By Cindy Sheafor
Last spring, I decided I wanted to do something with all of the women in my immediate family – my mom (71), my daughters (both 19), my sister (44) and my niece (10). I begged them to sign up for the Rock Hill Ramblin’ Rose. The plan was for us all to compete together, likely in pairs – my mom with me, my niece with my sister, and my daughters together. Then, not too much after that, I tore my left ACL as well as my miniscus and I strained pretty much everything else in my knee. I did not drop out of the race, thinking that I would try to do some part of it with my mom.
My mom is 71. She has one bionic knee and has had tremendous pain in the other. She is not a swimmer or biker or runner and she had never competed in any sports events as an adult with the exception of walking the Turkey Trot with the family. With some coaxing, my mom signed up to swim with the masters swim team that I coach and she worked her way up to 1,400 yards of backstroke twice a week. She purchased an inexpensive used hybrid bicycle and worked up to nine miles of biking. We knew she could walk two miles and would not be able to run because of her arthritis so she did not really train for the run portion of the triathlon.
By June, I was going on short bike rides wearing my knee brace. One week before the Rock Hill triathlon, my mom and I went for a bike ride together. We were going down a very slight incline with a sharp right turn. I was taking up the rear. I watched my mom tip over like an inflatable punch toy, only she didn’t bounce right back up. When I got to her, her knees were bloody and bruised. In fact, she had instant coal-colored bruises all up and down her legs.
A week later, my mom and I did the Ramblin’ Rose together – I wore my knee brace and surprised her at the race, having decided just the night before that I could do the whole thing. When we crossed the finish line “running,” all of the women in our family were there to greet us. It was one of the most meaningful moments in my life post-cancer.
And then I found out that my daughters and my mom all won medals! My mom finished first in her age group and my daughters finished first and second. Another moment of sheer joy!
