my award...

so we had a wrap up party last weekend for those who did the honolulu century. i was sick as a dog with the pneumonia i undoubtedly caught at the rainy pasta party. it was cool to see my teammates, Ron had framed photos of each of us crossing the finish line and a disc of various photos for us, and we had awards.

Joseph Wall is one of our honorees. He has able to go to Hawaii with us at the last minute because someone else couldn't make it. Joseph suffers from non-hodgkin's lymphoma, and they have just discontinued his chemo because of side effects. He is terminal. Joseph, not only has the misfortune of this disease, but also is not fortunate enough to have what most of us have. He has no family (they are in Peru) , no medical insurance, no job, (he was homeless before he got into disabled housing through the county) but you'll never hear him complain about a word of it. He is also one of the sweetest, most humble people I have ever met. He actuallly reminds me quite a bit of my father. Sitting on the plane to Hawaii wearing his mask another passenger asked someone on our team what our group was, and about Joseph, ect. The passenger donated some money and asked that we use it to get Joseph some souvineers in Hawaii. We all signed them and gave them to him at the wrap up - that was great!

My award is quite silly compared to Joseph's , but Ron put together a few comical awards about things that happened in Hawaii. For instance, Ben went surfing the day before the ride and didn't wear a rash guard. Well, as a result his chest was very tender the next day, and he had to ride the race with bandaids over his nipples to keep his jersey from rubbing. So, Ben of course received the "best use of a bandaid" award.

My award was the "I'm through with my bike, but not with cycling" award. If you don't know the story it's because by the end of the ride, I wanted to through my bike in the ocean. As I crossed the finish line, that's what I yelled as I threw my bike!!!