Everyone starts somewhere.
That’s my take on things in life. It does not matter who you are or think you are, you started somewhere. And for some of us we may have the ability to grasp things at a moments notice, but for the most of us, it’s a hard grind. And alas, I am one of those people who has to work that extra bit hard to make anything work in my favour.
For some of us, it’s easy to wonder ‘why on earth would I bother’. That’s how I felt when I would watch the guys go off for their weekend ride. It looked very intimidating to me. It’s crazy to think that I let things intimidate me the way I did and still do to a certain extent.
I wondered if it was to do with my upbringing, my personality, my direction life took me, who knows.. all I can tell you is that I spent way too much time in thinking that I was too old, too fat, too unfit and too uncoordinated to ever seriously consider riding a mountain bike. I thought it was a man’s sport and too technical for someone like me and anyway – who wants to ride in the dirt, in the dark, in the rain, in the mud anyway.
I think the tipping point for me to just get out and start to do something was when I started waving goodbye to my husband (Mr.A) and family (by family I mean at times my husband, my son, my son-in-law, my grandson and not always together or in that order) as they went off for weekend race events.
They would plan to ride an event a few months before, and train for it. So as the events came closer, the longer and more frequently they would be away leading up to the event.
While it gave me the weekend to do the things I wanted to do, it seemed strange as I’ve always been able to do the things I want to do most of the time, and in reality, I really missed being with my husband. There are very few people in my world that I associate with, so if I’m not working, or not with my husband doing our things around the home, then I would get quite sad.
Being sad is something I do not recommend for anyone. I have spent many, many years, on the outer in life in general. I didn’t want to ask Mr.A to stay home and babysit me, and it wasn’t that I didn’t like my own company, as I do not mind being alone, it is the worry as you get older, you get this realisation that time does not wait for anyone… so I would be at home working way, literally just working all the time while the guys would living and enjoying the moment.
I wanted to be part of that moment too.