This week’s episode is an excerpt from my book, Piece of Work. Chapter 1 - Looking for Love...
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2003
I take a bite of the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I’ve ever tasted, soft bread
bursting with sticky grape jelly and smooth salty peanut butter. Mmm. It’s possible
anything would taste good right now, but I’m savoring every bite of this deliciousness.
After almost eight hours on the tiny hard seat of my road bike, I’m sitting alone at
a picnic table outside the cafeteria of the only high school in Gila Bend, Arizona. I can
almost feel my blood sugar perking up, my muscles refueling on carbs, fat and protein.
Always watching my weight, I mentally calculate my calories in versus calories out.
I’ve burned maybe 2000 calories, and only eaten a few energy bars, some banana halves, a turkey sandwich at lunch, and a packet of chocolate Gu. Surely, I must have lost a few pounds in all those hours. I’ve always been short and curvy, never quite as skinny as I wanted to be.
It’s Saturday - no kids on campus today. Just a bunch of crazy adults
participating in the 2003 MS150, a two-day, 150-mile cycling event that benefits Multiple Sclerosis.
A glob of jelly plops down on my thigh and I look down in an exhausted haze at
my aching, tingling legs. They don’t look any leaner. Maybe a little tanner, though? Or
perhaps that’s just a layer of sweat and grime. Regardless, I scoop the jelly up with my
finger and lick it unabashedly. God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt.
My right calf has some chain grease on it, a rookie mark, my cycling buddies in
college would call it. I should be out of the rookie phase by now. But I think the guys I
worked with at Outdoor Adventures would be glad to see how far I’ve come on the little purple Cannondale road bike they helped me pick out 10 years ago. It was like it was waiting there for me, on sale, mounted up on a pedestal, extra small just for me. I rode it around the parking lot, and I’ve been working hard to become a real cyclist ever since.
I’m 29 now, still not fast on the bike, and hardly the ideal image of a cyclist, but I’ll give
myself credit for being one persistent little Energizer Bunny...
Piece of Work, a Memoir: We are all a Piece of Work, a Work in Progress, and a Work of Art. Available in all formats on Amazon and select bookstores. The Audible version is read by yours truly. You can use one of your Audible credits or even sign up for a free trial. I love listening to audiobooks while driving, walking, doing laundry. In some ways I like audiobooks even better than actually reading.
Order your copy here: https://amzn.to/3WxwAKO