There are a lot of people who ride bikes, all for different reasons. Most bike racers (I say most with an *) do it for competition. If you've read this blog, you probably know I don't. It's not why I ride. My number 1 rule is that I race because I ride, I don't ride to race. I don't need to get up early on a Sunday morning and drive out to a start line with a proverbial ruler - I've gone through and overcome enough challenges in my life, I know my proverbial balls are pretty big. Going out to the race isn't my ruler for personal growth - it's what I do when I want to ride with friends and people I don't get to see every day. It's this social thing for me and really nothing else. Sometimes, mostly my accident, I do well... but only sometimes.
I ride because its my meditation. It provides me with peace and an escapism that I can't get anywhere else. Some people watch movies, some people play instruments; I focus on switch backs, it's what works for me. That's why I don't ride with people that often. I want to be by myself. I want to find that peace I can't get with others around me. Racing fills in the social gap in that regard. That's how it is for me. I love my bike. I love the buttery smooth feeling of rolling up a mountain in a rhythmic motion; feeling the world fly by me under my own power; getting every last bit of energy out of my legs at the top of climb; descending banked corners at 50 mph; watching the drops of sweet salty sweat fall off the brim of my cap 15 minutes into a climb.
It's what I live for, I love this shit.
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