That time I survived mountain biking

Mountain biking is one of those things I said I'd never do. As a kid, it took me an embarrassingly long time to learn to ride a bike. Reading, math, tree climbing? Piece of cake. But bike riding? My brain was all, You want me to do what, now? Windows has encountered a critical problem and needs to restart. Homey don't play that. But I was nothing if not annoyingly persistent as a child, so I did eventually learn to ride without training wheels. Though not terribly well. More like just terribly.




Thanks to Eric for the pictures!

Fast forward to Thursday night's group run at Whiting Rd Park. Eric and Sheila were talking about mountain biking there on Friday night. Pete was thinking about going and I was like phew, I don't have a mountain bike. That is a perfect excuse to not get roped into joining that scary shit. But then Eric said I could ride Sheila's mountain bike since she just got a new fat bike (The term fat bike makes me think simultaneously of Queen's "Bicycle Race" and "Fat Bottomed Girls" and now I really want to hear a mash-up of those songs). Pete is a strong mountain biker and most of his stories of biking with friends include people flying over their handlebars or breaking ribs. And I've spent my life actively avoiding doing both of those things. So I was a bit apprehensive. But life is for doing, not whining. Or something. So I tried it.



I found a tree to climb. Of course.

It was actually pretty fun. I had to walk my bike up a few hills because I'm not good at turning and it's hard to get momentum on twisty trails and I would get stuck and not be able to get enough turnover to make it up the hill. But I did make it all the way up some of the hills. And most importantly, I didn't fall. I had a few very near misses. You know, those moments of sheer panic where you're like oh shit, this is rapidly turning into a terrible idea, you idiot. I don't know how you are still upright right now. Something in the universe must be looking out for you. But I survived. And all my bones remain unbroken, which is the way I like them.

At some point I will probably be coerced into doing this again. And I can only hope my streak of not dying in a horrible biking accident continues.

Lyric of the moment: "And if you hold on tight to what you think is your thing, you may find you're missing all the rest..." ~Dave Matthews Band "Best of what's around"