Final Thoughts

Just typing those words, "Final Thoughts", brings with it: One) a sense of sadness as I am missing my teammates, the support and laughter we shared, learning British phrases, defending the merits of peanut butter (the comfort food I brought with me that does not have the same allure to my British buds); Two) a sense of relief as I have been thinking about this day, the first post-ride Saturday, sitting on a chair in Peet's Coffee and not on my bicycle saddle.  This is the first weekend since February 3rd that I am not riding outside; Three) a sense of overwhelming blessing, for the experience of the past 5 months, and also coming home to the loving arms of my wife, so good; and Four) a sense of thankfulness as Team Blazing Saddles has dispersed and everyone, not living in Burundi, has made it home, healthy, bike intact, with an amazing experience under their belt, and a fire in their belly to serve God wherever called.

There are so many moments from the ride that seemingly happened yesterday:

Pancake Lesson 

Dean and I teaching our chef, Jacques, how to make pancakes in the kitchen of the place we stayed the first night of the ride.  He doesn't speak English, and we don't speak French, but somehow we communicated and he cranked out delicious pancakes for us every morning.

Simon shares the Gospel

Enjoying the endless beauty of Burundi.  Both its terrain and people are something that must be experienced firsthand and watching Simon and/or the Burundian support team share the Gospel during our roadside rest stops.

Hearing the text notification sound, even though I was told I would not get texts in Burundi, from my phone and looking to see it was from my son, who is currently in Ghana.  I was unable to call or send emails and was feeling cutoff from my world, so that text was a total gift as it felt like home was coming to Burundi.

The deep and sometimes not so deep conversations I had with my teammates while riding through Burundi.

Simba

How I saw Simba

Simba, Josh's dog, that barked half the night outside my bedroom window.  I've seen demon possessed people in Africa, but never a demon-possessed dog.  Until I met Simba.

Watching school children, yelling "Muzungu" (white person), stream out of their classroom as we approached a village and the laughter of the people as we would greet them with   "jambo" or "amahoro" as we would ride by them.

All those memories are wonderful and lasting, but what I take home with me are these three thoughts:

One, Burundi Dave does not complete a 420 mile, 30,000 foot climb bicycle ride without the help of the other riders and the four-man Burundian support team.  I tend to be a lone-wolf when it comes to most tasks in my life, spiritual and/or non-spiritual.  I like working alone but, I now realize, that approach may not produce the optimal result and working with teammates can create unexpected and better outcomes than going it alone.  So I need to be more open to people who offer their help and need to seek out people who share my interests and work together to accomplish goals set before me.

Two, when it comes to answering God's call, I realize, no matter how unsure I may be of my abilities, it's best to say yes to God.  From the training to the Tour itself, God put people in my life to encourage me and help me reach my goal.  Also, the unexpected blessings I received from doing the Tour is overwhelming.  The most off-the-wall blessing is my son being offered an internship by one of the readers of this blog.  No way that happens if I didn't sign up for the Tour.

I am 100% confident that God is preparing the hearts and minds of people that will be there for me when I say yes to Him in the future and I'm excited to think about the many blessings God is waiting to shower down on me when I choose to follow His path for my life.

Three, my faith, the Christian faith, is meant to be an exciting life, getting out of my comfort zone and demonstrating God's love to others through my deeds, accepting the challenges God puts before me, so my faith will be strengthened in preparation for the next call from God.  And answering the next call means God will bless others through me and I will be blessed in ways I can never imagine, and that's exciting to think about.

It can be dirty and messy but oh what joy comes with it!  I remember near mile 60 of Day 6, resting on a hill and absolutely exhausted, Simon asking Paul A., "You're hot and sweaty but don't you feel so alive?". The answer is, YES!  We were physically exhausted, smelled bad, and didn't know when the hill would end, but because we rode up the hill  (answered God's call) we were treated to a fantastic view (God's blessing) and felt so alive!

God's greatest command to Christians is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself".  In short, "Love God, love others".  If you're a Christian, and not already doing so, you've got to get out of your comfort zone, and start loving God and others using the gifts, and you have many, God has given you, to their fullest potential.  Remember, you don't have to do it, you GET to do it, and will be blessed in ways you could never have imagined.

