Remembering Roger

Tonight at 10:07PM, my long time friend Roger Sessler passed from this life into the grand eternal never ending century. In this life few are privileged to have a friend such as Roger. There are many people on Rogers "route" of friends who will dearly miss his presence in our lives. While we may have been put off with his open honesty, calling our handiwork a piece of junk, our habits poor, our maintenance of things lacking, we will not miss Roger and the gruff in Roger's endearing way he told us these things.
It only served to improve and help raise us to a higher standard. We were urged not to throw out the old, but to try and repair it. We were encouraged to save, to not live in excess. We were taught many lessons, all for the good upon looking back.
If not for Roger, I would never continued with my love for bicycling. He taught me how to ride on the roads in a group of riders, and many times upbraided me for cutting him off without signaling or pointing out some glass in the road. Even up until two years ago, I could not keep his pace on the bicycle for long distances.
Today was the Annual Gainesville Cycling Clubs Cycling Festival, the Santa Fe Century today and the Horsefarm 100 tomorrow. For years, Roger helped man the rest stop at Watermelon park on Saturday for the Santa Fe and would then ride the Century on Sunday for free for helping. He took great pride in his tee shirts earned from these events. It was Roger who rooked me into helping out at the Watermelon park stop and who also helped me through my first century the next day.
He was always a throwback to the carbon fiber and aero bicyclists lining up with him. He continued to ride with leather toe clips, he rode a steel lugged Vitas and later a steel Guerceotti. He concocted his own bag to carry his tire changing kit and food over the front handlebars. He used an ancient Huret belt driven mile counter and faithfully logged all his miles in his notebooks. He wore custom made T-Shirts with mesh sewn into the back and front by the ladies at N&W Cleaners. His Lycra pants were always long since given their last stretch and sagged. It was many a carbon fiber and titanium bike he passed too en route to a steady pace and finish at Morningside Nature Center.
Roger in addition to a cyclist was a runner. I first met Roger at one of our Lake City Runners Club outing. Again, always the teacher and coach, he usually was seen helping a slower runner or walker along, pacing them at their own pace, offering advice and companionship.
He was able to train for and complete several Jacksonville Marathons. Many were the miles we spent running through the Osceola National Forest trails with Bob Jones and many other running friends.
I could wax long on Roger and the times we spent here and there, as well as could his many friends he kept on his daily route and phone log. He was quite faithful to check in on us and keep us abreast on each other. It would probably embarrass greatly some if they knew that we knew this and that about them through Roger. But, we were all like a great family. Many I have never met, but feel as if I know, simply from hearing Roger tell of you.
There is probably no one left who was like Roger. This great circle of friends connected through Roger will now end. We shall continue in our tinkering and blundering and getting things all wrong. We will not have Roger to come and bail us out, to repair it, to show us how it works. We will have to now buy new things, for the old things will not be repaired.
I do not know how some of us will get along. I do not know at this point how I shall. Though I lost my biological father this past March, tonight I lost my father and friend, Roger Sessler.