Location: Wollongong, Australia Ride: here
I had a huge amount to say in this one, but after about three pages, I deleted all of it. Because I can tend towards overkill and there was just one vein to it anyway; how much I love to ride my bike. How it cures me; of headaches and hangovers, of boredom and loneliness and sadness, of anxiety and solitude. As I have said before, on my bike, I am the most excellent version of me, good ride or bad ride.
Three pages was just way too much and after reading it over I just wanted to tell myself to shut-up and land my plane.
So, coming in hot....
The bad rides makes me dig deep into my courage basket. I have never quit a ride, not yet. I want to quit, fuck yeah I want to quit, in the worst way. Yesterday I wanted to quit at 10K. No, before that, I wanted to quit before I even got on the bike.
But it was worth it. Despite all the horrible shit that happened along the way and how many times I cursed every god damned thing and how my stomach hurt and my back hurt...I badly wanted it to end.
Still worth it.
The great rides are a reward for all the rides in between. These are the rides where you make no effort, and everything is beautiful and you could have done it twice. I don't know how that all comes together, but it does, just enough times in a month to make you keep searching for it.
Talk to a surfer, and they will explain it in terms of the perfect wave. Or a runner, who will describe the feeling of floating just above ground. Or anyone else that does something over and over and over again for just that one hour when everything aligns, or just that minute, or that second.
That high only comes to people willing to keep going when there seems absolutely no rational reason to do so.