I know I'm going preachy here but, for gosh sakes, sitting in a pew and telling people how bad they are because they are not Christian is not an attractive presentation of the Christian faith yet I think that's how many non-Christians see us.  If we come alongside them, however, and love them as God loves us, great things will happen.

If you're not a Christian, I'm available if you want to talk.  I'm no biblical expert, but I can tell you why I love God and why I want to follow His path for my life.  What you do with that information is between you and God but know that I will be praying for you.

So my friend, I leave you with this:  if you have even an inkling of an idea that you want to participate in next year's Tour du Burundi, something I highly recommend, email Simon now and start a dialog.  Also, check out his blog, which includes his observations of the Tour.  It doesn't hurt to explore the idea and I'm happy to offer my input, and who knows, maybe next year you'll be the one blogging from Burundi.

And I can't sign off without one final request for donations.  I did more climbing and miles than I ever expected and I'm hoping that may motivate you to support the cause now that I've actually completed the Tour.

As I have time, I will post more pictures and video to my blog but it will take some time to sort through everything.  And like I've said before, my attention now turns to my deserving wife who has supported me through this entire process, so pictures are secondary to her.  She is wearing my "It's all about me" baseball cap as I write this so I think I better go.

May God bless you and thank you again for joining me on this amazing adventure!

Burundi Dave, signing off.

Amahoro (Peace)

Day 7 - May 26th

The morning of day 7 arrived with a sense of relief but an awareness of not letting our guard down.  40 flat miles to Bujumbura, a little naked hippo riding, and the Tour is done.  But our route took us on a busy road and we had to stay sharp to avoid any last minute accidents.  To this point, 380 miles and 29,000 feet of climbing into the ride, we had sustained zero flat tires, or punctures as the Brits like to say, no accidents, and nothing was stolen.  Pretty amazing when you think of the roads we had been on and the terrain covered.  We did have one bike breakdown but fortunately had a spare, and the most serious health issue was Dean’s knee, which hampered him since Day 2 but he made it to the end.  One word for Dean, “Gamer”.

Happy to report the final 40 miles were accident free and, after riding about 10 miles of the 40 on extremely rough roads, we triumphantly cruised into Bujumbura being met by Simon’s lovely family, and Ladd’s, Josh’s, and Dean’s wife as well as other local supporters.  It was a tremendous feeling.  We stopped briefly at a spot on the lake where hippos frequent hoping there would be some there to ride, but we had no luck, so we kept our clothes on and deferred the naked hippo riding to a later date.

We encountered some interesting sights over the tour but none more than these guys.  Bushes on bicycles.

Also, we decided to hold a 5k race to give the riders who had been holding back for six days, in support of slowies like me, a chance to blow off a little steam.  I was positioned at the 3K marker and you can watch James, Andrew, Matt, and Ladd fly by in this video.  

Ultimately James was victorious.  The night before Day 7, when we discussed the format of the 5K, the question was raised, “What’s the prize for winning the race?”  Simon suggested a pair of his dirty underwear would go to the victor.  We laughed.  Well, Monday we received an email from James saying, “I arrived home safely this morning bike and all, and after a bit of nap discovered a lovely pair of underwear stashed in my luggage... serves me right for drafting!!!”   Indeed Simon did stash a pair of underwear in James’ luggage and replied to James’ email thusly, “James was so smug in the back of the bus when he said to me: ‘Simon, you'll have to post those dirty underwear to me sometime!’ Little did he know... and that gave me a lot of pleasure. Treasure them, James, that's six days of usage and will be worth a few bob in a decade or two!”  I don’t know what a “bob” is but I do know it is really funny.

Our time together as a team ended at the Burundi Youth for Christ offices where we were treated to an amazing drum show put on by these guys.  We were even able to take a team photo with them!

I’ll put together my final post tomorrow but I can tell you I will never forget the selfless support I received from the men of Team Blazing Saddles.

Pictured from left to right: Simon, Matt, Josh, Paul A., James, Burundi Dave, Andrew, Dean, Ladd, and Paul S.

