Lincoln's 1st Bike Race

With the looming affects of hurricane Isaac threatening we sure were nervous that the bike race wasn't going to even happen.  But we drove to Harrodsburg anyway, a tiny little community in southern Monroe Co. just a few minutes drive from our house.  Lincoln & Thomas were so excited to be riding in their very first bike race.  I think they were making & eating Mac-n-cheese at like 12:00 a.m. they were so excited & pumped.  The gang picture above are Lincoln, his best friend Thomas, Uncle Andy, (my sisters husband), and his friend Dwayne.  Lincoln & Thomas planned to ride in the 55 mile leg of the race.  Uncle Andy & Dwayne planned to ride in the 100 mile leg of the race, they are much more experienced riders.

This is Lincoln.  He is 15 & just a great kid.  It has been a tough month for him God love him please.  My heart has been loving him so much lately as any mother does....but lately especially.  But this guy has amazed me really.  He has been my hockey player since he was 3.  We have been on a travel team really on the road for about 8 months out of the year since he was in 1st grade & have loved every minute of it....except for a few.....those are the few I will tell you about.  THE CONCUSSIONS!!!  Lincoln has received 3 & it hasn't been good.  Toward the end of last school year, his freshman year I was noticing some learning issues that I thought he was struggling with.  He was having a hard time.  His memory just didn't seem right.  You know a mother can just sense these things.  I also was noticing some strange sleep patterns.  Not just normal growing boy stuff but HUGE exhaustion....some really deep & long sleep.  And the headaches.  A lot of headaches.  So I called his pediatrician & of course we had always been in contact.  We had taken a concussion screen prior to his middle school hockey seasons when the screen first became available in our town so we had the baseline test.  He was worried for Lincoln as well.  He sent us to Riley Children's Hospital to Neurology and we bypassed a 7 month wait thanks to Dr. Laughlin and we got in  over the summer.  I was so happy because I wanted to know if Lincoln would need a different learning approach for this year in school & what direction to go in.  So over the summer we went to Riley & Lincoln under went 5 hours of testing.  It was really hard.  It wasn't like CAT scans or anything like that.  They were BRAIN tests.  They were studying his brain to see if it was healed.  And it wasn't & my mother's instinct was right & you should always trust yours.  Please do one thing for me if you are reading this post today.....always TRUST your mother's instinct.  So the Riley experts came in to talk to us & said that Lincoln had not healed from his concussions & that he should no longer play contact sports.  That visit changed our life.  It never occurred to me that we would hear those words.  I don't know why it didn't?  I thought bodies could be healed.  I thought doctors could fix things.  I thought 15 years olds were resilient.  It hurts me that I put my son in harms way for the sake of a sport.  We had such great times.  I thought I was making such a great decision & making a healthy choice for my child to participate actively & physically.  But now after only a month he is thriving.  He has starting this endeavor of cycling.  He is loving it.  He has joined the rock climbing club.  He is also coaching the Squirt Hockey Team & is loving that.  The kids love him!  Coaching will probably be much better for him anyway in our town.  We don't even have year round ice & he knew he probably wouldn't play hockey after high school anyway so coaching will be a very good thing to put on his college applications.  We took him out of his honors classes & lightened his course load at school and put him in a 504/IEP designation.  Which is nothing to be ashamed about as some people have shared with me....oh don't tell anyone my child is in this.  He get excused from school for doctors appointments & absences.  Which potentially there could be many.  He can have longer on tests if he need
 it.  In Lincoln's case, he gets very tired in the afternoons, so he performs better in the morning on tests, so he might opt to take a test in the morning when he is fresh as opposed to the afternoon.  His counselor can advocate for him.  This is a Godsend!  So a lot of pressure has been taken off Lincoln & in my opinion he is thriving so far this year.  We are expecting to have a great year!
  

This is Lincoln & Thomas as they get ready to head off on their 55 mile trek.  Thomas has been Lincoln's best friend since the began kindergarten.

.....and they are off.....I sure hope the rain holds off.  It only sprinkled a bit.  They ran into a couple of dogs.  They were friendly.  Mom was pretty nervous.  I got to thinking....hello....I just turned two 15 year olds out into rural southern Indiana counties on bikes?  These are cell phone kids with no sense of direction.  So then I just went & stayed at the Harrodsburg Community Center & waited & I felt much better doing that.  The boys arrived back safe & sound.

They felt like champions.  I was really proud of them.  I know they were proud of themselves.  What a wonderful accomplishment.  And they accomplished so much more even.....they did get lost.  They rode about five miles out of their way so they had to go five miles back the other way.  But it is a learning experience.  I would have died.  I get upset if I go 10 miles out of my way in a car....I can't imagine doing it on a bike ride....in southern Indiana....hilly country.  So when I asked them if they would do it again....they said....well not next weekend....we are tired.  Duh?????  Hello!!!  But they did go rock climbing yesterday.  Oh the stamina of a 15 year old.  Lincoln is dying to get his dad out there on the open road on a bike.  We will see about that.  That would be great for them to do together.  I am really going to try and make that happen.  Thanks for reading this windy post.  Know that I have shared some tears with you today.  Blessings.