It's funny how easy things look sometimes. Like watching pizza dough being tossed into a 20" perfect saucer or seeing a Cirque De Soliel performer bend her heel to touch her forehead while balancing herself on a palm size disk with one hand. No problem I tell myself...I bet I could do that. That is, until I get home and watch my pizza dough flop itself to the floor or pull my back muscle just trying to touch my toes. Suddenly my appreciation for people's skills skyrockets and praise the Lord that He gave us all unique talents so I don't have to try those things again, if I don't want to. I was tainted yet again this weekend by foolishly thinking I could attain what was held before my eyes: Downhill biking at Whistler.
For my loving husband's 34th birthday celebration, a weekend trip to Whistler was on the agenda. We booked a hotel (that's right...a hotel...we left the tent at home this time) and headed North. Naturally, I had a few butterflies in my stomach on the trip up, after all Nick is what a few of us like to call a "Manimal" on his bike, while little ol' me just tries to keep him in eye's sight on the trail. The butterflies only grew as we got geared up: Shin pads, elbow pads, torso armor, gloves, glasses and a full face helmet. I was walking around like a pro football player by the end of it all. Standing in line to take our first lift up, I began to calm down a bit. I oohed and awed at the bikers working their way down the mountain: Hitting huge jumps and fatty drops...I couldn't believe how EASY they made it look...smooth as butter! Soooo naturally, I was convinced by the end of the day, that too would be me...hitting 5' air like it ain't no thang. WRONG! I will skip the drama and sum it up numerically, after: 1 sprained ankle, 5 slow and pathetic runs, 20 good crashes, 1,000 tear drops, and countless prayers, we called it a day. Nick attempted to head back up so he could actually get a few hard and fast rides in, but due to lightning, the chairlifts were shut down...done for the day. Oh my. We decided to chalk it up as "God wanting us to be together, just not biking" weekend and ventured out for the other things Whistler has to offer...enjoy the beautiful gondola ride to the top (ignoring the fact that it stopped running for 10 minutes in mid-ascend), touring the Village, eating out, swimming in the lake, farmers market and a lot of laughing to heal the soul.
Disclaimer: Though I do consider my husband a manimal, he turned his crazy biking skills down about 1,000 notches to coach and support me as I eased my way down the mountain. Nothing but encouraging words stemmed from his mouth...allowing me to fall all the more in love with him AND not want to retire my bike for a lifetime. He's a smart one.
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3 comments:
Wahoo girl!! You are so brave. Good for you for giving it your all. The upside is you didn't BREAK your ankle... PTL!
Hey, I know a little church called Breakwater.... :-)
Oh, and we are good friends with the afore mentioned Blackwells of Sound Comm. Church. Can give you any 411 you'd like!
Don't judge Whistler solely by the downhill park - there's lots of good riding up there that you don't need a suit of armor for.
But keep the shin/knee guards. Everything up there is made of rocks (even the plant life).
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