In Memory
Fifteen or twenty minutes had gone by that dark and damp November morning before I even noticed that Dave
* a) wasn't dressed for the last day of La Ruta
* b) and had a substantial gash on his left arm that he'd stitched himself in the early dawn of the previous night while in the waiting room of a small Costa Rican medical clinic.
He'd crashed along with a couple of other riders, and rather than tend to himself, he'd accompanied them to the clinic to make sure their care met his criteria. As a doctor, and the person he was, Dave's first priority was to help. His own body could wait.
Dave had become a highlight of each early morning bus ride to the race's start. It was a rare chance for me to sit and chat with an old friend who was known as much for his constant good spirits and warmth as he was for his Kevlar durability in the field. Every day we'd sit in the back of the bus and catch up on Texas, his crazy week long adventure race, life, beer, whatever it was two guys talk about at 5am on their way to, what was to me a horrid death march on the bike, but to Dave, was simply another opportunity for him to test himself and share that experience with the world.
There is a photo of from La Ruta '07 that Chris Peters gave me and I look at it almost every day. Whenever I'm trying to find images that convey adventure. experience. personal growth journey, this photo always strikes me, and its one I've looked at a thousand times. It is, to me, a compelling photo that solves, without words, what it is we do out there, and why we do it.
Today I found out that Dave Boyd died a few days ago while climbing in Colorado.
Dave was always an inspiration and a constant source of positive influence, by both example and in every conversation I had with him. His loss stopped us all in our tracks, but I do find peace in that he was out there living, experiencing, being inspired, and he always strove to show others how to find that in their own lives.
Its fitting that, until now, I never realized that the rider you see in that photo is Dave.
* a) wasn't dressed for the last day of La Ruta
* b) and had a substantial gash on his left arm that he'd stitched himself in the early dawn of the previous night while in the waiting room of a small Costa Rican medical clinic.
He'd crashed along with a couple of other riders, and rather than tend to himself, he'd accompanied them to the clinic to make sure their care met his criteria. As a doctor, and the person he was, Dave's first priority was to help. His own body could wait.
Dave had become a highlight of each early morning bus ride to the race's start. It was a rare chance for me to sit and chat with an old friend who was known as much for his constant good spirits and warmth as he was for his Kevlar durability in the field. Every day we'd sit in the back of the bus and catch up on Texas, his crazy week long adventure race, life, beer, whatever it was two guys talk about at 5am on their way to, what was to me a horrid death march on the bike, but to Dave, was simply another opportunity for him to test himself and share that experience with the world.
There is a photo of from La Ruta '07 that Chris Peters gave me and I look at it almost every day. Whenever I'm trying to find images that convey adventure. experience. personal growth journey, this photo always strikes me, and its one I've looked at a thousand times. It is, to me, a compelling photo that solves, without words, what it is we do out there, and why we do it.
Today I found out that Dave Boyd died a few days ago while climbing in Colorado.
Dave was always an inspiration and a constant source of positive influence, by both example and in every conversation I had with him. His loss stopped us all in our tracks, but I do find peace in that he was out there living, experiencing, being inspired, and he always strove to show others how to find that in their own lives.
Its fitting that, until now, I never realized that the rider you see in that photo is Dave.
posted by jsager at 6:54 PM
2 Comments:
thank you so much for posting that. I am going to link this entry to my blog as well. He is definitely missed...
Well put Jason. That last picture was one that Dave thought was super cool. It was weird how the day the group was climbing those mountains he fell on a week earlier, he opted to ride his bike rather than hike...to train for La Ruta some. A week later he returned to those mountains, mad that he didn't beat them when he had the chance and took off alone.
Take care J.-wink
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