Saturday morning I got up at 5:00 am- nothing, by the way, should ever have to get up that early. I had to be down in Orange County by 7:15 am to meet a friend to go mountain biking. I hardly slept the night before and didn't sleep well the two nights before that so I knew that I was going to be hating life on the trail. Lack of sleep does not make for a good mountain biking experience.
I finally make it to Jim's bike shop by 7:30 after fighting my way through traffic- yes, we have traffic that early on Saturday mornings in Los Angeles... sad but true. We loaded up the bikes into a couple of vehicles and drove to the trail head somewhere off of Laguna Canyon Rd near Laguna Beach.
As we start our way up the fire road Jim says that we are going to start climbing soon. Yeah, we started climbing! As we turn the corner there it is... Nothing like starting out your ride with a heart crushing, leg burning climb that says, "even if you do make it to the top you might just die anyway!" I have my eyes focused 5 or 10 feet in front of my bike as I climb attacking the mountain in little "I think I can's." I hear someone coming up from behind- no what I really mean to say is that I hear this smoked 2 cartons a day since the age of 8 kind of wheezing and heavy breathing getting closer. As he passes me I look over and the guys buldging eyes are fixated in front of him as if the blood pressure behind them is forcing them out of their sockets and his face is "raging alcoholic on a binge red". His legs are pumping like mad as if they themselves were the only thing responsible for keeping this guys heart going. When I finally catch up to Jim I mention the guy wheezing and Jim says, "yeah, he had open heart surgery not too long ago." I said, "I guess that explains the wheezing." "No," he replys, "He's been wheezing for as long as I can remember." Uh, Yeah... And if that weren't enough to make me feel like a wimp, it turns out that Jim had open heart surgery about 3 years ago- valve replacement. Two guys on this ride have had heart surgery! It was nearly impossible to shake the image of me grasping my chest during one of these long climbs after hearing that.
I spent the rest of the ride bringing up the rear- does that make me the ass? I suppose someone has to be last and tag I was it.
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