A Rollercoaster Week of Emotion

Well, it's Sunday. Just back from an amazing (but extremely hot) Celebration Rally here in Denver, Colorado.

Week 4 is now behind us and though there were great days and beautiful scenery I am thankful to have it over and look forward to week 5 with more downhill then up :)

This past week has been an extremely emotional and trying week for me and at times very frustrating, unfortunately. But it has also been a week of once again learning patience and putting it into action (which was the theme for the week) and accepting that it's okay to be served now and then rather then serve.

For those of you who don't know, I had many troubles with me knee this week with all the climbing and had to make some hard decisions. I am so thankful though that God put people right where I needed them to be when I felt like I couldn't go on.

I started out being on sweep team this week and the first part of the day went well. I flew up the first mountain and it was such a great feeling...but then we hit the second mountain and though we are not sure of exact numbers, we climbed roughly from just under 7000 ft to 9485 ft with an 8% grade a fair amount of the way. Things were going okay in the beginning but then they just turned sour. My knees gave out and shortly after my entire body. I was riding with Justin Helder and he was a godsend. He helped keep my mind off of the pain and helped me climb right to the top of that mountain. Of course we were stopping every couple of km's to take "photo breaks" (which could also be labeled as breathing breaks due to high elevation :P).

Of course with almost every large climb is a wonderful downhill ride. We rode into Hanna (small town) at the halfway point and stopped at a restaurant where many other cyclists were stopped.
It was there that my breaking point happened. We had 60km's left and I knew that I couldn't do it anymore but I didn't want to face that fact. My fellow sweep mate, Barb, found me out back and talked with me, prayed with me and helped me to make the decision that I needed to stop for the day and take the SAG wagon back. You wouldn't believe the number of emotions and thoughts that were running through my head.

I've let people down, I've let myself down...no, it's okay, it isn't the end of the world if I don't ride every km...but it sure feels like it...this tour isn't about me...why can't my body just be fine...I made it 3 weeks...that in itself is a great accomplishment...and I have 6 more weeks to go...need to be smart....and so on...the thoughts continued to come and with each, more tears.

Everyone was so compassionate and caring that evening. It blows me away the support that comes from within this tour and from those back home. I was so thankful too to talk with my mom that night too...sometimes that's exactly what you need.

Of course the next morning, still being sort of stubborn but having accepted some of my feat, I decided that I would still try riding the downhill portion that started out the day and then get picked up before the climb...I lasted 4 km's. 2km's out of town and the 2 to get back.

For the next 2 days, I rode with the wonderful kitchen crew that infolded me and helped me make the best of those days. I really did have so much fun with them and am so thankful for all the laughter.

Though I'll admit, I am amazed how quickly when sitting on the sidelines, you almost feel like you were never riding. Watching others through the clean windows of Jeri's jeep (I windex'd them before we left, haha, wanted to make sure I could still take good pics, I'm weird I know).

I didn't know how quickly I could let myself ride again but I was getting antsy and decided on Thursday (even though anticipated as one of the hardest days of the week) to get back on my bike with the intention of getting picked up by Betsy before the big climb and dropped off for the glory-downhill ride. I rode with Pastor Len. He is such a great guy to ride with, especially on the days where you are a little down. I am so thankful that he is on this tour and that God put him in my life. We had such a great day together and good conversation and we took our time, just enjoying the moment of being able to cycle.

I rode on Friday as well with the girls for the 55km day. We dilly-dawdled most of the day and it was awesome. Starting out with breakfast, then another restaurant snack stop as well as a candy store stop :) We also stopped for coffee one more time with only 15km and a climb left to go.

