As we're approaching Memorial Day weekend, I've been thinking back to 2000, when I bought my first bike (well, my first bike as an adult). I decided that weekend that I was going to attempt to ride my bike from Boston to New York as part of the AIDS Ride. Now, I may be a fancy-pants triathlete now, but on my first training ride, from 72nd Street and Riverside up over the George Washington Bridge and back (about 12 miles), I thought I might keel over. Nevertheless, I went to spin classes during the week and training rides on each weekend. In September, I completed the three day ride, and felt an enormous sense of pride and accomplishment.
In the fundraising letter I sent out that year (the ride raised money to provide medical and other services to people with AIDS and HIV), I started off with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, "Do the thing you think you cannot do." This quote continues to inspire me, to push me beyond my limits, and has led me to do all sorts of things I initially never thought I could. Since that ride I have ridden a bike from Montreal to Portland Maine and from New York to Washington DC. I have completed two triathlons and am on my way to a third. I created a job that I aspired to for years. I sang the national anthem in front of thousands of people (and didn't forget the words). I put on two one-woman shows, I graduated from a top five law school. I traveled by myself. I became a self-defense instructor. I became a food writer. I am proud of these things. And whenever I have doubts, I turn to Eleanor for inspiration.
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