OuTsIdE rEaDiNg- Week 4 post B

It's not about the bike - Lance Armstrong

Dear Lance,
I recently finished your memoir and i would like to congratulate you. You are truely not only a two time plus winner of the Tour de France, but you are most importantly a cancer survivor. I believe that you fought past your cancer even though you say that it was the drugs and doctors who cured you. I'm going to analyze some quotes that i thought were important in your memoir.
"Och, I don't feel ready to go, i think i'm supposed to live [...] I'm not afraid to die if i have to. But i'm still not convinced i can't beat this thing" (130). First, Lance refers to his cancer to "thing". I personally think that he is just refering it to an obstackle in the way, and everyone has obstackles...but Lance's Obstackle is forcing him to think about life or death situations. Some people die knowing that it was their time, but Lance knows that he is supposed to live...which is what made him sure that he could beat his 10 % chance of living.
"The Irony was, the worst i felt, the better i got. THat was chemo for you"(140). During these times, Lance was so sick that he could barely talk. Any of his friends or family must have been heartbroken seeing him laying in bed practically dead. But he wasn't. The chemo was saving his life, and Lance thought of that whenever he felt things weren't going to get any better. It's kinda hard to picture yourself getting better when actually you felt horrible, but Lance stuck in there.
"But now i not only loved the bike, I needed it [...] If nothing else, i was my way of countering the disease and regaining the control it had stripped from me"(144). After his sickness, Lance learnes to love riding the bike. Before he recounts how he just rode because it was his job. He realizes that his bike was one of his main incentives in conquoring the diease! During his chemo he would try and take every opportunity he could to get on the bike. That is how much it meant to him.
"I was beggining to see cancer as something that i was given for the good of others"(150). Lance realizes that with his disease being a part of him now he could help others, and give other cancer patients hope too.