Making space for new beginnings

I intended to write this post yesterday when we announced the closing of our website Carolina Cycling News. I wanted the end of 2012 to be focused on good-bye’s and the start of 2013 to be focused on new things emerging in the space created by letting go. However, life doesn’t really divide up in those tidy boundaries we create and of course, a new beginning happens every day when the sun rises.

It is tough to let go of something you poured your heart and soul into when you created it. I took a leave of absence from my graduate school program because of the work involved in creating and running the website. I was also excited about traveling around the Southeast covering bike races and watching Neil race. We did do some of that but 2010 turned out to be a really tough year starting with my dad unexpectedly dying the week after we launched the website and Neil’s dad passing away a few months after his shocking terminal lung cancer diagnosis. Despite Neil receiving the news shortly before we drove up to the Carolinas Cycling Association promoters meeting, we went anyway because we believed in helping race promoters do a better job in getting the word out about their races. Such a surprise to discover that the CCA Board considered our publication competition – what?!

Life continued to be full of challenges but also we had great times including producing the live chats for Versus.com. That experience later evolved into our own TourChats live chats and web show. In addition to creating fun experiences for cycling fans, I’ve gotten more involved in bike advocacy over the last year. Highlights were going to the National Bike Summit and helping to organize the first Southeast Women’s Cycling Forum. I’ve moved my Slow Bike Upstate column over here on my own website and look forward to planning a women’s cycling forum here in the Upstate this year.

I’m also back in graduate school now and looking forward to heading down new roads – many of them on my bike!