The race is on…

Today the tour de isolation (Tour de France version) kicked off with a bang. We have 47 riders, I mean racers. We are mimicking the tour and racing 21 out of the next 23 days. It’s going to hurt and help. Following this morning’s short race, ten of my friends put 50 miles on our bikes and it hurt and helped. This tour is another test on our quest to learn to do hard things well. My aim is to finish each race and set a personal record in at least a third of the stages. My aim is to encourage the stragglers and challenge the big dogs. My aim is to have fun while riding hard. My aim is to pick up new riders along the way.

So far it’s working.

The tour de isolation is all about coming together. We’re all a lone in our basements, on a bike that goes nowhere, and yet we feel the power of the peloton and it’s pulling us along. It feels like we’re going somewhere and It. Is. Good.

However, it’s not as good as the real thing.

You see, my ten friends and I laughed, trash talked, encourage, cajoled, challenged, waited, gave care, and took care as we looked out for each other on the open road. We had two grapplers, one young lad, the one and only Grappler, plus Downer, Mickanator, Blondie, jmo, and PJ. We high fived and felt the human touch. We put our hands on another’s shoulders and gave care. We are friends, you see. Nobody got left behind. Everybody pulled (I didn’t do much, truth be told) and we all left looking forward to more. The race is on. It’s going to be hard. We’re going to burst and get better together, you know, live our tagline – together we transform! Oh yeah, my real aim? Find another friend.

Live hard. Love harder…