Labor Day

We're back home now. this probably won't be too long as I'm hunting and pecking as I can't push any keys with my left pinky...

Lisa, Ally, and I, along with Lisa's mom and dad, did the Bridge Walk today. What a glutton for punishment I am! My legs hurt more after the 5 mile bridge walk and the 4 miles to get back and forth to the bus and camp than they did after 325 or so miles of riding. They felt fine this morning but were dying this evening... It was a neat experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

I'm feeling better this evening. I was pretty fatigued this afternoon but a dip in the pool wiped that out. Overall, I'm about 5 pounds down from what I was when I left. That would be great if it was all fat but I know a lot of it is dehydration. I did not drink as much as I should have during the ride and today's walk. Hopefully some of it stays off but I'm not counting on it.

All right, here are the totals for the ride:

Day One, 72 miles, 16.5 mph, 4300 calories
Day Two, 84 miles, 15.3 mph, 5100 calories
Day Three, 100 miles, 16.2 mph, 5700 calories
Day Four, 71 miles, 14.8 mph, 4200 calories
Total: 327 miles, 19300 calories

There's a rumor that Mel was already looking for committments for next year, maybe the East route for a change of scenery. I probably will consider it highly but it's too early right now. I don't even want to think about a long ride right now. Plus I need to get some feelings back in my fingers!

Later,
Rob

Last day

Made it! Kind of a rough day today. Important thing is I made it. Blew two tubes and one tire. More hills than I thought. Beautiful country, though. Day ended with a polar bear shower at Mackinaw High School.

Thanks to all who we're praying for me. It was a great experience. Thanks to Lisa and Ally for making the trip up to pick me up and also to Andy and Danyalle for stopping by to cheer me in.

I'll write more about the adventure soon.

Thanks,
Rob
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3rd day

Hi! Sorry this will be short tonight. Survived the long day and even did the extra 8 miles to make it over 100. Felt good for the first 60 but the pesto on the chicken sandwich at lunch did me in. Felt awful for the last 40.

Had to walk up the Wall but it was huge. Most people were slaloming back and forth across the road. My gearing doesn't go low enough so I had to clip out and walk.

The body is holding up well with the exception of my left hand. I feel like a cripple as my pinky and ring fingers are numb and I have no contol of them. Thank God it isn't my right hand so I can still shift my rear cassette. Nothing serious as I hear it's just a pinched nerve.

Anyway, I'm exhausted so i'm going to sleep. Everyone else is already snoring so this could be interesting!

In His name,

Rob

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2nd day

Hello! Well, the second day is in the books! We're all still walking and overall it was a great day. Just finished a quick massage so i'm good to go for tomorrow.

It started off with a light rain this morning before we left. It cleared up after breakfast but was foggy and humid for the first few hours. It was a nice day except for the 10-15 mph headwind. Thank God for drafting!

Tomorrow was supposed to be our 100 mile day but I found out with the new route it,s only 92. Kind of bummed about that but I,m sure I'll get over it. Tomorrow is an early morning so i'm going to hit the rack.

Talk at you tomorrow!

Rob

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1st day

Well, the first day is in the books! It went pretty well overall. We went 72 miles today with most of it flat. We averaged about 16.5 mph overall not including our many stops. This is a little faster than I anticipated but we had a tailwind part of the way. We only had about 1400 feet of total ascent so that made for the fast ride. We'll probably have that in two hills on days 3 and 4.

The weather was beautiful with partly cloudy skies and temps in the lower 80's. A beautiful day to ride through the countryside.

I did have one flat tire due to the chip seal so that made life interesting. No SAG vehicle around so I changed my first tire on the road. Most of the roads were good for the most part except for about a five mile stretch that literally shook the life out of me. It was so bad that not only did I have a headache but it exhausted me to the point I was ready to turn off and ride an extra 5 miles out of the way to find decent roads.

Well, I'll sign off for now. Thanks for the prayers and support!

Rob
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Ready or not, it's almost time!

Well, Thursday is the day! Ready or not, here we come. The training is done and it's time to depend on Him fully now. I want to thank Lisa for not bailing me out of this and allowing me the time and expense to do it. It has been a growing experience and I'm glad to say that I'm addicted to biking.

