Even a Slow Start is a Start


Way back in January I set a biking milage goal for the year - 1,407 miles. Why the odd number? Well, my friend from high school, Kate, wanted to keep bicycling this year so decided to set a goal for herself to bike enough miles to equal riding from her current home town of Poulsbo, Washington to our childhood home town of Richfield, Minnesota. I saw her post her goal on Facebook and made a comment. Kate encouraged me to do the same challenge - except I would "bike" from Richfield to Poulsbo so we could virtually meet somewhere about half way.

Well the year has gotten off to a slow start for me. I rode my fat bike through the winter but fat bike miles are slow to add up, especially fat bike miles on the icy snow! I got in a good number of miles during April for 30 Days of Biking. And then it snowed. And rained. And rained. And rained. And I really didn't get out on my bike much. So here I am almost to mid-June with only 241 miles logged and am virtually just over the Minnesota border into South Dakota whereas Kate has logged about 450 miles at is virtually in Montana. Kate is making decent progress but I have had a pretty slow start on our bike mileage challenge. But you know what? Even a slow start is a start!

Here's our map showing our progress on our virtual bike ride across the country. Kate's points on the map are green. She's starting in Washington and "riding" east. My points are blue. I'm starting in Minnesota and "riding" west. 
Kate, by the way, is no stranger to biking a lot of miles. Back in 2006 she, her husband, Ron, and their daughter, Elizabeth who was then just six years old, biked 4,401 miles in 102 days on a triplet bike (that's a three person bike). You can read about their incredible biking journey from Jacksonville, Florida to Poulsbo, Washington at "You Can Do Anything."

Such a ride doesn't seem possible to me at this point in my life. But, then again, riding even 5 miles in one day didn't seem possible to me when I first started bicycling less than four years ago. Now, however,  I can get on my bike and ride 20, 30 or 50 miles in a day without much trouble and five miles is pretty easy (most of the time).

Do you have a goal that seems impossible? Well, get out there and give it a go! Worried you can't reach your goal? Start anyway. My theory is even if you start on your way to a goal and don't quite make it it's better than not starting at all!

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