First Century of the Year and some other fond memories

As a cyclist, I feel very lucky to have shared in other people's accomplishments as others have shared in mine!  Today, was no exception.  We rode our first century of the year with 7 other fine cyclists.  Today, I feel honored to share in my friends' first century.  Nilsa and Marti rode their first century with us today!!!  Marti is a bad a**, just so you know, so it felt great to be on his first century.  Nilsa has only been riding a relatively short time so we are all SO proud of her for sticking it out!  What makes this even nicer is that they are married.  It feels great to share in such a great accomplishment. 

This allowed me to reflect on some other fond memories of sharing in other friends' accomplishments.  One I am particularly proud of is sharing Lou's first double century weekend (I think that is correct) a couple of years ago along with my peep, Marvelous Marvin.  Lou is a great friend of mine and has really come such a long way.  He has overcome many things that some people would never be able to get through so to share this was fantastic! Another memory I was able to share with Lou is when he got to his 10,000 mile mark in 2010...okay, now he is a regular bad a**!

Another fond memory come from 2007 CNC when 8 of us started a century and for 4 of them, it was their first.  It was particularly great to share my friends', Allison and Sandy, first century.  I think that has bonded us together for life!  These are some fantastic ladies and I feel honored to have shared in their first century.  Since then Allison has ridden a 4:55 century and Sandy has ridden at least a portion, if not all, of the past four CNCs.  I was also thrilled to have shared this with one of my favorite long distance peeps, Jimmy D.  Jimmy D. is a whole other inspiration: Type 1 Diabetic, ice climber, awesome cyclist and all around Bad A**...but don't tell him I told you!  Jimmy and I have shared many long miles during CNC!!!

Another more recent memory was riding another first century with our friend, Wayne, on Veterans Day 2010.  Wayne, while a handsome devil and good cyclist, is not a particularly young guy and has overcome being a lazy 220 pound man not that long ago.  He is absolutely one of the nicest men I have met.  It was so nice to share it with him because he is a pretty groovy guy and has overcome many obstacles and smiles all the time.  Oh, and Vince, our resident 76 year old cyclist was with us for this century and he basically could have kicked our a**es.  So, when people complain they can't do something because they are old...I want to them to see Vince.

The path to greatness is along with others.  - Baltasar Gracion, Spanish Priest

I was looking for a quote about you never feel better than when you help others.  But this quote is more  appropriate.  Honestly, I feel so lucky to have shared in these moments.  What makes me even more lucky is I got to share some of them with my favorite sista girl, Leo...and that is a whole other blog post!!