This story was written by our founder Chase Pettey within the perspective of one of our athletes Riley Joyce.
I just pulled up to the celery fields thanks to my mom dropping me off.. I knew today was Mountain Biking Workshop day, but I'm not exactly sure why I was here. I thought to myself "don't my friends and coaches know that I can't ride a 2 wheel bike?" Non the less I walked up to the group waiting on me and sure enough there was a bike with only 2 wheels and a part of me thought, "If coach Chase thinks I'm getting on this bike he's crazy.
I KNOW, I thought
I won't even touch the bike,. I'll act sooo afraid of it that they won't have a choice, but to let this one slide." YEP, that'll do the trick!"
Long story short, it didn't. Next thing I know we're balancing on these skinny blue boxes at the top of celery fields and all my friends are excited to start practicing their bike riding skills. Luckily for me, my friend Anthony also struggles to ride a 2 wheel bike., the difference, this guys fearless. Sometimes a little to fearless, but if he can give it a try why can't I. I sat on the saddle, put both hands on the handle bars, and with coach Chase's help I was riding a 2 wheel bike! Well not exactly, if coach Chase were to let go, I was sure I would end up on the ground. I didn't care though, I felt on top of the world.
*LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE*
3 months of adventure training have gone by and I just arrived in Wilmington, NY to take on an adventure of a lifetime with my mom, my friends, and my coaches. Apparently, on this trip I am suppose to ride a 2 wheel bike on my own. I've thought about quitting this bike riding thing more than once, but they weren't going to give up on me., so who was I to give up on myself..
We pull up to the bike park and OF COURSE it has to be raining. For those of you that don't know, I DO NOT like the rain, like at all.. Now most people would say "It's looks like today isn't our day" but I know coach Chase and that look in his eye said "perfect, just another challenge and another obstacle to overcome." So I came up with this genius idea.... I'm going to continue to repeat "It's raining!" over and over and over, that'll show him that we should just had back to the cabin and call it a day.
HA, NOPE. my mom decided to pull out a rain jacket......"Thanks a lot mom" I thought to myself.
Now just imagine for a moment
I'm freaking out, I'm on a 2 wheel bike that I don't know how to ride, it's pouring rain, and to top it off I have a camera ready to capture every moment. No pressure......... As I start to overthink I hear coach Chase saying to me "you got this Riley, now say I got this!" Even though a part of me didn't believe it, it felt good to say those words out loud. "I got this!"
Today wasn't the day though. As cool as it would have been to do it on such an epic day, that just wasn't my story. Then again, I had my friends, my mom, and my coach standing right there with me in the pouring rain cheering me on for 2 hours. Damn, I'm lucky to have these people in my life.
*LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE*
It's been a month now since the adventure and my mom along with coach Chase asked "do you want to continue to learn how to ride a bike?" Without hesitation I said "yes!" There was no way I was going to let their endless effort and belief in me go to waste, plus I have to admit, I started to believe in myself.
The following week my mom bought me a brand new 2 wheel bike. I couldn't believe it. I don't even know how to ride one yet and she went out of her way to buy me a bike? Alright enough is enough. I strapped my helmet on, walked out to the driveway with my mom and dad Steve and right before my 3rd attempt I said to myself "I got this"
I can proudly say I am riding a bike all by myself now.. I know how lucky I was to have people in my life that never gave up on me and still never give up on me. I'll never forget that moment and now that I learned to ride a bike, guess what coach Chase decided to do....
If you happened to guess, signed me up for a 31 mile gravel bike race one year from now then you were correct. One thing I have learned from this journey, is if you are willing to take challenges head on, and push forward, you will grow and on the other side of that growth comes more opportunity and with more opportunity comes even more growth. Here I come Gravel Worlds!
*LOOK AT THE BRIGHT SIDE*
Chase Pettey - At the end of day we are all facing the inevitable difficulties of life and whether you accept it or not, they’ll just keep on knocking at your front door. So, optimistically search for ah ha’s, o shit’s, woo hoo’s, and hell yeah’s along the journey.