The Challenge

So, i am trying to be the first person to do La Vuelta PR on a single speed bike. Here is why it is significant to me. I was pretty much born with asthma. My parents told me i was diagnosed when i was 11 months old. In my life i have been intabated 3 times due to my asthma.

I had severe asthma with my parents sometimes taking me to Kings County Hospital twice in one night. One of my earlier memories is thrashing on a table in a hospital with several nurses trying to hold me down so they could give me the needles that i needed. The fact that it took several people to keep a 6-8 year old boy on the table is one of the reasons this stuck in my mind (that and the DARN big needle). I missed many many days of school and was often laid out at home or in the hospital due to my severe asthma. Back in those days they would shoot us up with epinephrine and i remember curling up on my mother or occasionally my fathers lap in the hospital with my heart feeling like it will burst out of my chest, weak from the lack of oxygen and the large amount of epinephrine that was coursing through my body. At one point late in High School my mother confided in me that she never thought i could live independently.

Even though i was laid out pretty bad from asthma as a kid i also loved playing baseball and being active when i could. It was a bad combination for my parents, but they never put me in a bubble. They let me play for the leagues that played at the parade ground and bought me things like bicycles and skateboards. Where i am today is attributed to their belief against hope that i could lead a somewhat normal life. Their encouragement led me to taking up the first thing that i think helped towards me conquering the invalidity that was seemingly predicated by my condition, track and field. I ran in HS and i had amazing coaches. I was never a track superstar but i did ok and eventually strengthened my lungs to the point where i could actively fight my asthma. To this day i am significantly indebted to Coach Malek and Coach McCollum for working with me and my condition and never giving up on me.

In college my life began to turn around even more. Even though there were many things i hated about the college that i went to, it took me out of the environment i was in. The air was cleaner, i was eating more, and eating healthier. These were the final two things that helped me overcome one of the more significant demons of my childhood. My last real asthma attack for which i was hospitalized was in November of 1996.

Now i am trying to complete La Vuelta PR on a single speed bike, something i am told no one has done before and in an email from the tour director for good reasons. Having completed two centuries on my single speed including a rather hilly Escape NY with decent times makes me think i have some shot of actually doing this. If i do it or if i dont is not what is important. I am trying so if my 10 month old son actually has my asthmatic genes or if he runs up against some significant obstacle in life at the very least what i can do for him is show him by my example to not give up, that he can overcome it. At the end of the day win or lose you can still try.