Reply To: First mountain bike ride horror stories

#206360

In college I took a die-hard girl up in the hills on some double track. The climb up was a few hundred feet, but overall the trail had no real elevation gain. But, if you weren’t in okay shape, it tended to be a wake-up call that you needed to get that way.

This girl was a never-say-die type and even though she was hurting, she never let on. I kept peddling and climbing and as we approached the top, I realized in what bad shape she was in. She got off her bike, sat down on the trail, and then asked me to keep going because she didn’t want me to see her throw up.

Oops.

A few weeks later I went on a ride with a roommate. He had a far lighter bike than mine and since I was a 200 pound clydesdale and he was a strong, wiry 130, he was just shooting up the hills. In an effort to keep up, I pushed hard. About 30 minutes into the ride, I finally got off my bike, sat down on the trail, and asked he keep going because I was going to puke.

Neither of us lost our respective lunches, but it was a great lesson in karma. What goes around, comes around.