EMS Memorial Ride '09: Final Dispatches

Day 9: May 23, 2009 - Saturday morning, clear, sunny and warm. Some of us intrepid souls thought it would be a good idea to rise early and run a 5k race. It sounded like a good idea as we planned it over the winter. Our thought process was that it would be a nice way to give back to the community and its charities for hosting us these last few years. Next year the ride will change as the EMS Memorial service is moving to Colorado Springs, Co. We won't be riding our bikes from NYC to Colorado for the service.

Anyway, back to the run. Myself, Lisa Rheaume, Dr. Ted Larochell and Lynn Bulha gathered at the starting line to take on this final challenge of the week. The girls, being much younger than Ted or me took off quickly. Lynn, who is a runner, finished in twenty three minutes and Lisa finished in 27 minutes. Ted and I started feeling the effects of the bike ride within the first few feet of the start. Our legs felt like lead and didn't want to do the turnover of the running motion. We decided to set a slow pace and visit. The hills induced us to do a little walking. Who knew that a bridge over the railroad tracks could be so steep. We went over it twice, walking. After thirty eight minutes of talking and watching the morning unfold over the city we crossed the finish line. After congratulating each other for completing the race we all went back to the hotel to enjoy a scrumptious breakfast buffet and one of the best omelets I've had in long time.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and having ice cream for lunch. We thought we had earned it after riding this week. I kept meeting family members of the people who died throughout the hotel and in the elevators. The expression of gratitude and hugs for our group on remembering their loved ones kept me misty all day.

At 5PM we all gathered for the short trip over to the First Baptist Church where the memorial service was being held. The church had the largest gathering that I've seen in the four years I've been doing this ride. Our group as usual sat together, filling up one side. The service itself was good as usual but I felt that there were a few glitches. The program read like it hadn't been proofread or edited, with many misspellings and grammatical errors. For me to pick up on these mistakes, it must have been bad. The reader of the names kept getting ahead of herself so people kept getting lined up for the medal, flag and flower presentation, which caused some confusion. At one point she was leaning on the podium like she was bored and tired. And the memorial ran out of roses to give to family members. How as a group do you release the names of the honorees months in advance and not have enough flowers? The honor guard and the bag pipers were crisp and right on in all of their movements and playing. After the service we moved outside where the uniformed personnel lined up at attention and Carilion Lifeguard did a flyby.

After the service we all broke off into our groups to go our separate ways for dinner. Our group selected Smoky Bones for more barbeque. We relaxed over our food, enjoyed each others’ company and told stories of lost loved ones, the families we met, and some of the fun stories from the past week. It was wonderful.

I have to make a correction to the post for Delaware. Amy, one of the new young riders this year from Delaware, explained to me that I didn't know my counties. There is no Talbot County; I don't know what I could have been thinking except at eleven o'clock at night I'm not operating on all cylinders. It could be an age thing and the hypoxia from all the exercise. But the counties are Newcastle, Sussex, and Kent. I apologize to all of the fine people of Delaware for my mistake.