With the right people by your side, anything is possible!

Hello again everyone... I'm back... and semi-functional (can't walk, sit, think, or type very well :-)

Thank you all again for following my progress through the Heart of the South 500 and for all of your notes of encouragement sent through my crew... they really did keep me going. I just wanted to get a quick post out here to thank everyone and I will be posting a full race report on here in a few days (and it will be a long one)!

Anyway, I cannot fully recollect how many times throughout the race that I wanted to:

1. Stop, curl up in a ball and sleep
2. Be warm and dry
3. Stop going friggin' UP
4. Just flat out quit!

But, I kept thinking about all the effort and time that everyone was putting forth for me. Geno and Mick taking off work, driving to AL, sleep deprivation, navigation, exhaustion... among gobs of other hardships. Heather and Meredith here in B-N, keeping in contact with us and updating the blog...and certainly not sleeping much either. And of course, all of you, my friends and family, that wanted to help me see this through. So, yeah, I had a lot of bad thoughts out there on my bike, and there was certainly new levels of tiredness and exhaustion, and OMG... the pain... I never thought moving my legs around the circle of a pedal stroke or sitting down on my saddle would make me want to cry and scream... I was WRONG!

Yet, like some sort of miracle, every time those thoughts or the pain set in, a thought or a memory would pop into my head about one of you... what you might say if you were there next to me... Or, knowing that despite what I was thinking, that you would believe that I would pull through and see this thing through to the end! I think my dad put it best in an email that he sent to me post-race: "Remember that there were a lot of people on that bike with you and trying to help you as much as they could". And he is right, all of you were out there with me, and this was certainly not the accomplishment of one, but of many. As truly believe that I would have stopped in the first 200 miles were it not for all of you.

In short, I can't find the right words, as 'thank you' doesn't seem to suffice, but just know that even though I only had contact with a few of you during the race, my memories of the race include all of you.

This certainly have been an interesting adventure (not one that I am currently antsy to jump at again)... but does go to show that with the right people by your side, anything is possible!

~Andy