It's not about the bike..

I had always respected Lance Armstrong for his Livestrong Foundation, and was an ardent supporter always sporting a livestrong band. I knew it was about cancer and that Lance himself was as survivor, but I didn’t know much else.

I chanced upon his book while waiting at the MG Road Barista one night. I picked up the book thinking I’d flip a couple of pages while I wait the few minutes I needed to wait.

Lucky for me I ended up waiting for an hour or so, and read 25% of the book.

Lance writes it in a really gripping manner without using fancy words to cover up for his masochism, arrogance as well as fear.

The narrative is straightforward and chronological for the most part, beginning with his childhood and rise to fame at an early age, following through with his diagnosis of cancer and the tough road to getting well, and ends with a fairly detailed account of him winning the Tour de France in 1999.

What did help Lance in his journey through life were his awesome physical attributes that included low lactic acid levels (which mean less pain and faster recovery from physical exertion) as well as his high VO2 (lung capacity). He does mention that a lot of this is luck and good genes, hence he cannot take full credit for his wins or his recovery

This book will easily fill any male’s hero void, and is inspiring beyond words. It makes you want to go out there and make a difference. I don’t intend to be sexist, but I think this is one story the guys will understand at a completely different level than the girls.. maybe because it deals with testicular cancer and fear (something that supposedly doesn’t exist in a male’s dictionary) in a blatant and in-your-face manner.

Do go out and read it. It’s a page turner and totally inspiring! And yes, do support a cause, any cause as long as you believe in it.

Links of Interest:

• Lance Armstrong on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Armstrong
• Lance Armstrong Foundation: http://www.livestrong.org/