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!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
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!
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.
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.
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