So it's around 430am and I have been awake for the last hour or so and I decided to brew some coffee and start on my day. My coffee is yum though I was bit heavy-handed with the Kahlua. If I keep it at this pace this morning I may be cited for MWI (Mowing While Intoxicated).
I did some volunteer work today at Greenville 2013 Para Cycling Open and to be honest that wasn't really work. The organizers had me manning the intersection of Salters and Old Sulphur Springs roads making sure that normal folk wouldn't be on the closed road course. Given that I was located in the middle of the course I pretty much did nothing but cheer the athletes and get a sunburn.
For hours after the event and even now as I type, I am on a high from seeing the incredible feats of strength, determination and daredevil-ness of these athletes. Things like seeing someone with cerebral palsy cycling up an incline while their arms are shaking madly as they strain to get up that hill or witnessing a blind person on the back of a tandem bike being coached by the front rider who has vision see as they work as one to go up and down a hill at the fastest speed that they can. Or seeing the former F1 racer Alex Zanardi now a double amputee as a result of race accident now as a hand-cyclist attaining speeds on a downhill stretch that would have me worried on a regular bike is amazing.
The most incredible thing I saw today was the female athlete #189 in the race. She was riding a trike and suffered from cerebral palsy. Her first lap going up the hill I was working was inspiring. She just couldn't get up there. Her trike was stuck in too low of a gear and she just didn't have the strength in her legs to push up the hill. At one point she went backwards at least 15 feet and I was worried that she was going to end up in one of those roadside ditches that are so prevalent on the sides of Greenville county roads. She managed to stop right at the side of the road and grass while we were watching her and the one rule we were told from the outset is that we were not allowed to assist in any matter with the riders. Somewhere deep inside this lady found the willpower to get up that hill. It took her a long time (minutes and minutes) which assured that in her time trial she was just trying to finish. The other guy I was working with told me that he had never seen such a feat of determination. It was amazing! I literally had tears in my eyes when she made it up the hill and looked at us and said "that hill was tough".
This was her first lap. In her category they were doing two laps. I figured that she was only going to do one as her time would obviously not be a podium one. That was a learning lesson for me as for #189 it was about finishing the time trial and not about the time. She came back down on lap two of the trial and we were overhearing on the race radios to keep an eye out for her to make sure she was okay and to call for help if required. On the downhill part she flew by and then had the 1 km circle to do and then come back on the uphill on the other street. On her second try she had figured out her gearing which allowed her to make it up that hill at a decent clip. It was like it was another rider. She gave us a big smile as we were cheering her on. So cool!
I got home around 4pm and H was sitting on the back deck and I started showing him of the pics on my phone and telling him about what I had seen during the day. He made the comment that it seemed like I was high on life as I was babbling incessantly for 15 minutes or so. LOL. It was true as I was at that point. I will definitely be there next year when the world championships are held!
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