Fat Tire Tuesday: Go Play

Rain rain, you went away

By Sarah Hansing

IT FINALLY STOPPED RAINING!!  Oh my gosh you guys. It’s felt like summer lately, with the sun shining, the birds singing and the sunlight lasting until well after 7pm. Days filled with short sleeve jerseys and singletrack, lunch rides and after work extravaganzas.

And can I say, even though my lack of fitness is very evident to me, and I did in fact throw up a little chasing one of my co-workers on the Old Cabin loop at Wilder Ranch, I feel GREAT.

Not like “Oh man, I’m so super fit and I can ride for hours without stopping”  kind of great, but definitely “Hee hee hee! Let’s go outside and play in the woods!” kind of great.

I think the best way I can explain it is just like that.

I haven’t been necessarily going out on a mission to ride and train, I’ve just been going outside to play with my friends.

There’s been a crew of rad chicks who I ride with at lunch on a SingleSpeed Wednesday, for example: just a short out and back up stomp up to the bench in Wilder, where we bask in the sun for a few minutes, trying to un-do the paleness the winter blessed all of us with.  

A couple Wednesdays ago, as we soaked up some much needed sunshine, the five of us decided to meet up on Saturday for a singletrack shreddy session.

I’m not sure whose idea it was (I only know it wasn’t mine). And I’m not sure who suggested the time to meet, the trail we would ride or that we should all dress in as much black as possible to go ride …

But I do know we all got really stoked on the idea.  

And I also know that not only did we get stoked on the IDEA … everyone showed up to make the idea a reality.  

It was AWESOME.

We spent a good few hours last weekend just playing bikes in the woods. We weren’t worried about speed, only about smiles per mile. We stopped to session a few things, cheered each other on and had a great day.

Not racing each other, not pushing it to the limit …  

Just playing in the woods.

This feeling probably happens every spring, but after a long, grey, rainy winter I’m savoring this weather. I’m scared it’s going to get taken away again also, which is making me take every possible option to get outside to play.

I feel like a little kid again: coming home smiling, and not sure if I have a tan line or if I’m just covered in a light layer of dirt that makes me LOOK like I got a tan.

And I haven’t really once worried about how fast or how far I’m going.

I’m just happy to have my wheels rolling, and to be playing outside with my friends.

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