“Life is a gift. Never forget to enjoy and bask in every moment you are in.”
It was last November that I received an email from the organisers of the Etape Caledonia asking if The Courier would like to be involved in this its 10th year.
It’s an event I’d long wanted to do but had never quite got round to entering, so I was delighted when our editor confirmed we would be media sponsors and would be entering a team into the sportive, which raises money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
At that point I was looking on it as no more than a reason to get fit, but my motivation to properly get into training and try (yes, I tried…) to lose some weight before the big day moved up a gear in December when I learned my cousin had been diagnosed with cancer.
That quote at the top of this article was on his business card. He lived that way all his life and his outlook never changed with a cancer diagnosis. If anything, it made it stronger.
Seeing his incredible positivity and drive to beat his illness every step of the way, I soon started to regard my Etape training as my own tiny private tribute to his fight.
And, of course, it helped to put my cycling gripes into their proper perspective. Most of the times I forced myself out of the door and on to the saddle for some training miles were prompted by remembering he was climbing his own mountain every moment of every day.
All those times I’ve been tempted to stop, or take a shorter route home, I’ve only needed to think of him to remember my pain would only last another couple of hours. On one run I stopped after four miles complaining of a pain where cyclists tend to get pain, but then imagined him telling me to man up and so got back on and completed another 72.
Tragically, my cousin didn’t make it. He was beating and – please let me stress this – would have beaten cancer, but was caught out by an infection that his treatment meant he couldn’t fight.
That’s why I know one thing: I may not bask in it, and I may struggle at times to enjoy it, but no matter how long it takes me (sorry Mr Editor, but I might need Monday off) I’ll finish this Etape Caledonia.
Life is indeed a gift, and I’m sure all of us who are lucky enough to be able to line up in Pitlochry on Sunday morning have our own personal reasons for being there and people we will be thinking of as we battle up the hills.
For me, it’s simple: Martin never gave up. If I can be half as strong, I’ll coast it.