Sadly I discovered that my knee was not happy to do another climb and it failed on me again. With only a couple of km's to go I had to flag down Betsy (SAG driver) and hitch a ride into camp. I was so close. It was definitely a bit disheartening that on such a small climb I was still having such trouble. I really struggled that evening not knowing what I should do about Saturday's ride. There was some beautiful downhill that I really wanted to ride but the day started with a large climb and there was another one halfway through the day and I didn't want to be an annoyance by asking to be driven twice to bypass the climbs. But Betsy is just wonderful and goes out of her way to make you feel okay while she's is once again locking your bike up on the top of the van.
I was truly thankful that during Friday evening we had communion together as a community and also said goodbye to the riders who were only with us for the first 4 weeks. It was a very powerful and needed evening. I'm also thankful for wonderful friends like Nick Ellens, who are there for you when you need to cry on their shoulder (and of course to so many more people - you know who you are).

Well, I ended up riding 80km's of the 140km day on Saturday and it was so great. I'm so thankful I got to do part of it. Coming down the mountain was awesome (breaking my speed record only by a bit, but hit 72.7km/hour) and going through the canyons was amazing. God is so good! What an artist.

Going back to a comment I made at the beginning of this blog about learning to be served rather then to serve, I just want to explain what I mean. One thing that I and Julia have really enjoyed doing over the last week is sending notes to those who have had a hard and trying day. Being of the few late (and mature) 20 year olds, we have taken it upon ourselves to spread as much encouragement to others as possible when we can.

However, this week there hasn't been any of it. I think this has contributed to my fustration as we constantly talk about this tour not being about us and this week I've hated the fact that I feel like it's been all about me. It's hard to accept having the tables turned. To be the weaker person rather then being the strong one who watches out for others.

So I go into this coming week in hopes of a better one but also with understanding that there may still be trying days ahead. I also hope that I can put the focus back more where it should be. First on God and all his glory, second on spreading awareness of what this tour is about and awareness of poverty and to get involved and lastly on others involved in the tour. I realize that there is nothing wrong with having to take time for yourself but I am definitely looking forward to seeing smiles and laughter on the faces of others.

Thank you all so much for your love and support for myself and for everyone here. I miss you all.

I'm Alive!!

Hey Everyone!!

It's me! Can you believe it! I sure can't. I haven't had much luck with getting on the Internet since being here. Seems like every time I finally get my hands on a laptop, that's when the connection goes down. Ah, well. I'm on now.

I finally uploaded all my pictures to date to my flickr page with some stories along with them. Please check them out!

Sadly I won't really be keeping a detailed day to day blog anymore as it is just too hard to being able to get online to keep it up-to-date. I will probably be posting pictures more then anything.

But I do want to give a quick update.

Things have been awesome here! I can't believe we are nearly done our second week of riding! How the time sure does fly by! Only 7 more weeks to go :( lol.

Everyone here is absolutely amazing and wonderful. The relationships that have been forming are so genuine. Everyone has such a respect for each other and for the leaders as well. There is just this wonderful sense of peace and community over the camp. It's wonderful.

I can't begin to tell you how much fun I am having. It's soo busy here, always having something to do. So many stories to tell...I've been able to keep my journal up to-date so far so if you have time when I get back I'll be able to tell you all about the summer. For now though you'll mostly have to read them through other people's blogs who I have been hanging out with. (Sorry)

I have been riding mostly with Hilena, Julia, Nick, Joshua, Ryan, Jeff S., David S. Len M., Jenna, Kaitlyn, Annette and so many more. I have been trying to jump around, especially on the days where my knee really bothers me as I hate to slow people down. Julia and Hilena (and others) have been so caring and considerate for when I need to stop and stretch.

Oh yeah, for those of you who have not heard, sadly my knee acted up right away on the first day and gave me a lot of grief. I've been popping those anti-inflammitory meds ever since (so much for my liver, lol). I have had so many people praying for me and I know that is what is getting me through each day. There have been moments I'll admit (like the second day before the hill climb up Steven's Pass) that I didn't know if I would be able to make it but God has been with me in every pedal stroke I take. Now it hasn't been all bad. I have had a number of days where I've been able to ride with not much pain and those days I try to fly and push for at least half of the ride to build up my strength. It's soooo much fun to do.

I've been getting to meet so many people of various ages and it's been wonderful. I have shed all competition feelings and have just accepted the speed I have to go at now and then. I have such a sense of peace about it and really don't feel in any hurry (except near the end on super long days) to get to Point B. It's been great. God has really helped me through this.