Training has went well overall. I look back from where I started out this spring and am amazed at what God has done with my body and my attitude. I went for my first 20 mile ride (without hills) and thought I was going to die. Now 20 miles is a cool down the day after a long ride. I used to tell myself that I wasn't an athlete and this was crazy. Now I believe I can do this and have a positive attitude more often. I'm down over 25 pounds from February. There's over 800 miles on my bike and after this week it will be almost 1200. My goal for next year is 3000 during the riding season!

Thank you to everyone that has donated to Pray America. While short of the $5000, we have raised almost $2000 for the widows and orphans of Guatemala. That money will go toward either the feeding programs or widow housing as I've left it up to them to decide how to disperse it. I will give a final total after the ride as donations are still coming in. I want to thank the donor that donated the complete widow house and, by doing so, committed me to doing a Century ride. Make sure you get your bike ready because the part I forgot to mention is that the donor has to ride it also! :)

I'm not a big scripture-quoting person, but Philippians 4:13 is what keeps running through my head these days: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I know that this verse pertains to much more than just what I want to apply it to. Sometimes I just want to apply it to this ride and say that I can handle everything else on my own. He's asking me to let Him lead the way but too many times I've said no... I'm working on this in my prayer life but it has been a struggle. Your prayers are coveted for this ride and my faith. If you have any favorite verses that might apply, I'd appreciate hearing them. Just put them in the comments section.

As far as my rides have gone, it's actually been a pretty good couple of weeks. We went camping at Wilderness State Park by Mackinaw the weekend of the 16th. I did a 50 miler on Friday and a 75 on Sunday all by myself. This is kind of cool as I wasn't even drafting anyone! The 50 miler was tough as I went a route that looked like a "good" biking route on the map but in reality it was filled with hills with a headwind on the way home. Now I remember why this is ski country! I should have known I made a mistake when the two people biking behind me kept going straight when I turned south. Turns out that the route they went was where I'd be on Sunday.

The 75 mile ride was really neat as I found the DALMAC markings on the previous ride and figured out the route we'd be finishing up on. I rode the last 30 miles of it and it is just gorgeous, and flat! I saw multiple deer and turkeys, and even saw a black bear run across the road about 100 yards ahead of me. My nephew Max doesn't believe me as he's always telling me bear hunting stories about the hunts he and his dad have done, but I pinky swore on it! I couldn't get a picture of it as it was really thick where he went in but I could hear him thrashing through the woods.

I did follow the route backwards as I drove home from camping. It got quite a bit hillier after I got past where I turned around. I foresee walking some portions of them or possibly taking a break mid-hill as there are some long ones. But I'm looking at the positive side, as most of those hills have a big downhill on the other side where I get to rest!

This past weekend was a "winding down" weekend as the marathoners call it. Thank goodness as I was not feeling it on Saturday! Thirty miles of medium hills and it felt like I was riding through water instead of air. Maybe it was just the humidity or the fact that I didn't sleep much the night before, but it was not a lot of fun. Sunday's 20 miler was much better as we did our Grand Valley route. I can tell I'm 40 now as the mind is going. We talked about the time we were leaving the day before and I showed up 15 minutes late and missed the group. I finally caught up with them and Bill rode with me so I could get my 20 miles in.

As I mentioned before, the training is done. No more biking before Thursday. Just need to finish packing and some minor tuning of the bike. Surprisingly, I'm not nervous right now. Thursday morning may be different, but I'm just going to enjoy it. I think it's going to be a lot like the time I spend hunting: plenty of time to reflect on the past, pray about the present, and wonder about the future. Maybe that's why I like biking so much. Even though I'm usually biking with a group, it's a lot of time alone with my thoughts.

Last Big Ride before the DALMAC

This past weekend we did 65 miles on Saturday, the furthest yet. I felt really good afterwards. In fact, Lisa and I went to see a play and went out for dinner that evening. The real pain came on Sunday. I did 14 easy miles in the morning by myself before church and then another 21 that afternoon with Clint and Adam. The wind was blowing something fierce out of the NW. So that's 100 miles for a weekend.

Man, do I hope that the weather is dry and calm for DALMAC. That winds sucks the energy out of a guy in a heartbeat. It doesn't help that I have a head/chest cold right now. Loved China but the jet lag wore me down and now I'm sick. Gotta love the meds though!

Hello again

Wow, it's been almost a month since I've posted. I've been slacking! Just got back from China and am seriously jet lagged. That 12 hour difference really messes with your system! What an amazing trip! These people are so wonderful. We had a great team and some wonderful talks with Steve Weber as well. Steve used to be at Mars Hill and currently lives in Kunming. He spent a lot of evenings with us and he and Ally really hit it off picking on each other. It was a true call to servanthood that I needed to hear. Where it will lead us, only He knows. I'll get some of the pictures loaded online soon.

