On Giving Up ...

The final chapter in the Bike Marathon ...

Gary does not give up. To the point of being called stubborn, pig headed, an idiot ... it really is just not in his vocabulary. The man, when he gets his teeth into something - will not let go until the game is over.

That is why it was so hard for him on Sunday morning to just walk away.

It bothered him tremendously Saturday night when we were trying to decide. He kept thinking that if he went in somewhere early Sunday morning he could get it fixed then start the race and finish it when he finished it. The question was would just any bike place have his specialty bikes tire spokes?

My life is filled with Murphy dicking with me, so in my brain, I was all - NO: YOU ARE SCREWED, MAN. But Gary is more of an optimist and I know, just KNOW he bowed out because I was there ... and Ryan.

He could spend more time with our son instead of running around all morning with it probably ending in failure and frustration anyway. And he didn't want to have to make me check out early - I was tired and I could have just dropped him off at the starting point and gone back to bed had his bike been intact.

But it wasn't.

But running around and having it end in failure and frustration would have been his first choice - I know so, since it has happened so many times in the past. Then he could have said he had done everything, EVERYTHING that he could and just stopped when the road actually ended. Stopped when that brick wall was right in front of his nose.

As it was - he could see the brick wall - but there were still steps he could have taken to reach it, should have taken - that he walked away when he did - to play as a family was something that must have taken a big mouth of somthing bitter to swallow. He put on a smile and said "Lets go take pictures of flowers!" and off we went - and had a wondeful day with our son ...

But as Sunday wore on, I realized how upset he really was. No going into Austin - we might see a biker. A reminder that he, in his mind: "Called it Quits" whereas in my mind - he was doing the logical thing. Logic does not play into Gary's completing a project - to the extreme and I had not figured that into my Murphy + Logic = 'No Bike-ee / No Race-ee' equation.

Yesterday - the man first thing, headed out to a bike shop to get his tire repaired. Did they have the stuff to fix it? No. Did the second? No - they could get it in maybe a week, maybe two. He calls me - gets some more bike places. Two more and he finds the guy - THE ONE GUY in Houston that knows what he is talking about - knows Gary's very nice racing bike and knows what he needs to get - can have it overnight. See the pattern here folks? Even the most specialized, informed guy needed overnight to get it. He buys extras - for the front and back tires - yeah THEY ARE DIFFERENT - just in case this happens again ... yeah. Murphy is whispering in my ear that he's not that stupid ... he will JUST BREAK SOMETHING ELSE!

This consoles Gary conscience a bit. He calms down a bit. Stops berating himself a bit. But the last thing he says about the bike race? If he had caught it earlier, he could have found someone in Austin Saturday night - they could have overnighted the spoke to the shop, repaired it Sunday and he could have finished the race.

Talk about stubborn .... (this obviously includes going back in time AND CHANGING IT ... to catch the broken spoke earlier than he did at 5:00pm)

I hope, sincerely, he gets over it soon ... but don't believe he will until he crosses that blasted finish line next year on April 17th, 2011 in Austin ...