I've ridden with Len our main chaplain a few times now and it's been so much fun. He is such a great guy and has such an amazing character. He makes me laugh so much. Yesterday, it was just the two of us riding, just taking our time. I learned so much about him, his childhood, his children and how he met his wife. Amazing stories, which I all wrote down in my journal.

I absolutely love my sweep team. We work sooo well together and have such a great time. We've been sweep twice now (as we are Team A). We started with supper last night and then we swept the ride today (on an easy 56km, which we deserved after our super hard sweep last Tuesday up Steven's pass - we didn't get in till 6:45pm that night).

The food has been amazing here as well. The cooking staff have really outdone themselves. I am definitely NOT loosing any weight but in fact think I have gained some!! lol.

Ed and Jen having done a great job with leadership too and Ed has mapped out some really great routes with wide shoulders for us to bike on. Though the last couple of days we have had no choice but to ride on the very busy interstate a few times (something many have not enjoyed). Yesterday Len and I flew along the interstate at 35-45km/hour!

Well, I really should get going. I skipped Paleton and small groups tonight to get caught up (shame on me I know :P) but sometimes you got to do what you got to do :)

Anyhow I hope things are all well with all of you too!

ONE WEEK!

Can you believe it! After waiting well over a year for this day to come it is nearly here.
Only ONE MORE WEEK till we are beginning the ride of our lives! Probably by now we have already dipped our back tire in at Golden Garden Beach in Seattle and our now on our way down the road! Having already started meeting new people and beginning the journey of getting to know eachother!
I am soooo excited and can not wait!!
Please though in this last week, keep everyone in your prayers. I don't know about others but besides my huge excitement there are definant nerves beginning to arise.
Well, I am off tomorrow for Vancouver. Leaving from Toronto at noon! Crazy....it's all coming so fast now!
Thanks for all your love and support over the last number of months and I look forward to hearing from you all along the way.
Love
Stephanie :)

Coast to Coast

Well I will admit, I did not expect to end up in a paper this close to the start of the tour. It was kind of cool how it all happened actually. A women from my Pilates class works for United Way in Woodstock and they had a big photo shoot the week previous. Somehow she got on the topic of my summer and of Sea to Sea. The photography she was talking too was really interested in doing an interview with me and asked her to tell me to get in touch with him (as she didn't have info on how to connect with me).

So I was off to any other Pilates class this past Tuesday (or so I think) and Kelsey tells me her story. So as soon as I got back to work I gave the photographer from the Sentinel Review (Woodstock's daily, but small newspaper). We set up a time for the following day and that's pretty much how it went. I ended up using my old mtn bike helmet and my coworkers commuter bike for the picture.

The story ended up in Friday's paper and to my surprise ended up on the front page with a gigantic picture of me! Yikes, lol. I was expecting a small article with an equally small gray scale pic on the inside somewhere. lol.

Anyhow I have attached the text from the article for you to read (the only disappointment was he forgot to add the website so people could check it for more info, but incase they call my office - as it did mention where I worked - they can pass on all the info).

Coast to coast
Posted By Elliot Ferguson, Staff Photographer

On June 30, Stephanie Webb will put the rear wheel of her bicycle in the Pacific Ocean.
If all goes to plan, nine weeks later she will dip the front wheel in the Atlantic.
Webb, 26, is gearing up to be one of close to 220 cyclists taking part in a 6,200-kilometre ride across North America to fight global poverty. It's a cause Webb said she has always wanted to become involved in.
"You don't always know how you can make an impact," said Webb, who works as a graphic designer at Oxford Media Group.
"When I heard about this, combined with biking, I thought (it was) perfect."
The Sea to Sea tour is organized by the Christian Reformed Church. It raises money to help fund programs that fight global poverty and help communities in developing countries.
Webb first heard about the ride in 2005, when it crossed Canada. She regretted not taking part in that ride, and when she heard about this year's tour she was among the first to sign up.
Each rider has a fundraising goal of $10,000, and Webb is close to $2,000 past that amount.
Webb has competed in mountain biking for about five years and started riding on the road seriously two years ago.
She'll need the training those years have provided.
This year's tour includes 54 days of riding, including six "century" days, where riders will cover more than 100 miles (160 km).
"It can be somewhat overwhelming when you think about it, but you'll get there," she said.
The Sea to Sea tour is scheduled to roll through Woodstock Aug. 22, during the London to Hamilton stage.

