The day after I got back, I went running around Tempe Town Lake. Kind of a half-run, half-walk. You know how it goes. Anyways, I see this older guy with all this stuff on his bike looking at a map. Not "homeless guy" stuff on his bike; "Athlete" stuff on his bike. Wearing biking shorts and a racing jersey and looking crazy in shape. With a Chinese symbol tattoo on his left calf.
So I asked him if he needed help, even though it looked like he knew much more than me.
"Yeah," he said. "I just need to know if this road goes all the way to Power Road."
I was surprised because it was so far (I always take the freeway). I was like, "Yeah, but it's pretty far. It's about 10 miles."
He didn't care how far it was. He didn't care because he started in SAN DIEGO and was going to be stopping in the FLORIDA KEYS!!
This man apparently took up biking at age 62 when he retired and he biked up a 12000 foot peak in Colorado. Then he biked from Antarctica to Argentina and from Finland to Norway. And now it was time for America. He's from Michigan. Very cool guy. He was finding it expensive to stay at hotels all along the way, and I didn't think to tell him about couch-surfing networks until after my run. I spent 45 minutes trying to find him later, but he was already gone.
Probably in New Mexico.
I think I ran a little harder after that.
4 comments:
Most awesome story ever.
Very interesting...yet, you're right. Inspirational. I wish I could even conceive of doing such a thing!
I read the other day about a guy that waited his whole life to climb Mt Everest and then when he got there he couldn't get down and his friends had to leave him and he died. He was about my age. Sad, but I think it is just a lesson to make sure you never push yourself too hard : )
P.S. Levi called me yesterday. Told me he ran a marathon. Didn't train a day for it.
And another thing. I was wondering how close you were on the distance, so I google mapped it. And from Rio and Rural to Power and 8th it's 15.1 miles. So not that bad. I did think in my navigating to that page that Rio Salado definitely does not run straight into Power. It ends briefly at Country Club. That's what he gets for asking directions from my sister I guess.
Let's just hope he found the biking trail that bypasses it.
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