WAYNE'S WORDS
JULY 27, 2005
TOPIC: LANCE

I'm sure most of you followed the Tour this year, cheering on Lance to win number 7.
On Sunday, that's exactly what he did on a misty damp day in Paris. Everyone, even his rivals, cheered him to the finish and his last bike race.
He now turns in his maillot jaune, for a yellow wrist band in his continuous fight against cancer which almost took his life.
I see him starting his 3rd. life.

LANCE ARMSTRONG
His 1st. life was somewhat normal, born Sept. 18, 1971 to a single mom in Texas. What was unusual were his physical abilities to push himself pass the usual pain threshold to some super maximal level. He grew up cocky, did triathlons at a young age and was discovered because of his super natural powers on the bike and his ability to absolutely punish his rivals.

10/2
His 2nd. life started on October 2, 1996 the day he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
He now faced a long fight against the cancer, the chemotherapy, the surgeries, and the long hard road back to health.
Most people would be glad just to survive the after effects of the cancer, but Lance promised that not only would he beat the disease but would ride again as a professional cyclist.
In 1999 he wrote the best seller, It's Not About the Bike, and went on to win his first of 7 Tours.
From 1999 to 2005 Lance not only trained and raced and won, but also became the spokesman for cancer research. He also became the hope for a lot of cancer patients, in his ability to not only recover from the cancer, but go on to become one of the best athletes in history.
He professes that he never would have found the strength to win seven Tours if he hadn't won his fight against cancer.

When it gets tough on those mountains in France, he thinks back to the pain during his recovery.

LIVESTRONG
Now Lance starts his 3rd. life. He puts up his Trek and becomes the world's top anti-cancer crusader. He admits this battle will be harder than a 3-week bike race. There will be victories and defeats. There's going to be survivors and those who don't make it. Lance sees his new mission will be to find the funding to find a cure. The current funding for cancer research is four billion dollars. He thinks that the billions spent on the war in Iraq might be better spent on what most Americans are most fearful of, not terrorism, or bombs, but cancer that strikes without reason. His life will never be normal, but his goals are to have as normal of a life as he can. Kind of the same things you and I value and try to achieve. Spend time with his kids and his girlfriend. Relax at home, keep training, but on a more human level, maybe even go back and start doing triathlons again.

We can look at Lance's battles and successes and take from what he has done as our own personal motivation.
Some of us will get cancer and we'll use him as our motivation to survive and go on to live a "normal" life.
Some of us will know someone who will have cancer, again our strength will come from Lance and we can then give our strength to that cancer patient.
Some of us will have drastic surgeries on our hearts and other body parts and we'll use Lance as our inspiration to get out there and get back into it.
Some of us will not have any major illnesses or tragedies in our life, things will go along quite nicely, but keep Lance's life and fights and victories somewhere safe, because you never know when you might need him.

Until Next Time
Train Smart, Live Right and Strong

Wayne
whuckshold@yahoo.com