Team Blazing Saddles - 2013

Day 6 - May 25th

The toughest day of the tour.  Bar-none!  Considering we had accumulated 300 miles and 21,000 feet of climbing, doing 80 more miles was challenging enough for Burundi Dave but by the end of the day's ride, Team Blazing Saddles tacked on an additional 7800 feet of climbing.

We knew we would drop over 3000 feet in net elevation over the day and we knew there was climbing to do as well.  My prayer was for early hills and then a nice cruise to our next city.  Only half my prayer was answered affirmatively.  The first uphill began right out of the gate, it was steep, we were at 6000+ feet of altitude, so the air was more thin than I'm accustomed, and near the top of the hill, I was wheezing.  Then a downhill stretch followed by another steep uphill.  That's how the ride went for first 60 miles.

Lake on the Northern Road

The day's route had us along the northern part of Burundi, and if there were to be problems with lingering factions of rebels, the northern territory is where they would be.  So, for part of the ride, we had armed escorts.  How cool is that?!  These guys were dressed in full camouflage and carried big guns.  Not big guns like my biceps, big guns like, you will do what I say big.  Fortunately, they were not called into action, and if there were rebels, we did not see or hear them.

About 40 miles into the ride, the balls of my feet started burning.  I've had the same pain on training rides and a friend suggested I double-up my socks, which I did at the start of the tour, and it had been effective at eliminating the pain thus far.  I stopped riding when I saw our bus that was leading us throughout the tour, hopped inside the bus seeking shade, sat down and took my shoes off.  It was shady in the bus but baking hot and I was hitting a low point for me on the Tour.

Just then Matt, a fellow rider, popped in the bus, and I told him I was going to the pickup truck that follows us for some Tylenol for my burning feet.  Sounded like Matt needed Tylenol as well and we went together to the pickup.   Matt started digging through the medical supply bag, found the Tylenol, handed the bottle to me, and walked away.  I thought he was getting water for himself but he wasn't.

Matt and the Scenery

He intentionally came into the bus, found out what was going on, helped me, and just walked away.  When it hit me what Matt had done, his giving act, I was overwhelmed with this weird combination of joy, humility, thankfulness all wrapped into one.  I popped my Tylenol, hopped back in the saddle and carried on.  Rode up next to Simon, told him what Matt did, then we hit yet another uphill.

Now couple the weird sensation I felt with exhaustion and frustration, because the uphills just never seemed to stop, and there was no way of knowing when they would.  I caught up with Team Blazing Saddles and started having this mini-breakdown.  So many physical and mental stimuli happening simultaneously I couldn't handle it.  Then Simon made the call, "Team, let's gather around and pray for Dave". And Paul A., I call him Mongo, did just that.  When the prayer was over I had to get out of there and started back on the uphill, weeping while I rode.

I was still overwhelmed by what Matt did and combined with everything else I could not hold back the tears.  The humility and selflessness on display by these men is something I have never experienced in a group.  Something to aspire to for sure.  Oh, and Matt would routinely ride to the top of the hill, then ride back and come along side me and say in his subtle Scottish accent, "Just another 400 yards, Dave".  Shouldn't single out Matt like that because all the stronger riders were constantly riding forward and reporting back to the slower riders.  That's just what they do.

Paul A. is not dead, just
resting.  I told you Day 6
was a beast!  Dean and
James watching.

Views I would miss without James.
Paul S. in the foreground.

Well, thanks to Paul's prayer, I started feeling better after a while, even though the uphills didn't stop.  I was grinding, for sure, so what happens?  Here comes James back down the hill to ride alongside me and encourage me.  This is not the first time he has done this and I SO appreciated it.  When I’m grinding up a hill I tend to look down at the pavement, James, on the other hand is looking at the view.  So, periodically, I would hear in his English accent, "Oh, would you look at that"?  It was like God saying through James, "Dave, enjoy the moment".  And I would, thanks to James.

Well, after 60 miles, the uphills finally ended and a long, fun, downhill ensued.  On my way down I saw a man to my left coming up the hill.  Not walking or running, but crawling. And not even on his hands and knees, but on his feet with his hands behind him on the ground.  So his stomach was facing skyward yet he was on all fours if you can picture that.  I cruised by him and the thought hit me, “I get to do this”.  How blessed am I to be healthy enough and have the resources to get me and my bike half way across the world?  The answer?  I’m very blessed in so many ways and have been blessed more than I could have ever imagined by doing the tour.

