EYES ON THE ROAD, GO FOR THE GOLD

HAYS TO GREAT BEND, KS (66 Miles)

I beat the alarm today.  Was gearing up at 4:30 am.  Due to the severe heat wave that has swallowed most of the US, I needed to be on the road at least three hours before the heat would become unbearable.  So, I pedaled south on Highway 183 out of Hays.  Once out of the bustle of morning traffic, I made good time and managed to dodge cars, pickups, and semis throughout the day.  To be honest, the shoulder was no wider than a foot and the teeth-rattling rumble strip formed the left side of the shoulder.  You're trapped between constant jar and the ditch.  So this would be a day to be alert or join the peaceable kingdom of the roadkill.  

But maybe about an hour into my pedaling, some words popped into my head.  Eyes on the road, Go for the Gold!  Just that phrase kept me going when the temps broke past the 90s.  I discovered that as I repeated the phrase over and over, I began to pick up and maintain my speed.  In fact, I began to look up and forward to the road ahead of me as I pronounced the words.  Eyes on the Road, Go for the Gold.   Eyes on the Road, Go for the Gold . . .  And then I recalled the amazing achievements of Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history with nine Olympic medals.  I envisioned her pretzel-like contortions, her twisting body, yet delicately landing on her feet like a cat.  But it's her face, that speaks volumes.  It reveals intense eyes on the road, go for the gold focus.  

I once had my eyes on the roadkill so much that I careened into another cyclist ahead of me who had stopped.  We both survived, but when you keep you head turned down, you'll only fellowship with roadkill.  That stinks, literally.  (In fact, I stopped to observe my first armadillo road kill today!)   So, today, I kept my eyes on the road, that is, looking forward to the horizon point.  And that got me to Great Bend in record time.  

Epilogue.  As I'm muttering my mantra on narrow shoulders and watching for traffic, I thought I saw in the distance maybe five miles away, the tiny end of a spear.  Three miles away, it resembled what was most likely an oil rigging.  But by mile two I knew what it was:  the beautiful spire of a church.  It sat in a town that had no store, no gas station, or Starbucks!  There it towered magnificently above the cornfields and world.   In the middle of a cornfield this tall church reminded me to keep my eyes looking ahead, looking up.  And to ay aside everything that would keep me from my true focus.  So, keep your eyes on the road and go for the gold!