Wednesday, June 9, 2010

I might as well...right?

About a month ago, I decided to try out some of the other classes at the gym and found myself in a "bootcamp" class. The class itself was pretty boring but I did notice that there was a woman in the class that couldm't seem to keep up and/or she didn't quite understand what was going on. By the end of the class, I realized what was going on was that the woman was blind.

This morning before work I sat down on the bike at the gym and next to me sat the same woman. At some point in our "ride" next to each other, the woman asked me how many miles she had rode, her heartrate and the time. I read off the bike the details and we chatted about the gym, riding bikes, etc....small talk.

The woman told me that she was training for the STP (seattle to portland bike ride) in July and asked me to think about her on the 17th as she crossed the finish line. She has never been in a bike race before or really rode a bike (secondary to being blind). She is able to participate in the STP through a program called Outdoors for All and someone will be riding on a tandem bike with her the entire way to Oregon. She asked if I had rode the STP; I said no. I praised her for such a big accomplishment (not only just riding that far but for doing so as a mid-50's woman who has never rode a bike and is blind!). Her response to my praise?

"I might as well...I mean, it's just one pedal at a time, right"