BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — A Broken Arrow Public Schools maintenance man is putting his fitness to the test, about to undergo a journey that will push his body to the limit.
However, it’s not his unworldly endurance making headlines, it's his drive to be a light for others along the way. Grant Enoka Aumua, a native from New Zealand, said cycling isn’t just a hobby, it’s a way of life.
"I spend [an] average about 200 miles a week on my bicycle,” he said.
He journeys a casual 23 miles to work on his bike from Glenpool to Broken Arrow where he works as a maintenance man for BAPS.
“This morning I woke up at 2:45, and it was chilly,” Aumua said. “It was 33 degrees Fahrenheit."
All of this is to prepare for an intense race in Kansas in September.
“It’s called the Kansas cannonball 550, and it’s an unsupported gravel race, and it's 550 miles,” Aumua said.
It’s a race with stretches of upwards of 100 miles with no services or supplies. The check points? Those are only the starting and finish line. Grant said he hopes to finish in under 60 hours.
“It’s all in the mind,” Aumua said. “I talk to myself a lot when I’m riding and when it gets hard, I just say that I can do this."
It's a mentality he said applies to everyday life.
“Believe me, at some point in time you're going to have the devil on your shoulder and he’s going to be saying ‘What are you doing? You can just pull over right now and stop. Nobody is going to worry. Who cares,’ but I just flick him off," Aumua said.
Life dealt this cyclist a tough hand. He said in the last seven years he lost three of his family members. Two of his brothers took their own lives, and his father passed away at the age of 80.
He said through the hard times, he's pushed to be intentional with everyone he meets. His purpose. Is so much more than an athlete.
“I don’t want to be a statistic,” he said. “If you think that life is tough, just remember there are other people out there that are going through as tough of times as you and just don't give up."
He said when the race of life feels unsupported, with no checkpoints, services, or supplies, much like his races, to knuckle down.
“Instead of saying this is hard, this is difficult, and I want to stop, just how big is your why, why are you doing this,” Aumua said.
His "why" is to be a light for others through his cycling, his job, and everything in between.
Aumua already completed a similar race to the 550-mile course coming up in September. He finished the Osage XL race, which was over 300 miles and he did that without sleeping!
Finally, Aumua said his kids mean the world to him, and he hopes they remember him as a “crazy guy.”
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