An Old Forgotten Friend

Well with my road bike now in Grand Rapids waiting to be taken tomorrow on the gear truck to Seattle, I decided to grab my mountain bike from my parents garage where "Sugar" (it's a Gary Fisher Sugar 29er) has waited 8 months for me to remember her.

I couldn't believe it had been that long but it was obvious when I hoped on for a ride monday night and everything felt so wrong. I felt like I was so compact on this bike that my elbows were by my side, that my back felt nearly straight up in the air and I felt like I was 2 miles of the ground!

I couldn't believe how the bike that I had been riding for, I think 3 or 4 years was completely unfamiliar too me. I have to admit I was somewhat devestated. I wondered how things would go after the summer as I had it in mind to sign up for the Squeezer Bike Race again this year (figured with my summer trainging ;) I might have a chance at first place this year) but now I wondered how well that might go. I guess though I do have a month before the race after I come home to get use to riding on my mtn bike and riding through the trails.

Anyhow so I decided rather than riding all road I would follow along the grand river trails, since I never do them on my road bike as there is too much gravel.

It was a really nice ride (though the bugs were out). I headed towards Paris and came out at Oakpark Road and was going to keep going when I saw the big grey clouds. I stopped for a minute to see which way they were actually going and realized they were heading right for my area so I decided to turn around just incase.

I was about 16km into my ride when all of a sudden BAM, my tube blew! Absolute dread filled me as I had no tools or a tube for that matter on me to fix a flat, seeing as all my tools were taped to the side of my bike box in Grand Rapids :P I had taken my cell phone along and took it out to try and call a friend...of course to no avail as I was down low in a valley. I started walking and everynow and then held up my cell to see if I had service yet...that's when the rain started, lol. Found a tree to tuck myself under and was surprised to find I sort of had service in this area, phew. I got a hold of my friend Amanda and asked if she could come pick me up...unfortunatly, the instructions to find me were not the easiest as I had to try calling her about 3 times as I kept loosing my signal.

Thankfully a very nice couple out walking their dog offered to give me a lift to a main road and the use of their cellphone that seemed to work much better than mine so I could make sure Amanda new exactly where to meet me. I found out later that Amanda had been called by another friend a half hour before to go out but thankfully God's plan was for Amanda to be home for when my call came in :) (Thanks girlie)

So, anyhow so much for trying to get on the bike some more this week. Tuesday night the weather was bad and just went to the gym instead and the rest of the week is too busy with getting things together so I guess that's about it for my training now.

Can't believe that this friday is my last day of work and in less then a week now I'll be visiting with my friend Julia in Vancouver!

The countdown is really on now...only 12 more days till we start to ride!!!! I'm getting sooo excited for it but am also starting to get a wee bit nervous with anticipation. Definitely ready to get going :) Soon.... Yeahhhh!

Packing it up

My bike that is :(

After talking with Helena last Friday, I decided to send my bike along with my pastor to Synod in Grand Rapids to get it on the Gear Truck that will be leaving next week for Seattle. This way I won't have to worry about my bike on the other end once I am in Vancouver visiting my friend Julia and family just before the tour. It's been a bit of a stressful few days and though I am sad that I won't have my bike to ride over the next 2 weeks, I am glad to have it all taken care of now.

Here are a few pictures of Mari and Dave and I packing up my bike. (A big THANKS send out to you guys again!)

Putting the "Peddle" IN the Metal :)

It's been such a busy week this week! I'm packing up my bike tonight (with the help of my wonderful friends Mari and Dave again - what would I do without them I don't know) and with that I have been trying to cram the rides in for the past 4 days.

