Looking Back (Part 3 of 3)

[Pictures would not upload, I will try to post them all to facebook today]

So, with an extra day to recollect I am now posting up the last post about the actual ride on my Riding With Courage journey.  I will post about the workout soon, then about the results of the workout after.

A client of mine came in this morning for a workout and of course, we talked a good deal about my experience.  He mentioned to me that he thought it was pretty incredible the things that was able to take away form the 3 weeks I was gone.  And it hit me, he is totally right.  In three weeks, I was able to experience some of the most life-changing events I have ever had.  There were huge ups, there were very huge downs, but I came away a so much different and better person.  The mere idea of attempting something like that would change a person, it did me for sure, and then, being out there every day, just riding, seeing the land, feeling the weather, meeting new people.  Wow.

The hills hit.  I remember the day after Placerville being physically the toughest day of the entire trip.  It started off nice enough though, with a decent climb, then a long, long downhill into Ridgeway, one of the nicest little towns I had seen.  And that's where more kindness hit.  I had breakfast payed for by a great guy who sat and chatted me up a bit, I had a whole crowd of people gather around post-breakfast, it was so cool!  It was flat and non-descrpt for a long while, I just listened to some Harry Potter and zoned out for a bunch of hours.  But then, after riding through Montrose, all hell broke loose.  It was not just the 3+ hours of climbs, but also the fact that for the first day, in over two weeks, I was down to just my riding shorts and a sleeveless shirt.  It was hot!  And the road was very crowded.  Now, I guess I can better articulate it in retrospect, but when you are struggling for dear life, peddling at around 2 mph, it is very demoralizing to have car after car just breeze past you like your standing still.  I recall about half way up, zig-zagging up the shoulder and just yelling "come on baby, keep going!" like I was pushing through the last round of Fight Gone Bad or something.  I got to the top, rested for a minute and took the downhill.

About 5 miles into it I had to pull over and practically rip my now frozen hands off the bars.  Apparently this was the "dark side" of the mountain, AND, the sun was going down.  I went from sleeveless, to long sleeves and jacket; from bike shorts, to long socks and thermal pants.  My shoe booties went on, my thermal hat, my gloves and my ski goggles.  Holy cow did things change fast.  And now I was pumping like crazy to get to the next rest area to set up my tent before it got too dark and cold.  But the rest area never came.

It never really hit me at the time, but I guess I would have just set up my tent off the side of the road if that couple hadn't stopped out of the blue and offered to drive me to the next town.  And I'll tell you what, with the temperature in the low 30's at night, and winds like something out of a horror movie, I am very, VERY happy people continued to pop up to help me!  They drove me to Gunnison, and I scrabbled to grab some food.  Ready for this CrossFitters and health nuts?  I went to Sonic.  Ugh.  Luckily, my metabolism was churning like crazy from the climbs that I think that food just disintegrated the second it hit my stomach.  And the next day I was off for the tallest peak of the whole trip.

What I remember most from this day was the little shop I stopped at just below the climb up Monarch pass.  I went in to stock up on water and snacks and there was this morbidly obese guy working the counter.  I grabbed some food and asked if I could sit in the empty restaurant to eat, and he joined me, playing some computer game about two chairs down from me while I munched away watching Divorce Court on the tiny TV.  So priceless.  I thanked him and got to climbing.  This climb was not as physically hard as the last, just mentally.  There was nothing at all to look at besides snow-filled trees and asphalt, and even at the top, not much in terms of cool views.  So I booked it down.  It was at the bottom that I had this next crazy experience.  I was on this long, straight 4-5% down grade and a gust of wind hit from straight on.  I decided to test how strong it was and just not peddle at all.  It stopped me.  I mean, literally brought me to a complete stop, on a steep downhill.  I was pretty impressed by that, a little annoyed that I had to work so hard to go down a hill, but still, that is some crazy powerful wind.

