Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Sorry for the technical delays! When you’re on the road, it can be pretty hard to find a reliable internet connection sometimes.

We finally got everything put together and we’re doing well!

Here are the videos for the last two days!

Day 3

Day 4

Updates from the Road

There are a few updates that the bikers posted on the blog and you can hear more details from what you saw in the videos by reading them here:

From Jimmy: Heat Exhaustion is Not Good!

From Mike: A Long Way from Home…

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue this bike ride for the babies!

Thank you for all of your support!

God is Good

Once again I am amazed and overwhelmed with all the love and support I received from my parish, Christ The King. The parishioners are so great, I wish I could spend more time with them, even if I could just celebrate mass with them more often. They were very generous with donations but were also very much filled with kind words and good wishes. I am so grateful.

Lately I have been blessed in so many ways, some very unexpected. I got poison ivy sometime last week, and that 180 mile bike ride on wednesday left me tired no, exhausted, itchy and sunburn. This may not sound like a blessing but it is probably the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. I sometimes get discouraged with myself and my ability to do anything. School was really tuff this last semester and I wasn’t running well due to my high stress levels. I tried to keep up with my spiritual life but I wasn’t willing to push through the hard times. During the 180 mile bike ride, I pushed myself in a way I am pretty use too, physically, and it reminded me of a lot of things. I am extremely blessed. God blessed me with legs that can bike 180 miles, great friends and an awesome family. The first 170 miles felt fine but all of a sudden everything ached, my back, butt, feet, quads… even my hands. But hitting that wall was the blessing. I experienced something I never experienced before and that new truth was beautiful and encouraging. In life, we hit walls and its hard to see past it, but every struggle we have is an experience and a chance to find God’s love and mercy within it. We gotta push through the pain and keep moving forward. God will sustain us, His Love is really all we need. It’s funny, physical struggles I can take pretty well and the reason why is because I know it is going to end. I have hope in the end and just stay focused on the goodness while pushing though the pain. I realize that I don’t have that same hope in my spiritual life, I loose faith because I loose sight of the finish line. I forget that baby steps are still steps forward. I forget that we can’t rely on our own strength but the strength of God. I realized that in XC this year. I used each race as a way to pray and meditate and let go of myself and let God run. In short, my experience was pretty amazing.

Anyways, we are biking to help give hope to those who do not see it, hope for women who have been hidden the fact that life is good and sacred and the ability to give life is an amazing gift, despite any difficulties that may come along. We must all Hope in the future or we will only get discouraged when the race of life gets a little challenging. We find that Hope in the Goodness and Love God surrounds all with daily. God is Good. Count your blessings everyday.

Much Love,

Stacy

This week I wanted to bike my biggest training ride before the real deal. The plan was to get in 200 miles in one day, which makes for a very long day! In regards to how the ride went, I have some good news, followed by some bad news, followed by some good news.

The first bit of good news is that I got in my longest ride ever biking 153 miles (I know it’s an odd distance, but you will see why) and I did not feel too tired doing it. I was also able to bike along at a good speed which is also encouraging to see that my current fitness level is up to the level I want it at. The bad news is I stopped at 153 because the inside of my right knee started hurting. I was pretty scared because I have had a lot of injuries running wise and so I decided to cut the ride short instead of gritting through the pain. Better safe than sorry durring the training stage.

But lets forget the bad news, the next bit of good news is yesterday I decided to run in the morning to see how my knee felt, and it felt great. I ran 10 miles at a good clip with a buddy of mine from U of I. Then I went for a short 25 mile bike ride at a low gear with little ressistance and my knee did not bother me at all so I was very happy! Now I have only a couple more training rides left before the big ride (probably a lot of precautionary icing and stretching too).

So now the main thing is taking the momentum going into the ride and using it to spread the word leading up to the ride, during the ride, and after the ride. Along with spreading the message, we can take part in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to remove the “culture of death” from our society and install a “culture of life”. Let’s keep up the good work everybody!

This week I did a 140 mile bike ride. I never thought that I would ever desire to bike even close to that many miles in one day. The bike ride wasn’t bad though and the time went by faster than I thought it would. The plan is to get in a ride close to 200 miles next week and be ready for the big trip coming up.

Aside from training though, recently I found out that my friend’s mom considered having an abortion when she was pregnant with him. I can’t imagine how different things would be for me and for many more of my friends if he had never been born. It’s crazy too, because I have known this friend for several years and the topic never came up until I was talking to him about Biking for Babies.

I think most people know someone whose mother considered having an abortion whether they realize it or not. Imagine how different your life would have been without one of your close friends, a relative, a classmate, a neighbor, a teacher, etc. Imagine how different the world would be without all of these wonderful people.

Every person is made in God’s image and every person has the capability to make this world a better place. Why would anyone want to stop someone from making a positive impact on everyone?

I challenge everyone to take some time to pray about abortion and take some time to research about the topic. You will probably find some of the true facts more disturbing than you thought they would be. I know I did.

And after you have done these two steps above, go spread the word. Talk to your family and talk to your friends about it. These are hard topics to discuss and the entire world does not share our view, but if we can make a difference in a few lives and save a few lives, then it is worth it. After all you might just save a future friend’s life.

Me and some of my friends

Wow! Only less than one month till Biking for Babies begins. Lots of prayers, training, and donations to go, but I know we’ll get it done. I wanted to blog today to share with you what has been going through my mind lately.

As a graduating senior a lot of people have been asking me what I am going to do this summer/ after I graduate. I am going to Virginia Tech for graduate school next fall and I tell them about how I am participating in Biking for Babies. Everyone always asks about Biking for Babies and I tell them about the ride and how I am really excited about it. I know I am really excited about the upcoming journey, but the question I have asked myself lately is why am I really excited about Biking for Babies. I mean am I really going to be excited when I am on day 5 of the ride and I have already ridden over 500 miles on the trip, 100 miles on the day, and still have another 75 to go for the day and about 300 for the rest of the trip?

Why am I so excited? It’s not like I’m going to get to tour the cities we’re going through or bike in ideal conditions, since it will be the middle of June when it’s really hot. And I’ll be honest biking isn’t even my main interest, what I really love is running. I sat down and thought about it, and I came up with two main reasons of why I am excited about Biking for Babies.

The first reason is I know our journey will make a difference. Every day the world either gains more respect for life or shows less respect for life. It is not our job just to gain momentum in this battle, but to win it. We are challenging ourselves daily and making sacrifices to try and spread our message. I have heard that as Christians we are called to make sacrifices with our time, talent, and treasure. Everyone, including you, involved with Biking for Babies is making sacrifices in these areas to spread the message of life. We sacrifice our time in training, prayer, preparing and organizing the trip, and publicity details. We sacrifice our talent in the actual biking and the writing and speaking that is done to spread the message. And we sacrifice our treasure by making donations towards the effort. God gives us our time, talent, and treasure and it is our duty to use these gifts to glorify God.

The second reason I am so excited is that I am sharing this journey with others. I will be biking with three other people who I know are very passionate about spreading the message of respect for life and looking to help put an end to abortion. Together all of us are united in prayer, and prayer goes such a long way. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of prayer together, and so many amazing things have been done through the power of prayer. We are also all making a difference together as we spread the message with friends and family. People are always searching for God and they can find it in us when we show them our passion and love.

I hope you are excited about the upcoming trip. I hope you keep us in your prayers and I know I will be keeping all of you in my prayers. Oh and by the way, I definitely realized while writing this that I might be tired when I reach that 100 mile mark on day 5, but I definitely know I WILL be excited about the upcoming miles, because these miles have a purpose in making a difference in peoples’ lives.

Eric