About ten years ago, purely by chance, I went out a couple of times with a former Miss Ohio, who flinched oddly when I said something about "being pretty skinny most of my life." I thought it was an innocuous, offhand sort of thing, just meaning I had always wished to be bigger and stronger, but I was doomed to go through life an ectomorph.

She was very quiet and gloomy after that, and trying to figure it out, I said something like, "You are certanly trim," thinking this is something women always like to hear. She started crying. So, somewhat flustered, I mumbled something like, "But you're not too thin or anything - it's not like you're anorexic or anything like that," I exclaimed reassuringly. The dam burst, the waterworks gushed forth, I was an idiot.

She HAD been anorexic, had nearly died, had ruined her health, had taken years to really recover, and still had to stay on top of it. Though still a beautiful, talented, intelligent young woman of around 35, she was one of the saddest people I had ever met, as if her mojo had been stolen, and indeed it had.

I was very happy for her that she had recovered, regained her life, but the missing mojo was a steady drizzle efficiently extinguishing any smoldering interest. And I'm sure she thought I was weird anyway.

I thought of this incident for the first time in years when this came in:

When T-Mobile professional bicyclist Dotsie Cowden arrives at the starting line this week in Redlands, California to compete in two road racing events that will determine who will represent the United States in this summer's Olympic games in Athens, Greece, she'll have more on her mind than bike racing. She'll be thinking about a frail 16-year-old girl in Toronto, who is struggling to overcome anorexia. It was just over five years ago that Cowden herself struggled to overcome severe eating disorders, which nearly claimed her life.

In recent months, Cowden disclosed her personal demons in interviews published in several cycling media outlets and via her own website. By revealing her past, the former model, who discovered a passion for cycling during her recovery, hopes to encourage and inspire others that are waging their own battles to overcome eating disorders. People have contacted Cowden through her website to thank her for coming forward and to ask for help for themselves, for a student or for a loved one. One such email was sent by the father of a 16-year-old female cycling fan in Toronto, whose daughter was hospitalized because of her anorexic condition and dangerously low weight. Once the girl gained enough weight to earn email privileges, she and Cowden exchanged email every other day for two months. The girl began to respond to therapy and her health improved.

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