I was a runner and a soccer player living in Okinawa, Japan and I didn't have recruiters coming in to recruit me for sports. So how many kids out there and planning to go to college are super stud athletes but don't have a chance because they come from some podunk town and no one comes to watch them?

Without running, I would have missed the joy of rain. What could be considered an inconvenience or a bummer to the inexperienced is actually a gift. Without running, I would miss a lot of things-like seeing cities in a certain way, or knowing certain people all the way to the core. I'm glad we don't experience life through glass, under cover, or from the sidelines. Good things take miles.

To me, there is no greater way to achieve clarity than to run alone, or share miles with a trusted friend.

I became a lot more educated on this arthritis thing when I was diagnosed with it, but basically OA is a degenerative disease, which is definitely something that you're not going to be able to stop because it's going to be ongoing, but there are certain things you can do to slow down the progression.

I think that with some education there are real possibilities at the high school and college level, but more so at the college level, to bring people into cycling.

The best thing to do when you find yourself in a hurting or vulnerable place is to surround yourself with the strongest, finest, most positive people you know.

US Cycling is doing a lot now with camps in different towns or different regions, but I think a great place, and I'm not sure how much it's been hit, is camps for people that are involved in other sports. Why not put on camps for high school kids that are cross-country runners, because those are the some of the best cyclists.