The Journey is the Reward

Every year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Tucson hosts the El Tour de Tucson, a bicycle race that draws more than 9,000 cyclists from around the world. The route travels the scenic perimeter areas of Tucson and has race lengths of 109, 80, 66 and 35 miles.

My brother, Grant, participated in his first "Tour" this year in a hand cycle. He's no stranger to racing, though. He travels the country doing marathons in a specially designed racing wheelchair and has competed in races from LA to New York. Lee and I were Grant's "pit crew" for this race. The race route took the riders through a half mile of a very sandy wash so we were there to push him through, as needed. The rest of the riders got off their bikes to walk them through this area.

The weather was perfect for a race -- sunny and mid 70s. Gotta love Tucson in November.After we made it through the wash, Grant was back on the road cranking for the next 3 and 1/2 HOURS. He chose to do the 66 mile route. Lee and I chose to go have lunch and then meet him at the finish line. :)

The race ended up in downtown Tucson. We waited at the very last corner before the finish line. Here's Grant coming down the home stretch:

His goal was to finish in less than 4 hours. His official time: 4 hours and 36 seconds! Pretty darn close, I'd say. If it hadn't taken us 15 minutes to get through the wash, he would have been well under.

Way to go Grant! Oh, and by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Today is his 48th birthday! He'll be reading this post, so be sure to leave him a note. Don't you think he should start up his own blog where he can post about his racing and training?

I'd be his first Follower.