Well, it's 1:15am. I wonder if I'll be able to get up to ride tomorrow before church. My body's so out of whack that it thinks it should be eating some chinese at lunch right now! We'll play it by ear and see what happens.

Training over the 4th

I am excited about what God is doing in my life. I've been doing some reading and also listening to my audio books. Everything seems to be about dreams and what God has planned for you if you choose to follow your Big Dream. It's going to be exciting to see what He has in store for us as a family. China is coming up in 1 1/2 weeks and that is a BIG step out of my comfort zone. No knowledge of the language and me, a teacher? That will definitely be a God moment.

All this is scary because I like my comfort zone. It "feels good" to be in the same rut, but I see this DALMAC as one of the first steps out of that rut. That comfort zone needs to be expanded. For me to do this, I have to put in the time and training, but it is truly God that takes me through it for I know I don't have the power without Him.

This past weekend we spent up north in Cadillac camping. We normally go up with a group of family or friends, but as this was a last minute trip we were all alone as a family. It was a great time, but the one bummer was the boat was not working as it should so we had limited time tubing and enjoying the lake. Note for next year: pre-test the boat in the water before you leave on vacation.

As far as riding goes, it was actually a great weekend. We arrived Thursday evening and I was up and ready to go at 6:00 am. The only problem was that I didn't bring the energy drink that I normally train with so I was not "feeling" it. This could have been psychological more than physical, but either way it was there. The area there is beautiful and more or less flat. It was awesome to see the sunrise that came over the trees as I was starting out, the ducks on the lake, and even a blue heron looking for breakfast. God puts these things in just to remind me that the world He created is beautiful if we look for the simple things around us.

I rode by myself around the Lake Cadillac four times plus a little extra to get my 30 miles in. There were a few other people out on bikes but no one to hook up with to push the pace. Overall I felt good with a low heart rate and a decent average speed of 15.5 mph. I definitely wasn't pushing it too hard as I knew I had a long ride coming up on Saturday. One thing I did learn is that as things warm up early in the morning, the bugs start to hatch near the water. I definitely learned to look ahead so I could keep from breathing was I went through these clouds. This came after I took in my daily amount of protein on a couple of clouds.

On Saturday, I was up and ready to go early. I'd planned on putting in 40 but I spoke with Clint the night before and they were planning to put in 50. So, I decided I needed to get on their program and do the 50. I had already went and stocked up on some power bars and high-power breakfast food on Friday night, so I was all set anyway. I was planning to do 25-30 and then take a break and finish it up later in the morning. That plan changed as I was feeling really good in the saddle.

I started off by riding around Lake Cadillac again. Four times clockwise and once reversed just to mix it up and to keep myself from getting dizzy. That was about 35 miles. I was actually feeling really good and my heart-rate was staying down. My pace was down to about 15 mph but I was going for distance, not intensity. I ate a power bar and had some go-go juice as I rode and decided to push on through without the break.

To mix things up I decided to do an out-and-back partway around Lake Mitchell. This was a nice change of scenery and also allowed me to get some elevation changes in as well as this wasn't quite as flat. The roads weren't as nice either but it was still very enjoyable. There are some beautiful homes on this lake! I don't know how they pay for them but that's not my problem. Everyone was very friendly as I rode past. I was starting to get a little tired now and my water was gone, so I stopped by and asked a gentleman if I could use his spigot. He actually went in and filled my bottle with ice water! Awesome! What a God moment for me as that was exactly what I needed.

As we were speaking, a group of women rode by in a training group. They looked like a bunch of triathletes so I said goodbye to the man and tried to catch up with them. Unfortunately, as I was just beginning to catch-up, they veered off on a different road. I didn't want to follow as they were heading away from "home." It would have been nice to have someone to talk with for a little while, but I was almost done anyway. I finished the day at 52 miles, the most I've ever rode in one day. It didn't seem that far as I didn't end up going anywhere, really. I can't wait to actually ride that far and get to a different place every day.

It was interesting that, as we were speaking about our day and my ride with our camp neighbors, they actually hosted a DALMAC overnight at their Christian school. It was neat to hear some of their perceptions and stories about the event. They told us about the great food provided at their location and how all the riders rave that it was the best they'd had on the trip, but unfortunately our route won't go through their location. Fifty-one more days! Can't wait to see how God pulls this off!

