Chapter Two.

~ There will be times when the only sounds you'll hear are the spinning of your own wheels, the grinding of your own gears, and your own breath echoing your own footfalls. You will either be ahead of the pack, behind it, or in a pocket of time between the two. But the one thing you will never be is out there alone.

~ If you win, someone will criticize you for not finishing faster. If you DNF, someone will criticize you for the 8.7 billion things you could have possibly done in said someone's infinite wisdom to prevent it. The only way to win is to race your own race and know that in the end, no matter the outcome, every scrap of that day is yours, that critics have plagued every pioneer throughout time, and that history remembers none of them for it.

~ It takes far more effort to compose a rationale for not doing than it does to actually do. By the time you've sorted all of the reasons to stay in bed, invented just the right excuse that facilitates the injection of your perfectly prescribed justification, you'd be halfway out the door. Ironically, the easiest way around is through.

~ Frankly, there are bigger things out there than you on your biggest day. Every race knows this, and will find a way to educate you if you forget.

~ Learn to deal with problems in life like fixing flats. Find the source of the leak and patch it if you can. If you can't, there is only starting fresh. But most importantly, remember that one way or another in the end, you get back on the bike and ride on.