The bikers had a mini-intervention with me recently about getting a new bike. Pretty Guy asked when it was happening, and I gave my usual answer: “When I win the lottery.”
Then Larry stepped in. Larry is about fifty years old with a square, tanned face and salt-and-pepper hair. He rides 150 to 200 miles a week and wins races in and out of his age bracket. He looks exactly like a Japanese version of an American biker and family friend named Larry, hence the nickname.
Larry is so much faster than everyone else that I only see him when he is climbing a slope for the second time in order to keep moving on our Sunday rides. I usually say “good morning” to him and he’s out of earshot before I can say “wait for me!”
So I was surprised that he even knew my name, let alone my situation with The Club of bikes. He said that a new bike for me would be an invitation to the front of the pack. Then the others chimed in:
“It’ll change your life!”
“It’ll change your body!”
“YOU will have to pull US up the hills, Mac!”
Before I knew it they were around me in a semi-circle and I blushed at the attention. My man-crush on Larry increased when he picked up a strawberry I had dropped on the ground during the intervention and ate it, stem and all. What a man’s man.
A new road bike is not in the budget as far as I can see, and I’ve learned to use the tools that I have to keep it fun on Sundays. I accept that I have to try harder and work slower than everyone else and make adjustments to narrow the gap and really be part of the club.
I wonder why I’m OK with that while I’m intolerant of anything of the sort in all other areas of life. My computer is slowing down and twice a day I’m ready to chuck it into the canal. Lesson planning at work is still incredibly inefficient and it takes everything I have not to get upset at the silly system.
Could it be that I’m actually HAVING FUN with something? Trying hard and sweating at something without going completely AGGRO about the tiniest setback? Realizing that something isn’t a competition and detaching myself from the results?
I’m saving up for a road bike, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull the trigger when the time comes. The situation is too good now and I fear that a faster, better bike may introduce some of the enjoyable, fun-for-everyone elements listed above.
Or perhaps I can grow up and leave those in my dust as I pull the rest of KCTC up and down the mountain roads of Kochi.
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