the lord the bottle bounced without causing a mishap.

From that point, we all knew to do hand-offs at the top of a hill, the riders all now knew to slow up, so the hand-offs went smoothly the rest of the way. It was hot, they needed drink, we did our job, we made sure everyone got something at some point because it would have been killer to ride 4-5 hours with no replenishment.

We got to the finish line just as some of our riders were getting to it and we managed to be there to see the glee, exhaustion, contentment, accomplishment, relief, and satisfaction on my beloved's face. He had ridden to cancer and back. We didn't need to think ahead any further, he would just keep riding and we could live in that kind of moment. The thinking about all scenarios and what-ifs, and treatments if this or that still happens had exhausted me. His exhaustion now comes from riding, running, and swimming ahead of it all. He has PSA tests every 3 months. For the last year they have all been less than o.o1 - the target. Sometimes they report these at three decimals, so one was 0.008, but I believe that is still the target. We just know it is nothing that has to take us on a new path, so he just keeps eating well, getting stronger, and staying the course. And I am thankful that he is doing just that.

Back on the Bicycle

It was difficult enough to recover from surgery and rearranging organs, but when would he be able to get on that new bicycle and ride away? I think it was about 7 weeks before he snuck on the bike (set up on an indoor trainer) and rode standing up the whole time. Phew! I could not do that - it takes a lot of determination. So he began to ride...and ride...and ride...and pretty soon it was June and he started riding a bit outside.

I have to talk a bit about my hubby's family here, because he has 9 brothers and 1 sister. Two of his bros have been riding for years, they are all competitive, and they do things well together. There was talk about "The Bear", a Century ride that those 2 have been doing a few years....its 100 miles following canoes across Michigan - pretty nice ride, but completely a new thing to us. Those three muskateers had talked about doing this ride BEFORE cancer showed up - but with surgery March 17 and 10-12 weeks prescribed with no sitting and riding on a bike, it just seemed like a century ride in July was out for this year.

So, mid-July came around, along with a local century ride and an old friend who said,"Let's try it, its right in our neighborhood, and we could learn......" so they did it. I drove the route, it rained like heck, but I finally found them at the refreshment station a bit more than half way through. Amazing....this man of mine was doing this ride - and he wasn't coming in last at all. He had finally landed in the "Riding Ahead of It" zone, I think.