Right after I rode my bike across the country, a remarkable thing happened. While I had ridden my bike simply initially for myself and to remember my friend Lori, it turned into an epic tale involving a classroom of special-ed 5th graders, and two people falling in love. (all names have been changed).

As I stood in front of the 100 fifth-graders, some parents, the teachers and even the district supervisor, I realized that my bicycle ride across the US had become much larger than the 3,437 mile-trip I had completed this summer. That was enough of a feat; now this trip had started to have an impact on not just these 10 year-olds, but also on the people around them.

This whole connection to these kids started a few weeks after I had returned from my bike trip, when a friend of mine that I ride with in Austin, David, asked me if I would speak to a friend of his who is a teacher outside of San Francisco. Mary teaches a small group of kids with special needs – the kids are in regular classes, and get some special training to help them with challenges that keep them from being present in class. The kids already were really into bikes and wanted to have a phone conference with me about my trip. In the time leading up to the phone conference, they wrote letters to me, researched each state I went through, and made a bulletin board about me and my trip (!). At the phone conference, the teacher told me later that she’s never seen them so well behaved (probably helped by the fact that there was a large sign on the wall that said, “Consequences: You will be asked to leave if you cannot sit quietly and listen to Marlene’s answers”. They were so excited that there was also a prompting sign that reminded them to say, ” Hello, Marlene. My name is _____, (ask your question), Thank you!” otherwise they forgot all the basics of a phone conversation!

Out of this, I was inspired so much that I decided that I needed to meet them, so I started telling people about this whole thing. A friend, who thought this was an amazing project, gifted me the frequent flier miles to make the trip and I flew out to give a presentation to the entire fifth-grade assembly. I wanted a chance to meet the original 13 kids ahead of time and I brought them each a small silver stone, that came with a little silver bag (kids love that stuff!), carved with a word, like Trust, Believe, Miracle, Hope etc. I had them all in a little bag, and I told them each to take one out, and told them that the one they pulled was the perfect one for them. They all oohed as they took one, and then one of the kids, Tommy, “I got Believe. That’s perfect for me because I don’t believe enough in myself.” Wow. Tommy had already had a tough morning, complete with a meltdown, and had said he didn’t want to do his part in the presentation of the assembly, but between getting the Believe stone, and some coaching from his teacher, he came up to me before the assembly, and his aide said, “Tommy has something to tell you”. And he looked at me and just stuck his hands out and gave me two thumbs up. I told him he rocked and that I was so glad he was still in!

What I didn’t realize about the assembly, which was right after lunch, was that each of the 13 kids was going to introduce me. I thought that, since I had ridden through 13 states, and they had each researched one, that they were going to stand on the stage with me, hold up the poster board with an outline of the state and say something like, “This is Minnesota. The capitol of Minnesota is … “etc. I was very mistaken. The 13 kids sat on the stage, each with a state on a poster board, and now I see why Tommy had been so important to the whole thing. When Mary the teacher introduced me, and said the kids had something to say, Tommy stood up, held up his poster (it actually hid his face, but you could hear him with the microphone) and said, in a terrified monotone, but clear as a bell, “This is Marlene. She rode her friend’s bike across the country because her best friend was killed while she was base jumping off a cliff in Norway. She wanted to remember her friend, Lori. Lori had ridden her bike on the same trip. Marlene began her trip in the state of Washington.” I was moved to tears. And then Brian stood up. “This is Marlene. She rides her bike fast when she goes down hill. She can get up to 50 miles per hour. The second state she went through was Idaho.” and so on. They said things like, “Marlene is really really fast. She is really cool. She also went up big and little hills. Sometimes she would go so fast that she would scare the other riders.” and “Marlene is very nice and smart and kind. Wyoming is the fourth state Marlene rode through. It was very windy in Wyoming.” and David said, “Marlene likes hockey. In fact, she grew up rooting for the Rangers hockey team. She grew up in New York. She has a good sense of humor. South Dakota is the fifth state she rode through.” and Jackie said, “Marlene has a great sense of humor and a great personality. She also made a lot of new friends on her trip. I was inspired on her trip because it helped me to keep trying. Ohio was the 11th state Marlene rode through.” After they all went in order of the states that I rode through, they filed off the stage and sat down in the front row.

I was nearly speechless, to say the least. How do you top that? So I told them how amazing that was, and thanked them, and then just started: I talked about the trip, the logistics of moving 40 people on bicycles across the country, and I showed them some pictures from my trip on the screen. They saw every picture I took that had a state line sign in it, and pictures of the views from tops of mountains, and cornfields, and drive-thru’s with McDonald’s. They saw my bike in pieces before the trip, and me standing in the ocean at the end. And then I had the lights turned on, and I talked to them about the mistaken assumptions people make about me – that I’ve always been this fit, that I’ve always been healthy (I told the kids I had asthma at their age, and never mind the heart condition I still have!) and that I must have been completely confident at how this was going to go (couldn’t be farther from the truth). I talked to them about how there were nights that I didn’t know how I was going to get up the next day, that this was the hardest thing I had ever done, and then waking up the next morning and getting dressed anyway.

Then I told them that I wanted to leave them with one thing – to be a YES in their life. That’s when I pointed past the kids and said, “And I am also talking to the adults in the back of the room.” I said that we always have these excuses that get in the way of us doing what we really want to do – We don’ t have enough time, not enough money, I’m not smart enough, I’m not fast enough, I’m a girl – whatever it is. I told them that I had plenty of great reasons to not do this trip and that I refused to let them stop me. And I invited them to take that on – to be a Yes, even in the face of No, or I Can’t.

Mary told me later that she’s never seen the kids that involved in an assembly. They started asking questions and she finally had to stop them, because we ran out of time. They came up to me and kept asking. The other teachers told me they were just as inspired. Mary told me what the original 13 kids told her afterwards and the next day: that I had been a “bright light”, that it was a bummer that the project was over, and that I was “awesome and would make a great mom even if you don’t have kids.”

I’m speechless at how this all transpired. I rode my bike across the US for my own personal reasons, and it turned into an enormous opportunity to make a difference for many more people than I may ever know. I’m humbled by the courage these kids had, and by what they got from me, and I can’t believe I was given this chance.

Most importantly, I also invite you to take on being a Yes. My friend Lori lived with this saying: Do something every day that scares you. That might be jumping out of a plane, it might be a phone call, it might be taking a class in ballroom dancing. But be a Yes and watch your life become something amazing and unimaginable.

P.S. I thought this was the end of the story, but it went on, ending with a wedding! Here’s Part 2…