This past weekend I went on a biking adventure with my fellow bike gang "The Montars" at Withlacoochee (With withlacoochee wha?) State Trail in Ocala, Florida. Before things get crazy, we're just a bunch of friends who love biking together. No gang related nonsense, we just thought it would be funny to name ourselves something bike related, Montar meaning"to ride" in Spanish. Anyway, it was planned to ride this trail, go camping for the night, and then come back the next morning.
My thoughts: I love to go biking, I rarely go camping, & I get to hang with my buds, alright I'm in! Little did I know that the trail was 46 miles long til I got there.
Ok so 46 miles might not be a lot to some people, but let me put things into perspective. When I ride bike around downtown I ride around for about 16-20 miles, and that's with stops in between. I seriously don't train to do long distance biking. So when I started this ride I had a positive outlook. We stopped after 16 miles to grab some lunch at an Italian place close to Dunnellon, FL and then got ready to ride. The rest of the ride, I wasn't ready for. Long story short, I was way to tired, some of us got separated so as not to leave me behind, and by the time we got to to campsite we were dead tired. The next day, I had to get the park ranger to take me back to the van to wait for the others. It was embarrassing!
So I might look like a lame-o, but you know what? I'm actually really proud of myself. I did close to 50 miles that day. As my friend John pointed out, I would have never done that on my own. I'm so proud of my friends who did the actual 100 miles, in the rain no less, as well. We each pushed ourselves hard this past weekend in our own ways, and made great new memories/stories to tell in the future. Next time though, I think I'll get a better bike seat and plan ahead for a lengthy ride.
What are some adventures have you had lately?
Photos courtesy of Matt Wyke
-Michelle
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