I hit a Mexican place for some light chicken and chips and salsa before headed off to find a hotel for the night in Solida.  And then I got yelled at my some woman in a car, who ended up pulling over and saying she was trying to flag me down to see if I needed a place to crash.  More nice people!!  Zach, Robin and Ethan welcomed me to their home and again, so, so kind and nice it just blew my mind.  Ethan rocked, a little fire cracker of a kind with so much energy.  I wish I could have stayed another day just to play with all his toys and goof off.  But alas, I had to get going.  It had rained and stormed like crazy all night, and they had warned me about the roads being pretty rough after wind like that, so I kept my focus on the ground as I headed out of town.

This was an awesome portion of the ride.  A big river to my left, cliffs of solid rock to my right, and every now and then I could see the mountains towering off in the distance.  As the sun began to shine through, the weather began to warm and I began to heat up a bit.  So I took off one of my gloves, and as I grabbed the handle bars I hit the first rock.  Well, I don't really feel like playing that over any more than I already do, so, to make a long story short: bike moving very fast, no control over bike, flip off bike, crash into the brush, break thumb and worry about lots of other injury, get ride to next city, go to hospital and just like that, the adventure is over.

Lindsey came out and we spent the next few days relaxing (well she worked a lot, I relaxed!) in Colorado before heading back home.  And here is what I have to say about everything:

I learned so much about myself.  I found out just how hard I am on myself when I can not do something i truley want, and think I should be able to do.  I found that when all is said and done, I can actually come out having made decisions that truly put my future health at the top (as difficult as I make it to get there).  I found that America is an absolutely huge, and increadibly beautiful place.  That no ater how much crazy stuff goes on the world, no matter how much we and other societies decide to focus on the evil and bad and ugly and depressing; thre are places out there (and if I can find them right here in this country, it is safe to assume they are everywhere) where just looking out over the land makes you smile and feel good to be alive.  I re-learned that there is much more to life then just getting to work, making money and complaining about your day, much, much more.  In fact, somehow those tended to be the only things I feel I focused on, and that will never happen again.

I learned that biking is very challenging mentally, you are stuck to a contraption, forced to move the way it tells you too.  While biking rocks, 9 hours a day, every day does not.  The views, the people and the grandness of what I was actually doing helped to take my mind of the monotony and frustration of being stuck on the bike.  I earned that falling off your bike at 25mph hurts, really bad.  I learned that you don't need as much food in your bag as I thought, there is always some place to get a snack if you need t it seems.  I learned that having somebody with you when you are attempting something extreme is unexplainably better then being alone.  Besides the obvious fact that that person can help with equipment and such, it's the moral support of knowing there is really someone right there for you, no matter what.

And I learned that setting your mind out to do things that seem crazy at first thought, that scare you and make you question your actual ability, well, thos are so important to do, as often as you can in your life.  I technically failed in my quest to ride my bike acrss the country, and while I am dissapointed and frustrated that I was not able to finish the ride, I am so proud of myslef for just getting my things together and going out and trying.  It scared the living hell out of me to think f being out in a place I have never been, all by myslef, with just a bag and a bike, but I did it anyway and came out the other side and very different person.  It proves to me that the only way to truly change ones self, the only way to noticiably grow in life and not just take different steps sideways, is to acceot challenges.  Failure will inevitably occur, but it is the acceptance, the preperation and the journey that cause the change, the finish is just the reward, and there will always be plenty of rewards in life.

I hope everyone enjoyed following along, I appreciate to no end the support everyone showed for me along the way, and especially when it all took a turn for the worst.  I hope that my adventures could inspire a little adventure in you and you might take a ittle more time each day to enjoy te outdoors, smile at someone you do not know and appreciate how increadible your own body and mind are.  And I hope that as I continue to challenge myslef, as I will do for the rest of my life, that you too will take on challnges, perhaps even join me in one some day!

Here's to the challenge and to the advenure!

Josh Courage