Pushing ourselves

Today I had plans with a friend to fly to Long Island to do an organized bike ride. We had questions about the weather and so we decided to bike locally instead. I'd biked with this partner a few years ago and recalled that she had been in better shape and faster than me - I had to work to keep up with her! We started at a pretty good pace and took turns leading. We planned to bike about three or four hours and for today I was the route leader (navigator). We were in an area that I hadn't biked recently so as we progressed I usually knew what the next couple of miles looked like, but I couldn't recall how all the roads linked together to get us back to the start. I'd found most of the route years ago by biking out in the country with no map, just taking time to explore and having faith that I could find my way. My bike partner for the day seemed to be quite the adventurer and didn't show any concern as I readily admitted to not knowing the exact path we would take.

We biked on some marvelous roads which often had no traffic. Way out here there are few towns and so many of the roads don't connect one town to another, they're just country roads connecting farms to markets. Eventually we came upon a ridge which gave us a beautiful view of the valley. My biking partner said she was glad that I'd taken the time to explore out here in the past as the views were spectacular. As we turned and headed for home we eventually began to recognize where we were - now we were encountering roads we'd biked on years ago. It was such an odd change of pace. To move from the exploring, meandering stage where faith carried us along, to a place where familiar landmarks began to guide us home. We began to recount stories from the ride we’d done years ago, we recalled the people we'd biked with and the sites we'd seen.

As we got down to the last seven miles my energy began to fade and I found myself just trying to keep up. I started eating breakfast bars and drinking more Gatorade. We came upon a hilly section and for a few uphills I found myself ahead and my partner behind. By the time we'd returned to the parking lot I think we were both beginning to feel drained. My partner checked the final average and said that I'd pushed her to a new high for the year. Pushed her? I told her how I'd been hanging on the last thirty minutes thinking she was pushing me! What a way to enjoy the day, we'd each been pushing ourselves and in the end exceeded our limits, not even knowing the influence we were having on each other. We did agree that better communication might have led to a more leisurely ride, but then (I thought to myself) we wouldn't have had the chance to realize our new achievements!