CF Awareness

Last week was the annual Race Across America, aka RAAM, which is the crazy extreme bike ride across the entire country from California to Maryland. As usual, our town was along the route and once again the local bike shop was one of the time stations. Riders and their support crew from all over the world came right through our town. I think that's just so cool.

Our time station here is unique, because it's actually a destination instead of just some mile marker or a tent along the side of the road, and I have personally heard people say it's like an oasis and they think they're dreaming. The volunteers provide food, drinks, a little pool to cool off in, not to mention the bike shop to fix things, and—hopefully—good company and a change in the faces you see every day.

Last Wednesday I decided on a whim that I would help out for the afternoon. I talked with people from Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Britain. As Vicky, a lady who does this every year for as many hours a day as she can, says "I can't travel the world, but here the world comes to me."

So this one crew came in, and I'm talking to this guy, welcoming him and letting him know where he can find the food and drinks, the usual drill. He holds out his hand and says "Hi, I'm Jay." I said "I'm Jamie," and he chuckled and said "Oh, that's easy." He was their head crew chief, I found out, and I was asking where they were all from. Their group was from everywhere, from Arizona to New York, to Florida, plus a couple Europeans. He himself resides in Colorado.

I then asked what charity they were riding for and he says "Cystic fibrosis."

I think my mouth kind of fell open, I stopped and was like "Really?" And he, confused a little, said "Yeah."

I then told him "I have CF." He kind of put his arm around me and had the same awestruck facial expression I did when he initially said it. I almost couldn't believe it, and he walked me over to show me their van and there was the CFF logo right on the side.

So then he was asking me about what gene mutations I have, if I did the vest, how I'm doing, if I'd be able to take any of the new drugs they're coming out with, which are all great questions and clearly this guy actually knew about CF. I told him about my recent hospitalization and said I was doing well and getting back to the gym. I asked how he got involved with raising money for CF, and I believe he said a friend of his has a son with CF.

He wanted to introduce me to a bunch of people in their team, he said they'd want to meet me, and we obviously told them that I had CF. I thanked them for riding and such and they were all so nice. You hardly ever meet a group of crabby people during this RAAM, but this group was really fun and groovy. They hung out for a while too while waiting for their teams—typically some of the crew will venture ahead to take a small break when they can, so they were ahead of the people actually riding the bike.

This is Jay, my new best friend that day.

A little later Jay and I were chatting again, and he said "I'm sorry, I'm kind of tearing up. This is just..." and he shook his head in disbelief; I said "I get it, I think this is so great and I am SO happy we were able to cross paths." They were called Love, Sweat, and Gears (and in bike nerd-ness, they were also cool because they had a team riding on tandem bikes, which you definitely don't see every day.)

Augh... it was just the coolest thing! I mean, how awesome that I just happen to be working at a time station for this random bike ride at the exact time that a team comes through and they're raising money for CF? And I happen to strike up a conversation with their crew chief? I mean, how awesome is that!? It was definitely a God moment that all of this came together, clearly we were all meant to meet each other. I still can't get over it... SO COOL!

One of the tandem teams.

Fast-forward to last night, and I went downstairs to treadmill, I turn on the TV and was going to watch American Ninja Warrior while listening to some tunes. So, I can't hear the TV but I see this guy walk up and it says he's from St. Charles, MO, so hey that's cool. And he is wearing a shirt that says "CF Warrior" on it. Obviously that registered in my mind, but CF can stand for a lot of things so I didn't take much pause. Then they launched into his back story, like they do for some contestants on shows like this, and he's talking about his cystic fibrosis. I pulled out my earbuds to listen and wow, also a cool story/God moment.

He talked about how he decided to get in shape and exercise and doesn't need medicines as much to manage his disease (you have to be incredibly fit to do these ANW things [they make it look so easy, but it's incredibly hard stuff.]) And obviously, the commentators honed in on the inspiration part of it and such, but ya know what? It really was inspiring. For me, at least. Especially since I saw this right as I began my own workout, it inspired me to kick it up a notch. And I did: I ran 2 1-minute intervals along with the rest of my walk on the treadmill, and walked/ran a total of 1.35 miles in 30 minutes. Woo hoo! I had a short coughing fit when I was done, but I felt GREAT afterward.