Went out Saturday morning about 8:45am. Trying to beat some of the humidity heat that would boil down on us later in the afternoon. I had already stopped once at my usual place for a warm up stretch and was about 22km into my ride. I was going to pull over again for another quick stretch when all of a sudden these 4 guys came flying by. Something told me to hop onto their draft and ride with them for a bit. Well would you believe that one of the guys ended up being Mark DeVries from Sea to Sea 2005!! That was really cool. I couldn't help but think here I was about to stop again and all of a sudden found myself riding at about 32 km/hr! It was nice getting to ride with them for a bit and to chat it up with Mark. They also really encouraged me and I was quite impressed with myself that I was able to stay side by side with them even on the steeper hills. Though I'll admit I am thankful that I only did about 10-15km with them (I couldn't have handled that speed the whole ride that's for sure) but it was definitely a nice break to ride with a group again.

We hit Hwy 52 and they continued on into Ancaster/Hamilton where they had come from and I turned around to continue my route and head back towards Brantford.

At about 50km I thought I would stop in at my friends house...sadly they were not there (also sad cause I really needed to use their washroom, lol). I decided that I would slow my pace down and ride into downtown Brantford as there was suppose to be a street festival going on and as well I thought I would stop by the "Why Not City Missions" Centre where I volunteer at. They usually have women's breakfast and worship sat mornings. It was so nice to see a few familiar faces that I hadn't seen in awhile (and I also apparently planned it right as they still were eating so I filled up on food too :).

All in all it was a great ride. I rode about 6okm (nearly double my longest ride to date before). In total I rode for about 2 1/2 hours but was gone for 3 1/2 hours (due to my long visit at "Why Not").

That evening my friend Paula was having the first official summer patio party but to my surprise they ended up combining it with a surprise goodbye party for me. I was so blown away. OH and this is where the title comes in. They were trying to decide what to put on my cake, didn't think "Go Steph Go" was enough or "It's okay to Fail" and "Don't Die" (my loving friends :) ) were a little harsh, so they decided on "Put the Pedal to the Metal" however the lady who wrote up the cake kind of had some issues, lol, and wrote "Put the Peddle IN the Metal". Made for a great story. They also got me a big bouquet of flower. So sweet. Thanks guys. Sure going to miss you over the summer.

On Sunday, Hilena, Nick and I got together for another later afternoon ride, starting in bright sunny super hot weather (32 degrees feeling like 40) and ended in a great big storm! We rode around Ancaster and then down the escarpment into Dundas to the Buskerfestival. However, we were about an hour late :P oops. We stopped in at Freewheel Cycle for a bit to arrange our bike box pickups later in the week and the first Thunderstorm came through. Good timing. We then stopped at Thirsty Cactus for a bit as we were starving and storm #2 came through! Wow great timing again! We rode back up Wilson Street up the escarpment and then decided we had better head home as it was starting to get late out and we could see another stormy cloud coming in. It wasn't long before there was lightening all around us.

We got back to my parents house like 2 min before the big drops of rain came. Nick decided he could make it home down the escarpment and took off. Well all of a sudden a major tidal wave of rain hit and Hilena and I ran for my parents garage. It kept getting worse and we hoped Nick would turn around and come back. I ran out into the rain to see if I could still see him and yell for him to come back but there he was coming around the corner (phew). He came riding up the driveway soaked. He said all of a sudden he couldn't see anything, not even a truck that turned right in front of him! It was crazy. Though we were laughing so hard standing in the garage watching the storm that came in in a matter of seconds, couldn't believe how soaked we got in a matter of seconds. My mom came to the door with towels for all of us :) The storm lasted maybe 30-40min. It was great to watch though...from inside :)

God sure was watching out for us that day that's for sure! It's funny I've had a few people comment just over the last few days what do you do if you run into a lightening storm and I said, "Pray and trust that God will get us through safe and sound!" He sure did that day!

Also managed to get out for 2 more rides on Monday and Tuesday evening. In total over the 4 days I rode about 170km. Not too bad :)