Seth Robins: Reflection on the Ride

For Seth’s first post, click here.

Mission Accomplished

DaVita claimed that the Tour DaVita would be the ride of a lifetime, and at first I was skeptical. I usually reserve rides of a lifetime for space exploration and Six Flags Over Texas. Never could I have imagined that cycling through Alabama and Tennessee with a group of strangers could embed in me such a sense of euphoria. The experience left me so mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted, that when the reality of its conclusion hit me at the Nashville airport I almost cried – almost. There were no man tears, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Coming into the Tour I had expectations and goals ­– we all did – as to what I wanted to accomplish. For some of us it was a physical challenge, an opportunity to push ourselves further than we had ever intended. For others it was a personal goal, an opportunity to renew old friendships and to create fresh ones. For myself, and I’m sure for any of us who are new to the company, it was a chance to see if DaVita was truly a place to invest my future in. To test and prove that the spirit that is spoken so often and highly of is in fact the same beating heart of DaVita.

The friendships that I was able to forge while gutting it out on the Natchez Trace are the images that I take with me. As I reflect on the past week and the innumerable faces that will forever pass through my mind, my memory is a collage of mixed emotions on the road to Nashville. Some faces were those of jubilation and expressed joy beyond measure; usually those were the faces seen on the descents. At other times I would come along individuals who had a pained sense of gratification on their faces. They would turn to say hello with a smiling huff and a puff and then continue on. But the most satisfying moments for me were when I would pull up along someone to say hello and they wouldn’t answer back. Their faces would be contorted into grit and agony, determined to accomplish their goal, whether the goal was to finish up the day or to get up those damn deceptive hills whose gentle grade mocked us for miles. That, or they were listening to their iPod and couldn’t hear me. Whichever it was I didn’t want to mess up that kind of focus, that’s just bad karma.

For all of those I met along the way, I hope you made it back home safely. I also hope you came back just as sore and smelly as I did. More importantly, though, I hope you came back excited to tell everyone who had an ear to listen just how amazing a time we had on the Natchez. Was it the ride of a lifetime? It was a masterpiece, and for this kid from Colorado it’ll take more than a lifetime to forget.