10 years ago I was pretty happy. I had a good job, and a great wife and a good life. I had been riding my bike less and less over the past few years, but I had a career now and a house, etc. That was 2 weeks before I was hit and run over on my motorcycle by a parts delivery van.
I was dragged for a bout 50 yards and my leg and hip were both crushed. Long story short – I have a small drawer of heavy-duty utensils bolted to my left femur. Unfortunately, I broke the first set and had to have the Super Duty set screwed in a year later.
So what? Well, today I don’t remember the fact that I couldn’t walk on my own for a year. I don’t remember the long, slow painful recovery. But most of all, I don’t use it as an excuse anymore. For a few years there, I found myself saying “…I used to…”. As in “I used to be a pretty good mountain biker…” or “I used to do XYZ…”. It was a legit excuse, I mean my quad has a hole the size of a half-dollar in it. I could have just ridden that lame excuse right to my grave. Then something happened. After literally years of relatively little activity, I dusted off my old Fisher and headed out to the Southern Kettles with a friend one Saturday. I hadn’t been there in years, but it all started coming back to me. As corny as it sounds, I kind of felt like I was re-born that day. Or at least shown what I had made the decision to miss out on for the better part of 6 years.
Today I ride whenever I can, which usually means very early on weekday mornings, and I jump into some races when it fits around my family’s schedule. I’m a much better/faster rider than I was back then, but it’s because I truly cherish every second spent on the bike now. I am constantly challenging myself to get better, to get stronger, to turn weaknesses into strengths. I have to report, that after 4 years or so back on the bike, I feel like I have earned the right to ride with guys twice as strong as I would have in my 20’s. This morning’s 23 mph, 33 miler is something I couldn’t have even hung off the back of back then.
What I DON’T do anymore is talk about excuses. I’m not the fastest guy out there, or the smoothest, but I keep getting better. It’s way more rewarding to have other people talk about what you do NOW, than to tell them what you “used to do…” years ago.
...Faster than Last 