My Good Samaritan

My "Mecca" - The Queen K Highway
(viewed faintly as the line on the right)

I had a couple of firsts today...here's one of them:

I went for a bike ride today.  I had been waiting to ride this particular stretch of road for quite sometime and then I got less than 2 miles into my ride when I hit a chunk of something in the road.  Even through my headphones, I immediately heard a loud hissing sound.  I had my first flat!

I stopped riding and set to work.  I still consider myself a novice rider--definitely not a pro, so I decided to look at it as a challenge to get this flat changed on my own.  Even though I've never changed a flat, I had seen Youtube videos of how to do it and I thought that I knew how to do it in theory.


I felt like I was making good progress when all of a sudden, I noticed a car backing up toward me on the highway.  It was one of the guys from the bike shop--my good Samaritan!  He gave me a few pointers and, because it was getting dark, offered to throw my bike in his truck and drop me off at the bike shop just down the road.

Not my bike, but you get the idea...

Even though I thought I was on my way, I was extremely grateful for the help.  It was actually a good thing that I ended up at the bike shop too because the impact had ruptured the sidewall of the tire--meaning that I would have to replace the tire as well as the inner tube.  It would have been unsafe to just change the tube and  keep riding.

So I was grateful for the help that arrived even before I realized how much I really needed it.  Sometimes I think life is like that.  We have a loving Heavenly Father that is willing to give us blessings even before we realize that we need to ask for them.  I really need to be sure to thank Him in my prayers tonight for sending Bob--the guy from the bike shop.

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Chrissie Wellington rides the Queen K

The stretch of road I was all pumped to ride is the site of the World Ironman Championships.

Participating in this race is on my bucket list.  The only way to get in to is (literally) win a lottery or qualify as an "age grouper" competitor.

Sadly, my odds of winning the Kona lottery (205 slots are reserved for more than 70,000 entrants in the lottery) are probably much better than my odds of qualifying as an age grouper. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming!  =o)

The nature of the race lends itself to great inspirational stories.  My experience today reminded me of one of my favorite inspiring stories and a great example of sportsmanship.

Chrissie Wellington is the Michael Jordan of the women's Ironman.  One year during the race, she got a flat tire.  (Maybe close to where I got mine?)

She went to fix her flat, but her CO2 cannister failed.  She had no backup.  She had been out in front leading the race, but now competitor after competitor passed her.  The spectators could not give her assistance or she would be disqualified.  Without a tiny little cannister of compressed air to fill her tire up, she would not even be able to finish the race--a major upset.

The only person that could provide her assistance would be another competitor.  But doing so might mean that that competitor might not be able to fix their own tire if he/she got a flat.  In addition, helping Chrissie might mean that the competitor might lose to Chrissie.  Finally, after what must have seemed liken an eternity--at least to Chrissie--one competitor (anonymous as far as I remember) tossed Chrissie a spare cartridge.

Chrissie finished fixing her tire, got back on her bike, made up the time, passed all of the other female competitors to finish first after the bike portion, and went on to win the championship!  Talk about inspiring!

But what was most inspiring was the example of sportsmanship from the fellow competitor.  It really reminded me of the story of Jesse Owens and Luz Long in the long jump competition at the 1936 Olympics.

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I know my story is not as dramatic as those of Chrissie Wellington and Jesse Owens, but I don't think you have to be an elite athlete to appreciate sportsmanship or to have gratitude for those people who unexpectedly appear in our lives to help us at times when we may need them most.