Chapter 4

With all the emotional energy that had been expended in the last, what, less than 24 hours? Asking Melody to marry me, dealing with the whole slow roll of her answer, and the need to ‘talk to the other women in my life’, then getting that letter from Amaury Sport Organization (the dinosaurs that run/own the Tour de France, thus setting the rules for the ‘femmes’ version of it!) and talking myself, and now most of the riders that I trained, into riding in two of the biggest women’s cycling events in Europe for more than a month next summer (without actually talking to our prime sponsor Starbucks or having any clue how to find somewhere between one and three million euros worth of funding for something so quixotic!) I hadn’t really taken in the weather conditions, or fully processed that I was out on the road for the first meaningful time in close to two frickin’ months!

Here it is mid-October (following the Olympics and the oh so fun media circus!) and the sky is still a brilliant blue, perfect wispy white clouds and no noticeable head or tailwind to contend with. The University of Washington has been in session for Fall quarter for a couple of weeks, so this ride would also serve as the first “get to know you!” Ride for the UW Cycling squad. It marked the end of the professional women’s season, most of which I had missed because of the Olympics and the true start of meaningful fall sports events (i.e., American Football!). So, once I got my head out of my least favorite point of contact, I realized that it was a glorious day for a bike ride!

While I had been wool-gathering and chasing my thoughts down various and sundry rabbit holes, we had ridden all the way to the north end of Lake Washington and our little parade was coming to an end as the dogs were starting to get restless ... It was almost as if they were simply waiting for me to get my head into the game, and seeing me finally take in my surroundings and regroup, they decided it was time for the ‘fun and games’ portion of the ride to commence! We pulled into this nice little bike trail side park area, used the facilities and then sort of circled up the wagons before getting back on the road again!

This time, Beth took on the leadership role and stepped up into the center of the group. Holding her hand up to get everyone’s attention, she said “Okay, now that Nate has worked his way through to the other side of his thoughts, it’s time for the real ride to get started! So, we are going to divide this event into four sections, essentially cutting the lake route into four quarters. The 1st of these quarters has just been completed, and we will henceforth refer to it as “the section where Nate pulls his head out!”” This announcement was met with considerable laughter by all, and I made a big production out of saluting all of them while simultaneously bowing and blowing kisses! Which made the laughter even louder!