Passion!

Passion. It's what drives us to do great and wonderful things. It's the founding principle of what drives Team Strong Heart.

If you hadn't already guessed, we're all pretty passionate about cycling and last night's manifestation definately raised a few eyebrows.

It had snowed about 1 to 2 inches of wet, heavy snow here and the bike trail was still open around Elm Creek Park Preserve. I could hardly wait to get out and ride it. Threw my studded winter tires onto my 'cross bike and headed out. The temperature was a very comfortable 31 degrees and the snow on the trail was completely untracked. I could only ride about half as fast as usual, and there was no wind noise, so you could really appreciate the complete silence, the soft humming of the tires and the muffled popping of the gently falling ice pellets against my clothes and helmet. Turning on my bike light after it got dark, transformed the park into a shimmering wonderland. Ahhh...now that's passion!

Funny thing about passion...it's not always easy to understand. As I rolled out of my neighborhood I was greeted to a few disbelieving and nervous smiles/chuckles that essentially begged the question, "are you crazy or just plain stupid?" One of our good friends that lives across the street even called my wife and asked "Does Bernie even want to make it to the Race Across America?!! I said to myself, 'Is that Bernie? There's ice under that snow! I'm telling on him!'" My wife told her that "yes, indeed, he is nuts, and thank you very much for watching out for him." Later that night when they met up at a neighborhood women's party, the neighbor commented again about my "dangerous enthusiasm", and my wife explained, "Studded snow tires..." Our neighbor's expression, along with the rest of the women at the table, dawned understanding as they all chorused, "Ohhhh..."

Unusual...yes. Crazy...a bit. Passionate...absolutely!