Un-Training

A fabulous time was had by all at the first indoor cycle training for the Summer 2010 TNT MI Bike Team. At least, that's what they tell me. Yeah, um, I was in bed. Apparently, I told M to go without me and he actually listened. This never happens. But I am not the most pleasant person in the morning (ask my mother, I have never been, ever), so I can't blame M. I wouldn't want to have to wake me up and drag me to training. Wait, that's exactly what I should have done...

This means tomorrow I will have to ride on the stationary bike all by my lonely self. At the gym with lots of other people who sometimes grunt while lifting weights and blow their noses while they are riding their stationary bike. In a really gross way. That can penetrate through my personal cloud of iPod music. Because I can never get that one bike that is upstairs near the running ring (and not near the grunting) no matter how many mental signals I send to the old guy to be off it when I get out of the locker room.

I may as well ride, because I'll be at the gym already. For the past four months, I have been employed as a Campaign Coordinator with TNT. I refer to my position as the Weekend Marketing Girl since it better describes what I have been doing. The day after I was laid off, I was contacted by the then director of TNT who said she heard the bad news and wanted to let me know about an opportunity to do promotions for two months at race expos. She encouraged me to send my resume to the person doing the interviewing. It sounded like a good plan, something to keep me busy and bring in a little bit of income while keeping the week free for job hunting. Resume, interview, adorable Thank You card and I got the job. Possibly because I have a pink sequined cowboy hat with a tiara that I promised to wear to draw attention to myself. Two months turned into four months. I've spent the past 15 weekends hanging out at various races, expos, farmers' markets, parades and wherever else we could find, promoting the TNT program and telling people about my experiences with the Team. At first, it was a little scary. While people tell me they think I could talk to anyone, I was rather intimidated by the whole thing. Once I told myself to get over it, I've got to say, I loved nearly every minute. I've talked to hundreds, maybe thousands, of strangers about a cause I believe in and heard their stories of how they have been touched by blood cancers. People are now coming up to me and asking if they met me at previous events (it's the hat). Hopefully that means they also remember TNT. Sometimes it made me sad too. At one expo, a woman came up and said her father had been diagnosed with lymphoma two days ago and she needed to do something to feel like she was helping. We hugged for a long time.

This is my last weekend. For my final, for now, appearance as The Girl in the Pink Hat, I'll be at Livonia Rec Center during the Indoor Tri. Handing out Power Bars, mini Body Glides and lots of stories about TNT. I'm going to miss it, but it is time. Keep in mind, I have been at races and such nearly every weekend since October. And I have to be there to set up before registration. Which is often really early in the morning. If you can't remember how much I love early mornings, go back to the first paragraph. Plus, now that training is starting, I need weekends free. To wake up early for that - or at least try.

So, why am I so into TNT? Why do I force myself to wake up at insane hours on the weekend? Why do I use my free time to raise money, train with my team and even take a job working for them? Last weekend at the Plymouth Ice Festival, I was joined at the booth by some volunteers - Jewels and his girlfriend Diane - from a past bike team. Jewels had been fighting his battle with cancer at the time of our ride and was our honored hero. He told me he was now one year into remission. He looked so fabulous and I couldn't stop telling him so ("Everyone says that. I must have really looked like sh*t back then." "No, but you looked tired." "Well, I was!") That's why I keep doing it. Because I can.