I Get It Now by John A. Dapper

During my first Team in Training event, the 2000 edition of America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride around Lake Tahoe, I finished over 40 minutes ahead of every other participant of the Palm Beach chapter I was on. If I was an archer with my back to the target, and directing my arrow to the open blue yonder, I could not have been more off the mark.

It’s sad to say that my being obtuse about the real point of TNT did not start with the shallow glory of the strong finish on that Tahoe event day. Oh no, I missed the mark even from the beginning of the season. I showed up to the training sessions with just enough time to get myself ready. I would usually ride alone. When I returned to my car, I would not stay to enjoy post ride camaraderie with my team mates. Oh no, in fact, I usually just waved to the riders who were finishing their ride as I drove on home. To make matters worse, I did not attend any fund raising events nor honored hero parties. My loss.

It gets even worse. I’ll just lay it out quickly to get the self flogging over with. On event weekend, I did not take the team fight. I stayed in a different hotel than the team; consequently, I missed the team photo (probably fitting), I missed the team strategy meeting, and I missed the team starting time. I rode on my own. When I finished I went alone straight to my scheduled massage. Lastly, I did not stand with the early finishers to cheer in the later finishers (my biggest regret).

Before you amass the villagers to gather their torches, steel rakes and pitch forks to hunt me down (though I wouldn’t blame you if you stopped reading and began to gather the crowd), please read on. I do get it now. I had my George Bailly, “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment. That moment occurred in Seattle.

I stayed involved with TNT after the 2000 Tahoe trip doing two to three cycle events per year (clearly I wasn’t a completely daft as this was one of the best decisions I ever made). Worked moved me to Seattle where I joined the Washington/Alaska Chapter of TNT. There I joined the El Tour de Tucson team and met our honored hero, Patrick.

I didn’t know the roads in Seattle so I stayed with my fellow riders while we trained. I got to hear about Patrick while riding with his mother who was also on the team. I met Patrick at an Honored Hero function I agreed to attend. What a great kid. I remember that he was into Star War action figures and enjoyed playing with his brother. Having a child of my own, I could not imagine what it would be like to deal with such an uncertain future of one’s child. I was amazed by the apparent grace, courage and maturity with which Patrick dealt with his trial and tribulations, with his ups and his downs and at such a young age. I was as impressed with his family. Amazing people.

My “moment” finally occurred on one of the training rides while pedaling next to Patrick’s mother and hearing about challenges with Patrick’s health. It hit me, Team In Training is not about riding bikes, running marathons, competing in triathlons and adventure races or doing hikes. Not even close. Team In Training was about participants, coaches, LLS staff, and family supporters, all tied together by the purpose of raising funds to eradicate blood cancers and better the lives of our honored heros and the too many people they represent. The training and competing we do as part of the Team In Training family are the means to bond us together for the purpose of bettering the lives of others while serendipitously bettering our own (not the other way around as I had once thought). If I wasn’t on that training ride I would not have seen the light and I am now a much better person that I did.

I continued to ride with my teammates for the El Tour de Tucson. I got to know my fellow team mates. I joined them at post ride meals. I flew with them to the event. I stayed in the team hotel and I cheered in the last rider.

That moment has stuck with me. Work again moved me, this time to Atlanta. I joined the Team here. I was again poignantly reminded that the battle continues a few years after meeting Patrick when I received a note about his health turning for the worse and passing.
There is much, much more work still to be done...done together, as a Team.

Proud to be your teammate,
John

John Dapper is currently coaching the 2010 America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride team and has been involved with Team In Training in a number of roles including participant, mentor and now coach. John brings extensive experience from having participated with various chapters of Team In Training. John has a strong passion for the cause and a tremendous love of cycling.

Riding with Flat Carol by Jim Osterman

Brand names are wonderful creations, but we usually don’t imbue great expectations on them. I am not surprised to see five male musicians if I go see Barenaked Ladies in concert.

In my time with Team In Training I do not habitually ponder the word “team”. Thank goodness for people like Debbie Buckland.

Last year she was training for her second go at America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, a 100-mile excursion around Lake Tahoe and a staple for TNT cyclists. On her team was my wife, Carol.

The event is in early June, but the team had been preparing since February. That meant they peddled in freezing cold, heat & humidity, pouring rain – just about everything but snow.

And when you ride through all weathers with people you start to get close through shared experience/fatigue. But you never know how close.

May 12, a few weeks before the event Carol was diagnosed with a brain tumor. If you know her you would not be surprised that, after the neurosurgeon explained how he would remove the tumor, she asked how that would affect her when she did her century bike ride.

But inside she knew her season would end in the operating room and not Lake Tahoe. Her team would have to go without her. Wouldn’t they?

“She had worked so hard -- it wasn’t fair,” Buckland said. “Then I started thinking – just because Carol couldn’t go didn’t mean she had to be left out.”

She secured a headshot of Carol, increased it to life size, laminated it and mounted it on a stick. If real Carol was not going, Flat Carol was.

“Flat Carol was in my carryon bag for the first leg of our trip,” Buckland explained. “But when we got to Houston to change planes I got everybody together for a group picture and Flat Carol came out to be in the pictures. People in the airport starting coming up to ask us what was up.”

Flat Carol was a fixture at virtually every stop the team made from that point – the plane to Sacramento, the bus to Tahoe, bike pick up, packet pick up, the inspiration dinner, the victory party – she was ubiquitous.

She also made the ride, attached to Buckland’s bike but scandalously sans helmet.

Back home Buckland used a software program and created a hardback photo book about Flat Carol’s escapades. The book was given to real Carol at the reunion, along with a certificate for having “the best excuse for missing an event….brain tumor.”

It is that kind of caring and effort that serves as an ample reminder why the word “team” comes first in TNT.

"I kept telling them that I was with them in spirit the whole ride and that the day of the ride I thought of them all day," Carol said. "When they started, as they were climbing the big hills, when they were finishing. And it moved me so much when I found out that they actually took me with them. And I'm looking forward to being there in 3-D this year."

Real Carol has recovered from having the tumor removed and will indeed be back this year with the Tahoe team to ride her century, but Flat Carol has retired. Fear not -- Buckland said the 2010 squad would likely have another two-dimensional team member.

And Buckland assuredly knows what a team truly is made of.

[Note – Last October at the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco I fell in step with a woman from Minnesota, like me a TNT runner. As we ran out of Golden Gate Park we swapped stories of other TNT events we had done and she mentioned she did Tahoe the previous June. I told her what Buckland had done and she yelled: “I KNOW FLAT CAROL!” The world can be strikingly small some days. – J.O.]

Accomplished and veteran Team In Training alumni, Debbie Buckland and Carol Osterman are both set to ride in the 2010 America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride. TNT'er extraordinaire and author of this blog entry, Jim Osterman is training and fundraising for the 2010 Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon. Check out Jim's blog and be sure to give him a big "Hell Yeah!"

Team In Training Georgia Chapter is now recruiting for the America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride at Lake Tahoe on June 6th. Contact the TNT staff for details, (404) 720-7842.