Lessons From The Bike Trail

This past Sunday, after church, we and some friends went to a state park located near our church in Arkansas for a little picnic and some mountain biking. We had a great time fellow shipping with our friends but I want to share with you what us men did.

To start with, I need to give a little background. I was an athlete most of my life. Ever since I was Young, I had participated in one sport or another. This grew into a love of sport of differing kinds. I always enjoyed cycling, but it wasn't until a torn ACL in my right knee and subsequent surgery, that I began to take on cycling as a passion. It became my way of life and I competed in road events for about ten years. I was in excellent physical condition and would routinely ride 20-40 miles per day and 3,000 miles per year, with races in between. I worked for Trek bicycle and built the high end frames and I moonlighted in a small bike shop fixing Huffy's. I ate, slept and breathed cycling. Notice, here, that I am speaking in the past tense.

I was all those things. We moved to Missouri ten years ago. It is ten years ago that I last sat in the saddle for more than a few minutes. I think you know where I am going with this.

I have no idea how long the trail was, but it was pretty technical. There are some good size hills in this part of the Ozarks, and I felt every bump. I was a "roadie", in other words, I was into road racing-much like Le Tour De France. It is a far cry from mountain biking. I sold all of my road machines years ago and kept the mountain bike, given the terrain we live in. I now question the wisdom of this.

Not only did I feel the bumps, I had to show my cycling prowess by crashing. It had rained a bit that day and we came across a wooden bridge over a small ditch. The wooden bridge was wet. As I came around the bend and down the hill toward the bridge I heard the others yell the word "bridge!" So, low and behold, there was a bridge with about a six inch lip. I tried to bunny hop the lip onto the bridge, (I had to prove my skill, remember?) when my tires hit the bridge, it was as if someone had quickly jerked the bridge to the side, taking my bike with it and leaving me stranded in mid air.

I hit the bridge with my right shoulder and rolled off into the ditch, which was filled with rocks. As if to mock me, my bike remained on the bridge.

As I lay in the ditch, my friends came running back asking if I was OK. I didn't know, I had to lie there and assess the situation; "Let's see, do my toes wiggle? Check. Do my legs move? Check. Do I still have feeling in the rest of my body? Check. Am I thinking cohesively? Check."

OK, I could stand up now. My friends pressed the issue, asking if I was OK. "Let me think about this for a minute, now that I'm up." By golly, all things moved and worked! I was triumphant!

Then my friends told me they were yelling back to me to watch out for the wet bride as one buddy almost lost it himself. All I heard was "bridge!"

We laughed it off and continued on. To add insult to injury, we were about 200 yards from the end of the trial.

When my family and I finished the hour long car ride to the house, I found something out. I had to admit to my wife that there is a vast difference between age 38 and 28. She laughed at me. I can assure you that I did not take pleasure in her taking pleasure in my pain. I was as stiff as a board!

Thankfully, we have this miracle ointment from Melaleuca called Painatrate. My wife gave me a bath in it and it worked a miracle. Although, the next day I could still feel some stiffness, I was able to go to work.

I was cranky too. I couldn't find a comfortable place to sit or lie down, and my wife was enjoying it way too much. The moral to the story is that a person's condition is generally lost in a matter of weeks, much less ten years, and that should be considered when your friends challenge you. I am a man, and men must prove themselves. The trouble is, we always end up paying for it in the end. I think I am recovered now and would do it again, but I think I will wait until the ticks and chiggers (chicken tiggers, in our house) go away. Thanks for listening, and I hope you had a laugh.