The last few miles of Day 6 were flat and we rode together, the original 10 that started together, to our final stop on the tour.  With a flat 40 mile ride on Day 7 there was a growing sense that the Tour was virtually over and we could begin celebrating our journey together.

Day 6 Elevation Chart.  Somehow it looks easier than I remember.

Day 5 - May 24th

Ho-chi-mama!

A wise person once said, "Start and finish.  That's your only goal.  Breathe and enjoy the ride." Check.  Check.  Check.  Check.  I started, I finished, I would take deep breaths climbing hills, and I most certainly enjoyed the ride but there was much more climbing than anticipated today.

Seeking Shade

Roughly 70 miles and just under 6000 feet of climbing.  Today felt long and it was challenging but Team Blazing Saddles made it!  And trust me, with 5 consecutive days in the saddle they are a-blazin'.  Bit more humidity at times but the weather all-in-all was really nice.

Tiered Field

The scenery did not disappoint again.  Just a beautiful ride.  The last mile was spectacular as we rounded a corner there was a huge tiered field.  Gorgeous!

The other cool thing at that moment was watching 5 riders in front of me.  Dean, the rider with the bad knee was on the right when Josh rode up next to him and put his right hand on Dean's back to help him along.  Then Andrew rode up to Josh and put his right hand on Josh's back to support him.  Then James rode up and did the same for Andrew, and finally Ladd rode up and did the same for James.  Just a great display of support and so typical of these guys.

James and the Locals

One major day, tomorrow, to go and a short ride Sunday morning back to Bujumbura them I board an 8 pm flight.  Incredible!  This morning Simon started talking about plans for Sunday and the departure of 4 of us.  If you've seen the movie, "Sixth Sense" the scene at the end where the psychologist realizes he has been dead the entire movie, he was shocked.  That's how I felt when Simon talked about Sunday.  It was just a shock to the reality I've been living in.

Day 4 - May 23rd

In a word, stunning.  I've attached pictures typical of our visual experience all day long but it does not do it justice.  Every turn opened up a new valley or hill range just as beautiful as the last.

The ride was about 60 miles and nearly 4000 feet of climbing.  No huge uphills, in terms of grade, and we had cloud cover for most of the ride so it was quite lovely.

While riding I had this thought: when the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, a result, by the way, of poor decisions they made relative to God's will, God still loved them and provided what the bible describes as a pillar of fire by night keeping them warm and cloud cover by day to keep the sun off them.  I could not help but think that God was providing cloud cover for us and I am SO grateful He did because when the sun is out in a cloudless sky it's hot, muy caliente, as the locals say. Ok that's not true, I was using Spanish because I can't say "very hot" in Kirundi.

Team Blazing Saddles is quite an unusual sight for the locals, as you can imagine, and we are greeted like rock stars as we roll into a new town.  Strange to be received with such enthusiasm but I expect nothing less when I return home.  :)  

What's really cool, though, is when we stop for a rest, people gather around and Simon or one of the Burundian support team guys shares the Gospel with them.  It's great to see them respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.

Simon Shares the Good News

Burundian Support Team

I'm really enjoying spending time with all the guys on the team. I told them tonight I've never been around a group of guys that are as giving and selfless as they are.  Just an incredible group and  I'm honored to be a part of it.

Tally Ho!

Time to board a flight and time to reflect.  Training for the Tour has provided so many unexpected blessings, which I will articulate in a moment, but first some statistics.

First ride February 3 started at 9:27 am, 38 miles, 1,269 of elevation, 3,185 calories burned.  Just about passed out at the end of this ride.  Started a dramatic food intake reduction that week and was literally shaking when I returned from the ride due to lack of food in my system.

22 outside rides later, I rode 1,003 miles, 72.5 hours in the saddle, averaged 13.8 mph, 59,414 feet of climbing, and 78,450 calories burned.

Last ride May 11 ended at 2:50 pm, 71 miles, 5,673 of elevation, 5,414 calories burned.  Hottest day, by far, of my training and the most challenging.   It was tough but felt great once it was done, and with all the weight lost, I look, if I do say so myself, amazing on the roads.  :).

