Adventure Blog Entry #2

Aug 23

Wednesday Aug 16th, 2023

One more sleep until my flight. Flying with a wheelchair and an adaptive bike is a lot of work. The bike has had a tune up, the battery was shipped last week and has been received in Colorado. I have a friend bringing a backup battery for me to use. The course I'm doing at SBTgrvl is 37 miles. My battery is a small one so it will last approx 18ish miles. I've sorted out a rough plan on swapping on course which involves a race volunteer shuttling it to one of the aid stations. There are so many moving parts. I've also had to consider where to keep my wheelchair while I'm out on course. Also, since I can't stand and walk I have no way to get off my bike to use a porta potty so.....I will have to just find a spot and pull over to catheterize. It's not easy to do off the side of a bike but I've practiced on a couple other mountain adventures so I am ready for it. I've enlisted some help from the famjam, who have run up and down stairs for me, photocopied my accessible parking pass, helped to get my travel wheelchair ready (including changing tires and adjusting brakes).

The bike is locked and loaded, suitcase is almost there, and a friend is picking me up at 4:30am to leave for the airport. Airports with wheelchairs can be tolerable or awful, I'd say my experiences have been 50/50.

Breathe.....I'm excited to meet my teammates and won't be alone in both stoke and nerves. There are 20 riders from all over the US and a couple of us Canadians.

4 sleeps til race day.

@bionic_heart_roller

I'm Jen (she/her), 44y/o mom of 3 (1 neurodiverse teen, 1 broody teenager, and a chatty hilarious 9yr old). My partner and I have been together since high school and we live near Toronto, Ontario. In the daytime when I'm acting mostly like a grown up, I work as a Doctor of Audiology in private practice.

Adventure Blog Entry #2

Adventure Blog Entry #1