女儿自行车横穿美国(6) - 证明什么

Today is the 48th day of the trip. To see their travel stories, check: 

runfasteatlots.blogspot.com!

昨天看到一个帖子问横穿美国能证明什么，很好的问题。我的理解是他们热爱运动及大自然，passion。同时,这些年轻人也想为社会做些事。他们出发前就募捐了79万美元（五个teams三共150人）。除了支持癌症病人，他们一路上亲手发放了一些奖学金到需要的学生手上。

去年我买了辆Cannondale road bike 作为女儿大学毕业礼物。从此她就喜欢上了公路自行车。五月份参加了她第一次正规公路赛，让我也增加了不少见识。公路赛因为要减少风阻力及一些技巧，团队更有优势。安安就她自己一人，准备拿最后一名，因为参加比赛的人员中有准专业级。但她能够参与就很开心了。最后结果，名列中等。看   richmond-road-race ！

告诉你们一个秘密，中国人骑公路赛车有优势，最起码对业余级的。相比起来，咱华人轻。安安在水平路上优势不大。但公路赛要上下爬坡，优势明显。重力的分力 mg*(sin斜角),你懂的！

对了，他们下一个Mailstop 是在7月26号。如果你想支持一下，寄张爱心卡或者一点小点心给他们的团队，

River of Life Family Worship Center
Joanna Wang
390 North 11th East
Mountain Home, ID 83647

或简单上她的博客表示一下支持，runfasteatlots.blogspot.com!  It means huge for them!

刚刚收到活动组织者至家人及关心朋友们的平安信。可以了解他们team的状态。

Dear Ulman and 4K Family & Friends

To state what must be painfully obvious, those of us on Team Portland 2014 will never forget the day of Jamie Roberts' passing.  As news of her accident and death spread among the scattered riding groups, not much in the world mattered to us besides our fallen teammate.  As we vanned or even hitchhiked to the hospital, hugs were exchanged and tears flowed freely.  As we tended to our teammates who were in Jamie’s riding group, it took every bit of strength we had left to prevent ourselves from being shattered into pieces by grief.

Cruelly accompanying our grief was utter uncertainty about the future of our team.  We had no idea what would happen for the rest of the day, let alone whether we would get back on our bikes or ever ride into Portland together.  In our moment of anguish, some of us thought that Team Portland’s ride would be cancelled for 2014, that we would be told that it would be too difficult to keep riding, too complicated to support ourselves after this tragedy, and that it would be easier for everyone to go home to grieve on their own.  So that’s where we stood on June 13, 2014, stricken with grief and uncertain about our future.

But now four weeks have passed and we stand in a very different place.  We have been transformed not only as a team, but also as individuals.  The purpose and meaning behind our ride is also transformed, because now we ride for more than just our own family and friends.  Now each morning when we form our dedication circle, we also ride for Jamie, her family and friends, and all the individuals for whom she was riding.  Of course from time to time we continue to shed tears for our beloved teammate, and we have moments when we agonize over why this tragedy has happened.  But although this tragedy has hurt us, we are being healed and made even stronger than we were before.  We have begun the slow but steady process of not only mourning our loss of Jamie, but also appreciating just how much she inspired us in the fight against cancer in just the two short weeks we spent with her.  Now we talk about her with smiles on our faces, and laugh about the times that she ate mac and cheese and watermelon together or told us that her favorite food was hot dogs, “because they’re juicy.”