Now the blessings.

Blessing 1:

Donations to date total $21,375!  The initial goal was $5,000.  I do not have a fundraising personality so to raise 4 times what was expected has taught me when I believe in a cause and talk to people about it, I'm not selling the cause, I'm just sharing what I know, and people give as they feel led.  I never expected a donation from any individual because I did not want to put myself in a position of judgment.

That approach can be applied to my Christian faith.  I'm not selling Christ, I'm just telling people what I know, and the person decides if the Christian faith is something they want to explore.  And never, NEVER, judge a person for what they think of Christ and my faith in Him.

Blessing 2:

As of this morning I have lost 105 pounds since I started taking better care of myself on August 7, 2011 with half of that loss happening since the end of January of this year.  Some perspective, the bike box I'm bringing, fully packed, weighs 100 pounds and I have been weighing myself, then grabbing the box and weighing me and the box to gauge the weight of the box.  That box is me, or at least what was hanging on me.  Amazing!  What a blessing to feel how I feel and how sweet I need not worry about sitting in a tight airplane seat for hours on end.  And what a blessing for the person on the plane sitting next to me.

Blessing 3:

My faith is stronger.  You know, faith is like the muscles I've been training.  If I want stronger faith I have to, like my muscles, exercise it.  I don't know what will happen on this trip, but I am 100% confident God has been preparing hearts and minds of people I will encounter, and setting up situations for my faith to be exercised even more, and preparing my heart and mind....and body.  All I have to do is show up and trust Him.

Blessing 4:

My son got an internship at my company because of my blog.  Whoa!  Didn't see that one coming.  I added one fellow-employee to my blog distribution because we sat next to each other at our CEO's retirement party a couple years ago and we learned we are both Christians.  Fast forward to this March and we are together again at a management retreat and just "happen" to meet in the buffet line.  He asked how I came to know Burundi so I told him about my 2007 Burundi trip with my son.  That led to more details about my son graduating college in May, and by the end of breakfast my co-worker was asking if my son might be interested in working in our Costa Mesa office.  It eventually led to a 3 month internship for my son and he starts in June!!  That, my friends, does not happen, if not for this blog.  Thank you Lord!

Blessing 5:

My wife.  Always knew she loves me and supports me but she has gone above and beyond this time sacrificing as much, if not more, than me for this trip.  Those 72.5 hours I've been riding outside she is home holding down the fort.  And those hours don't include rest time and time away from home.  She is my blog editor and has as much to do with the final product as I do.  She has encouraged me on riding days when I was not motivated to ride to get my fanny out there.  She is truly a gift and when I get back I so want to return the favor and make sure to take extra-good care of her.

Blessing 6:

The people God has put in my life helping me prepare.  Friends encouraging me to lose weight, tremendous trainers, fantastic bike shop store employees, and nutritionist.  And just this morning while sitting at Peets Coffee, two pastor friends coming over, one reading scripture as an encouragement and the other praying with me and my wife who joined me today.  What a blessing!  An amazing array of people and personalities that helped me get to where I am today.

Blessing 7:

My attitude....toward me.  Saturday's ride was scheduled as 100 miles and 7,500 feet of climbing.  It started with a ride up Diablo, 11 miles and 3,500 feet of climbing.  As my friend and I returned to the bottom of Diablo, we, for a variety of reasons decided to cut the ride short and do the ride I described at the beginning of this post.  Had I made the decision not to do the more challenging ride when first started training I would have beat myself up for not doing what I said I would do.  Saturday, however, after changing to an easier route I had this thought, "Enjoy the ride".  That is new for me and I've really learned to not beat myself up, not be so hard on myself, and love me more.

Blessing 8:

You.  The emails and comments I have received over the months have served as great encouragement.  And as I would receive notifications of donations I would just smile and say, "Thanks God!  That's so cool.". Thanks for being a part of this!

There's more but I have to get going.  I will update my blog and/or email while in Burundi as I am able.  Take care.

When a Cold is a Blessing

Last Wednesday I hit my 100 pound goal, and just two days later, I hit my $10,000 donation goal.  Two words, "Praise God".  I don't know how to express my feelings other than to say how thankful I am for all the people that are involved in this journey.  God picked you to be a part of this and I hope that gives you a sense of comfort.

