In the meantime, there is a bit of excitement building at home. Yesterday, our congregation woke to a morning paper that included a full colour photo of me on my bike in front of our church. There was a terrific article about not just me but with perfect details about what Sea To Sea is really about. A HUGE THANK YOU to Ian Gillespie who wrote the piece.
Part of me had wished that there could have been a different picture with the article. What I would have liked to have happened was a picture of all of the riders in our church with the whole cogregation behind us because that is what is really happening. And when I look at that picture it's not the building I see but all the faces of encouragement I encounter every time I go to the church.
One of the first phone calls I got that morning was a warning. OMG! they published your weight on the front page of the paper! Yes, yes they did. And by putting it out there it didn't change. Also note that they gave my age and size. I'm OK with this as I have learned that these stats are not what define me, and I try and ensure that they are not even close to being the most important or interesting things to know about me. If that's what's important...I'm not going to be very appealing to you. That's hard as a woman in our society and going beyond stereotype was what was focused on in the article.
An really amazing phenomenon has happened since the article. Women and girls have been coming up to be and giving me their ages and weights. Breaking through the taboos of polite conversation and stating the irrelevant numbers that society tries to bind us with. It's good. And if I make no other difference to anyone doing Sea To Sea....it was worth it just to have those moments with those ladies.
Thanks Ian, for throwing open the door. Here's what Ian wrote:
From the London Free Press Friday, March 21, 2008
This ride will boost charity, fitness image By IAN GILLESPIE
Some women are reluctant to admit their age. But not Gayle Harrison, who happily tells me she recently turned 40. And she doesn't stop there. Harrison gaily adds she is "an overweight, middle-aged woman" who weighs 195 pounds, wears a size 16, carries her weight high, can't find a cycling jersey that'll fit her and was "always the chubby kid who wasn't good at sports." She also admits when she tells people she plans to ride her bicycle coast-to-coast this summer, as part of a church-sponsored fundraiser, most people assume she'll be helping out behind the scenes.
"They think I'm a volunteer," she says. "And that I'll be in the SAG (support and gear) wagon making sandwiches, eating bonbons and waiting for the riders to come in."
Harrison relates all this with an infectious sense of humour. But her message -- that we routinely (and mistakenly) associate thinness with fitness -- is serious.
"Fit is a different thing than size and body weight," she says. "Body mass is not an indication of fitness. And part of me doesn't want to lose the weight, because I want to show there's not a perfect size to being fit."
Harrison has been training hard for the Sea To Sea bike tour, a cross-continent trek organized by the Christian Reformed Church to support anti-poverty programs.
More than 200 riders -- including eight Londoners -- plan to participate in the ride, which starts June 30 in Seattle, Wash., and ends Aug. 30 in Jersey City, N.J. Along the way, the cyclists will cross the American border and dip into Southwestern Ontario, visiting London on Aug. 21.
Although the cyclists will be accompanied by vehicles to cart their gear and pick up exhausted riders, it's still a demanding challenge: During the nine-week ride, cyclists will cover an average of 110 kilometres a day.
To prepare, Harrison started cycling last spring for an hour a day. Now, as winter lingers, she attaches her bicycle to an indoor stand and pedals two to three hours daily.
Harrison figures she'll be able to ride at an average speed of about 20 kilometres an hour, which means she'll be pedalling five to six hours most days. And apart from raising the required $10,000, she aims to finish the trek without ever being picked up by a support vehicle.
It's a big challenge for anyone, let alone a woman who admits she has been largely inactive most of her life.
"I was always a chubby kid," says Harrison, who was raised in Seaforth but has been living in downtown London for about 17 years. "And I was always the last person picked in the schoolyard for teams."
"So you get into this cycle," she says. "You think you're no good at sports because nobody will let you play them, so you don't get active. And when you're not active, you stay overweight and inactive."
But Harrison, who works with a local physician recruiting firm, says she now realizes many of our assumptions about fitness are false.
"As I got older, I discovered that my weight didn't determine my abilities," she says. "I realized I didn't have to be a size two to enjoy hiking and walking and camping."
Her riding regime was temporarily derailed last November, however, when she was struck by a car while crossing Richmond St. near St. Joseph's hospital.
"I felt something hit my thigh, I looked down and it was the front of a car," she recalls. "Then my head struck the hood or the windshield, I remember feeling very light and hitting the ground and then I felt the tires driving over my hair.
"I had the imprint of a grill on my thigh, literally."
Although there were no broken bones, Harrison was seriously bruised and sustained a head injury that has affected her short-term memory.
But none of that has deterred her from trying to gather $10,000 in pledges (to make a pledge, call Barb at First Christian Reformed Church at 519-432-7997) and hitting the road.
"If any kind of lesson comes out of this, I hope it's that being picked last on the schoolyard doesn't mean you come in last in life," she says.
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