Cycle of Hope: A Journey from Paralysis to Possibility

By: Tricia Downing

Narrated by: Aven Shore

At 31, Tricia Downing was in the best shape of her life. In the summer of 2000, Tricia, an avid cyclist, drove across the country for what amounted to 18 races in 23 days. She returned from her adventure to a fresh start: a new job awaited her, and determined to make the next summer the year she would make her mark on the world of cycling, she began a rigorous training strategy.

But on September 17, 2000, Tricia Downing's life took a detour. While training on her bicycle one sunny Colorado afternoon, Tricia collided with a car that turned directly in her path, and instantly became paralyzed from the chest down.

As a competitive road and track cyclist and lifelong athlete, losing the use of her legs is devastating on all accounts. As she re-learns to do everything from sitting straight up to navigating through her house in a wheelchair to returning to work and operating a handcycle, her grueling recovery takes her to the very core of her athletic mettle. This inner strength helps her to not only learn to live life as a paraplegic - a label that takes time to grow accustomed to - but to have the courage to return to the competitive sport she loves and almost lost. Determined to live life on her terms, Tricia turns her misfortune into opportunity, and is now a wheelchair racer, competing regularly in triathlons around the globe. Cycle of Hope chronicles Tricia's journey from the first terrifying moments of impact with the car through rehab and her emergence as a world-class athlete.

©2010, 2017 Tricia Downing (P)2018 Tricia Downing

Cycle of Life

It has happened to all of us who cycle: We are riding in an event or just out for a ride by ourselves and we wonder “is that car going to stop?” or “that SUV really isn’t going to turn, is it?”. For all of us, then, this book becomes our worst nightmare.

Tricia Downing was a competitive cyclist. Was. Then that nightmare became her reality in the blink of an eye. This is the story of how she literally clawed her way back into competitive sports and became a champion all over again.

If you have ever ridden in a cycling event or run a marathon or competed in a triathlon you’ve seen them those fellow competitors who don’t have the use of their legs. You will gain a whole new perspective of them after you listen to this book.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Genuine, truthful and inspiring

As a person with a recent spinal chord injury, the author honestly told the struggle of this life changing injury. I loved how she let us into her mind at all moments - pre-injury, during the acute phase of her injury, and post. What came through was that the injury never took away her being. Just changed how she interacted with the world physically. Which can be overcome. What’s a very cathartic read for me. Additionally, she just lays out the challenges of being a woman in her 30s which all can relate to. A great read for anyone who wants to learn about the disability community and how we are invalids in need of pity. Also a good read for anyone who champions girl power. This is full of it.

HOPE

Tricia's story was an amazing story of courage that she never gave up and had to endure. There are others that have equally amazing stories to tell, so I hope that more people have the opportunity to have their story told.

4.5/5 stars

Summary:
The book description essentially tells the entire story, but it’s still worth listening to in full. Tricia Downing, a highly competitive athlete, was struck by a car. The accident left her paralyzed from the chest down. This tells of her painful, long journey to recovery and healing.

Additional Comments:
- 4/5 Stars Performance: Aven Shore’s performance is decent. I had it going at 2x speed, but that’s a personal preference. Otherwise, I’d feel like it was way too slow. Being slow is always better than faster though because you can speed things up pretty easily. A bit harder to go the other way.
- The cathartic letters Tricia and her friend Matt wrote the woman who caused the accident were/are an interesting idea. They’re very honest, though I’m not quite sold on the necessity of throwing the horrible day back in the woman’s face.
- Powerful story of overcoming a very painful life twist.
- They didn’t dwell too much on the troubles of her day to day life. I would have liked to see more of that. This focused a lot on the training to do triathlons. The beginning 1/3 is about her physical recovery. The latter 2/3rds of the book were a cycle of training, new hurdles, triumphs, and shortcomings. Dates kinda get fuzzy.
- They also didn’t focus a lot on what she does to help in terms of motivational speaking. I get that she probably didn’t want to come off as pitchy in the book, but an end blurb about what she’s up to would have been appropriate.
- You can learn more about her at https://triciadowning.com.
- Content Warning: 3 f-bombs (a few casual, 1 fitting the circumstances)

Conclusion:
Seems like an awesome lady to know. I don’t like most non-fiction, but this is still a touching, potent account of overcoming devastating circumstances.
*I received a free copy of the audiobook (and forgot to post the review). I freely chose to leave this review. All thoughts are my own.

Exactly as title describes

This true story of Tricia’s life takes you along with her through the accident, the diagnosis, the hospitals, her surgeries, therapy, and recovery, her emotions, her challenges, and her relationships. She is very honest in telling the story of her tragedy, even revealing her negative emotions and lack of hope for her future. She gives a glimpse of the everyday difficulties of being paralyzed.

As she chronicles her journey out of depression and into her new reality, the reader begins to see the spunky competitive Tricia come alive again as she meets challenges head on, forges new paths, and sets almost impossible goals.

I recommend this book to any racer, cyclist, or person looking for inspiration and hope in difficult circumstances.

As a aide note, I understand why she and her friend Matt needed to write the letters to the woman who caused the accident. I’m sure it was therapeutic to write those things to her and to get the anger and hate off their chests. But I would have liked to have read that they also were able to then forgive the woman and embrace the ultimate hope that Christ brings to our lives through His love and forgiveness.

The narrator did a great job on the audiobook, although she sounded too young to be believable as the author of the book.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

WOW! This is the best bio I have listened to in a long time. Tricia’s story is a testament to the will it takes to survive an shine threw adversity when life deals you the worst possible cards out of the pack. Its both sad an beautiful, an a reminder to all of us, with a truck load of determination and guts, dreams can come true. Aven Shore’s narrating was outstanding, an made me feal that it was Tricia telling the story her selff. My only hope is that you dear listener enjoy this audio experience as much as I have. Many thanks to Tricia Downing for shareing her story of hope, an to Aven shore for her awesome narration, an to everyone who made this book possible

excellent

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall