What motivates and inspires me most is being told I can’t do something, then not only doing it but totally destroying it. When I started cycling again after putting on a ton of weight, people would routinely pass me in cars and yell terrible insults at me. I didn’t give up. Not only did my “thunder thighs” get me up those hills, they thundered me to a healthier, 50-pounds-lighter, happier me. When people told me that cycling through Syracuse winter was “%$#$% insane,” I did it five years in a row and counting through some pretty awful (typical) winter conditions.