If I was to ever say I had a sports hero, Lance Armstrong would have topped the list.

Back in the day, I had a Trek Madone Discovery Team edition bike. Nearly all my cycling gear was Nike, Giro, Oakley, and LIVESTRONG labeled – his major sponsors during his riding career.

During my 2007-2008 Mid-East deployment, I stalked Lance throughout the Qatar portion of the December 2007 holiday USO tour that also included Robin Williams and Kid Rock! (The show was awesome, by the way)

Lance eventually signed three of his books and the frame of my 2001 Trek XO-1 USPS Team Colors cyclocross bike (I still have them all). A coupe years later, a military friend got me a signed Discovery Team jersey during another Lance / USO trip to the Middle East.

I even held tight to a 2006 quote by Lance that he said to another cyclist who was on the verge of winning the Tour de France:

“Forget pain, overcome mishap, crush self doubt, and focus only on your victory.”

This quote summed up (and still does) my approach to life.

I defended Lance and cycling against detractors and skeptics who accused him of doping. He’d been through too much with his cancer to jeopardize his health…right?

His status as my hero all but evaporated during his 2013 admission to doping and lying during the entirety of his cycling career.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I sold nearly all of my Lance-related cycling gear – bike, helmet, shoes, spandex (it’s amazing what people will buy on eBay). I stowed the autographs away and striped my cyclocross bike of all its components and boxed it up.

Then, on May 23rd this year, things changed.

While I processed the diagnosis the doctors dropped on me, Lance and his fight with testicular cancer emerged from the recesses of my mind.

During the long drives to appointments and chemo infusions, my wife and I listened to his first book, It’s Not About the Bike – My Journey Back to Life.

Apart from recounting his first Tour de France win in 1999, the book really focuses on his diagnosis, treatment, cure, and post-cancer life (really that there is life after cancer). It is a story of hope and survival. Lance affirms a cancer diagnosis does not automatically mean a death sentence.

While reading the book, I remembered the feelings of inspiration and hope that he gave to millions of cancer patients and survivors…and those of us who wore the yellow silicone wristbands in LIVESTRONG solidarity.

My very first blog post was a song I remember listening to during my Lance-worship phase that was a fundraising effort for the non-profit group:

The song took on a whole new meaning for me as the lyrics became my words and my feelings and my story of necessary survivorship.

Though I still detest Lance Armstrong’s doping past, I have moved past his transgressions and relate to him as someone who went through what I am now going through…and that there is more for me after my cure. I will survive!

I remain positive and hopeful, in part, because of Lance and his LIVESTRONG movement. I deal with my cancer on a day-to-day basis, but know there is so much more for me to do.

Some of what I have done is rebuild my old Trek XO-1 cyclocross bike:

I look forward to riding again.

I have also scoured eBay for some LIVESTRONG riding gear (e.g. spandex) – all to show my solidarity (and nothing else…even though it is very tight) with the cancer survivor community.

I have even taken inspiration from some of the old Nike LIVESTRONG t-shirts and other apparel I found on the internets. I replicated this for a possible shirt of my own:

DAVESTRONG doesn’t quite have the ring and marketability of LIVESTRONG, but hoping and staying strong are transforming me into the cancer survivor I intend to be…I plan to go the distance for a very long time!