With my employer matching, total funds raised thus far is over $20,500!  Just because the goal has been met though, don't stop giving.  Next Wednesday, May 8th, I will ask my employer for the matching gift.  The cap is $10,000 but I plan to ask for matching the entire amount so there is still a chance your donation could double.  If you've not done so, click here, and give.  Thanks!

With last week's 100 pound weight loss focus I didn't get a chance to update you on my riding.  So here is a two-week recap....

The weekend of April 19, 20, and 21 I rode outside all three days.  A first!  75 flat miles Friday, Mount Diablo summit Saturday, and 50 hilly miles Sunday.  By the end of the weekend I rode 155 miles, climbed 8,200 feet, and burned over 11,000 calories and felt great in the process!  My plan was to replicate the three day ride the following weekend and come Friday April 26th I set out to do just that.

It was a cold morning and I was just starting to feel the onset of a cold.  Not a great combo but I had a schedule to keep and out I went.  My speed was down, my energy was down, and I didn't feel right.  About 15 miles into the ride I got a flat tire with my new puncture-resistant tires.  How nice!  Fixing a flat is no big deal but I used my one and only spare tube, had 60 miles to go (much of it further away from home), and my wife was out of town so it wasn't clear how I would get home should I have a second flat tire.  With all that in mind I made the call to cut the ride short and turned for home.

Now home, I had something I have not had much of since training began, spare time.  Turning my attention to my Tour du Burundi to do list I took advantage of my new-found time and got to work on completing tasks.  What a blessing, if not for my cold, I probably would have continued riding and those Friday tasks would still be on the to do list.  But Saturday would be different, I thought, as Diablo was calling, and I needed a climb.

Waking up Saturday morning I felt horrible, my cold was worse, my throat sore, and my voice sounded like Barry White (Song in video dedicated to my wife).  For the first time in my training I bailed on a ride.  I didn't feel great about it.   My mind was telling me I was quitting but my body was telling me to shut it down.  Shut it down I did because of a silly cold but what a blessing!  A second day of spare time which gave me the opportunity to continue working on my bike carrier which is a project I have worked on for a while but never had an entire day dedicated to it.

Bikes in carriers can be checked like any piece of baggage.  My bike carrier, pictured here, was born from something I found on the web.  I decided to build it because I, first, wanted to minimize the breaking down and rebuilding of my bike which must be done with a traditional carrier.  A second, and very important benefit, is space within the carrier.  As you can see from the pictures, I'm able to bring many supplies.  Simon asked me to bring paper plates and plastic knives and forks to minimize water contamination issues and they all fit nicely in the carrier.  All my bike gear fits too as well as some frisbees and other goodies for the kids.  I'm packing it to the 100 pound max, which explains the wheels to be detached as I'm checking the box.  Say a prayer the dang thing holds together.

I took a break from building the carrier around 6 pm Saturday thinking I would grab a quick bite to eat and get back to the carrier.  I sat down on the couch after dinner, well honestly, during dinner, and that was it.  There would be no getting off the couch Saturday night and I decided right then to sleep in Sunday, skip church, and not ride Sunday.  Again, Sunday presented more new-found time and more time to work on the carrier.  It was a full day of work and planning because I had to determine what items would go where within the carrier and what extra bracing I might need to add to minimize shifting during the flight and baggage handling.

By Sunday's end, actually it was early Monday morning, the carrier was 90% complete and as I write this it is 99% complete.  Where would I have been on the bike carrier, an essential component of the trip, if I didn't have two-plus days like I did last weekend to work on it?  Can't say for sure, but it would not be anywhere close to being done.  This coming weekend is booked with other activities, so no progress would have been made, which leaves the weekend before I go to wrap up the carrier.  That would have been extremely stressful.

But that stress has been avoided and because of my cold my bike carrier is virtually done.  Who knew a cold could be such a blessing?

Two words, "Praise God".  Even in our suffering there can be joy.  Having the bike carrier done eliminates the last big pre-trip hurdle and I feel joy swelling in me as I write this sentence.

Thanks for reading this.  Always a pleasure having you along.