Camping and Training

Training has been going well on the weekdays. I rode with Andy on Tuesday and Wednesday this week during the lunch hour. We have been getting in just under 10 miles in just over 1/2 an hour. Wednesday's ride went much better than Tuesday's as I realized I hadn't checked my tire pressure in a week. The bike rolls much better with 120 psi in the tires compared to 80 psi!

I'm starting to get a little nervous about getting my long rides in before Labor Day. We went camping last weekend at Hoffmaster State Park at the last minute. I didn't bring my road bike and I should have. My mountain bike just doesn't cut it any more. We did ride to the Whippy Dip on a 6 mile family ride, but this was definitely not a tempo ride. Plus it was probably counter-productive because their "small" blueberry cobbler cone would be a large anywhere else!

We leave tonight for the 4th of July up at Mitchell State Park. I am planning on doing some training while we're up there, but it's not as much fun riding by myself. It's about 7 1/2 miles around the lake so I'm planning on getting 30 miles in on Friday, maybe 40 on Saturday and then another 20-25 on Sunday. I typically ride early in the morning before Ally and Lisa wake up. Plus there is a lot less traffic as everyone else seems to be smarter than me and are still sleeping as well.

After that, my training is going to be seriously hampered as we leave for China on a mission trip on July 17 until August 3. Won't be doing much riding there! Maybe I'll have to see about doing some jogging or something to keep my stamina up. The heat will play a factor as well as it will be at least in the 90's with high humidity. Have I mentioned that I sweat a lot?

We also have one more camping trip with my parents up at Wilderness State Park during mid-August. This is up in the Mackinaw area so it will give me a feel for what the end of the ride will feel like. I heard from Clint that we have about 40 hills in the first 20 miles on our last day between Boyne City and Mackinaw. Hopefully I don't have to get off and walk any of them!

Labor Day sounds like a long way away but it is truly coming up quick when I look at how much true training time I have. Please pray that God gives me peace about this and that the training I do get in is effective.

Training Resumes

After taking a few days off because Lisa's out of town, I rode today with my friend Andy. Andy was on the trip with us to Guatemala and we talked about biking some. I knew he was a good mountain biker, but this guy is a stud road rider as well and he showed me just how out of shape I am. This wasn't a simple training ride to coddle me and make me feel like I'm doing OK. It was a "let's see how bad we can make Rob's lungs burn" ride. It was wet out and raining lightly when we left, so Andy said we'd take it easy in the corners. I should have told him to take the whole thing easy...

We started out and by the first corner I was already way behind, and I was going about 21 mph! I normally ride about 19 mph while drafting someone, so I was working a little harder than normal right out of the box. Good thing I forgot my HR monitor at home because it would have been pinging constantly. Then the hills kicked in, kicking my butt. Andy says he tries to top the big hill at about 17 mph, and I was glad just to get over the hill...

All-in-all, Andy humored me and told me my speed was about where he was when we got back from Guatemala. For some reason I don't think I will be where he is after a few weeks. Someone said that "whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger." I believe that, but I just hope it doesn't kill me!

How to Pledge

Here's how to give to this great cause: By Credit Card - Please go to Pray America's donation page. By Check: Please make your check payable to "Pray America" and mail it to me at 7315 Greentree Drive, Jenison, MI 49428. Pray America is a 501(c)3 so you will receive a receipt for your taxes. Also, please consider a recurring donation if paying by credit card..

So it is flagged for my fundraiser, please mark the website as "in Behalf of" or "In Memory of:" Rob Douglass-DALMAC. Hopefully the "in memory of" isn't prophetic... Also, if the company you work for has a donation matching program, please let me know and I'll send you Pray America's tax exempt number.

Also, for each person or organization that makes a donation to cover one whole widow house ($1,100), I will commit to riding a Century ride within the next year. This is a ride of 100 miles in one day. And I won't even count the ride of 99 miles on the DALMAC that will turn into 100 when we make a detour to the Dairy Queen!

Thanks for your support!

My DALMAC Revelation

The posts won't all be this long, I promise. Here's the story from the beginning. Well, not the actually beginning but you get my point...

