This is not a race report ;)

12308295 10153174287031003 8392302144348424912 nThere is no doubt I am not alone here, work hard in most parts of my life but put off the small things that end up mattering.

Eg: Massage. I need one, but don’t have the time.  
Hair. OMG, it is so dry and brittle with grey hairs poking through everywhere, but hey I use the purple blonde shampoo that spruces up the highlights and a hair tie.  These things allow me to extend the hair appointment being made for up to 3 months.
Sleep.  I want to have 10 hours a day but generally am stoked to get 7.  By the end of the week I am a cranky mess.
Blog. Oh yeah, I have one, when did I update that last? Wow sometime in early November!

There was once a time when I was much younger, when the summer school holidays would come around, and it would mean at least 6-8 weeks of no school.
Summer holidays meant all day cricket matches in the park.
Catching tadpoles in the big old gutters that were like mini dams.
Riding my bike all day long with a backpack and a bottle of water.
Maybe a few day trips on the bike to the local pool, swimming and diving and bombing all day long, buying 5 cent Redskins and Sunny Boys.
No shoes - ever! Hard as rock feet, prickles, rocks, glass...whatevs.
Up at 5am watching Thunderbirds and all the cartoons until I get kicked outside or threatened by housework, get home at 6pm, eat dinner, have bath or shower and go to bed eventually to do it all again.
That time away from the school year felt like a whole year in itself and you would get back to school and see everyone had changed, new haircuts, grown, etc…

Time stood still.
A year felt like a decade.

This concept no longer exists.
I remember elders telling me that how quickly the year had flown and I had no concept or ability to understand what that actually meant.

Now I do.

It’s bloody January 2016 for goodness sake.
Saskia will be 22 in a few days and then a few more later I will be 43. Norm will turn 46 this year, may as well round that off to 50! I use age, only as an indicator for I never imagined living the life I do...even when I was my daughter’s age.

2015 was a crazy year, full of ups and downs.
They were so needed though.
Huge life lessons, learning about myself, growing again, changing and evolving.
Back in 2006, I started to race and ride my mountain bike, it was a gift.
I personally was not gifted as such but I felt it in my heart that by riding my bike, being me and somehow expressing my values through riding, I would be able to do my lifes work because I was a cyclist.

At the time it did not make sense.
Looking back, it is perfect and there is no way I could have devised a business plan on this ‘vibe’.

It seems I have made a name for myself, in a good way, and it has never been about winning races, rather the vibe I was talking about.  
It is why I do find it hard to really talk and write about race results, because to me, they are just the vehicle, winning is so short lived, but the experience, the people I meet, the people that touch me, that I have an impact on, this stuff is HUGE and changes lives.
That is what I am about.
Riding my bike to deliver the message that life is freaking amazing.

So in 2016, no matter what my goals, no matter what my race, no matter how hard I train or where I visit...it is about YOU, who I get to meet and how we can make an impact on being awesome, paying it forward - always.
Follow you heart people, follow it true, be willing to be wrong, but be willing to take the challenge to do what is right.

  • Inspire others.
  • Add value to this world every single day.
  • Forgive easily.
  • Embrace change and uncertainty.
  • Face your fears.
  • Accept that you will not understand everyone but keep seeing what is good about them.
  • Choose to seek out the best that can happen.
  • Wake up excited even when you can’t remember why you should be.

Oh and thanks so much to everyone I have ever met or known and those I am yet to know.
Thanks to those that have shared their love and enthusiasm with me, for now my well is full of blessings and 2016 is time to give them back!

Ride on and be like Albert, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”