One cold, February day my friends (who are all tri-athletes) invited me to ride in the DALMAC. The DALMAC is a 324 mile ride from Lansing to Mackinaw over Labor Day. In a moment of delirium, I agreed. Afterward, I figured my wife Lisa would bail me out as this is typically the weekend of her family reunion. No luck - "sounds good,have fun!" she said. She must have been mad at me that day. So here I am, overweight and out of breath by the time I run to the end of the driveway. The most I've ridden my old bike is to the ice cream store two miles away. Did I mention I'm a few pounds overweight?

So the training started indoors on my old dusty bike and trainer. "Man, this is going to be a piece of cake," I thought. I was breezing through the miles listening to my Ipod or watching Lost. It also coincided with our Biggest Loser contest at work, so I was getting a two-for-one. At the end of the contest, I did end up losing about 20 pounds and was feeling better. For my 40th birthday, Lisa gave me a great present: she told me to go pick myself out a new bike. My old bike was about 16 years old and I think she knew I need every advantage I can get to finish this thing.

It killed me once I started looking at decent road bikes. Talk about sticker shock! I finally negotiated what I think is a pretty good deal on a new Fuji. Now for the first real ride. My friend Clint and I decided to ride out to Grand Valley State University and back. Wow! Was that an eye-opener. Two things you don't really consider when riding a trainer: 1) Wind 2) Rolling resistance. Make that three - 3) Hills! I survived but realized I was in for a lot of training. That was only about 20 miles and our shortest ride on the DALMAC is 69 miles. And I don't know how many of you have been in Northern Michigan, but there are a ton of hills - big, long hills...

During mid-June my training was interrupted with a mission trip to Guatemala. This trip was truly a blessing. My whole family was able to go and we had a great team. Lisa was on a mission trip to China a few years ago but this was the first for Ally and me. We partnered on our trip with Pray America which is an organization that is committed to reaching the people of Chichicastenanga with the love of Christ, specifically the women and orphans. They are following James 1:27, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Our team arrived on June 6 and spent 6 nights. We divided up into two teams and built houses for two widows. Our widow's name was Veronica. At 16 she has already has a nine-month old son Reuben and has lost her husband. She has been living with her brother's family in his adobe house, but he was moving so she had no where to go. As you can see from the photos in the slide show, the houses are not grandiose by any means. They are 12 x 12, have bunk beds and no running water or electricity. It is still a mansion compared to some as most are adobe with dirt floors. It is all hers, provided at no charge by donations for widow housing to Pray America.

As it is the rainy season, we were only build the two homes in lieu of the four we were hoping to. When we weren't building the homes, we also did a lot of manual labor at Monte Flor (Flower Mountain). This is Pray America's staff and administration building for their future vision. We were also able to help out at one of the three widow and orphan feeding programs that Pray America sponsors. We brought about 200 cardigan sweaters and sweatshirts to hand out to the widows and their kids and about 150 Beanie Babies to the younger kids. Ally's 4th grade classes did a wonderful job of collecting these to take down. There were a lot of smiles all around.

Probably one of the hardest things we did was stop by an orphanage on the way back for our flight. We only had about an hour there but could have spent days loving on those kids. Their stories are varied but they are all loved by Cheryl and Steve and their staff. Many of the kids have disabilites ranging from cerebral palsey to brittle bone disease and over half of the children there were babies. It breaks your heart. Several of the team families have adopted so I'm sure it was especially special for them.

All these things that we did only did more to make me realize how well we have it in the states. Ten dollars. $10 dollars is all it takes to feed and disciple a child or widow 8 times per month. For many this may be the only truly nutritious meals they may have. It was sad to see the women and children eating some and then scooping the rest into plastic bags to save for the next day. How many times have I wasted enough in a month to pay for one or more of these children of God to have a decent meal. If we skip one time eating out per month, we can cover at least three people. That's the reason why our family has set-up a monthly withdrawal on our credit card.

Upon my return to the states on a Thursday, June 12, I proceeded to do a 40 mile ride that Saturday. Wow, was that an eye opener! If I am to finish this DALMAC, I am truly going to need to start training hard. Do you know how hard it is to get up at 5:30 a.m. to know you are going to put yourself through a grinding workout? It's much easier to hit snooze and roll over! God laid it on my heart today that this would be a great opportunity to raise awareness regarding this great cause plus give me an additional incentive to get out of bed. I can't let these orphans and widows down so I'd better get my butt out of bed and get moving!

Please consider donating to this great cause. We've all seen the "feed the children" television commercials. And I never gave because I didn't want 90% of the money to go into some organization's plane or helicopter. With Pray America, we now know the people and know that the money is used in the community truly doing God's work.