On March 7th, I decided to do an extreme feet of strength and endurance. I have told you all in previous blogs, that Adelaide is one of the longest cities I have ever seen. It stretches as far as the eye can see, as the city builds out and not up. I live in the northeastern suburbs of the city and it ends up being about a twenty to thirty minute drive to get to the city center (depending on traffic). So it is a fair bit of a drive. There is a park near my house called "Linear Park." It is named as such because it basically is a long line of a park that stretches from the hills surrounding Adelaide all the way to the ocean along the path of the River Torrens (the river upon which Adelaide was founded). This park is very lovely and I have admired it from the bus on several occasions as I have rode into the city center (or the CBD--Central Business District).
Now, my friend Josh (who I will write about in a post very soon, as he and Amy just got married!) lives close to the CBD. As he was soon to be married and on honeymoon, he offered me the use of his bike while he was away. I had been very keen to use someone's bike, as I was getting very tired of walking everywhere. His offer was greatly appreciated :-). The plan for obtaining said bike involved me busing into the CBD, meeting Josh, heading to his house, grabbing the bike, and pedaling all the way back up to my house. This, in my minds, seemed an easy plan. Boy was I wrong!
The plan started off well. I went to the CBD, met Josh, we ate a lovely lunch of chicken burgers (there is a neat fast food chain here that sells burgers with grilled chicken instead of beef--quite good). We explored the city a bit and he showed me the famous Adelaide wall of Hot Wheel cars (apparently some art student's final project). I have supplied a picture of this, the 800th wonder of the world. Note that this is but a small section of a massive wall completely covered with toy cars. My nephew would be in heaven.
After this little adventure, we went to his house and nabbed the bike. Josh gave me a quick once-over of Adelaide biking laws and showed me the workings of his machine and off I went. Smooth sailing! I eventually found my way to the linear park in the city and met Jon Joyce (my host) who had rode down from his house for some exercise (we had planned this meeting). Off we went up linear park (a fairly steady up-hill climb it seemed).
Now, let me just say that Linear Park was very beautiful. It follows, as I said, the course of a river and is full of plants, water, birds, and the like. It is well organized, clean, and just a pleasant place to walk, run, or ride. It is a pity that I am WAY out of shape when it comes to biking and I couldn't enjoy it as much. What started an easy, leisurely ride in the park soon turned into a grueling fight for survival after about an hour. I never imagined the way home would be so long! It seemed so short on the bus! I have learned a valuable lesson about perceived distance (and a lesson about my crappy biking abilities). Jon, who as fit as anyone could want, had an easy go of it and was ahead of me almost the whole trip. My thighs were literally committing mutiny against my whole body. Frankly, I bit off more than I could chew. Eventually I sulked into my driveway aching all over and very ready to be off the bike.
I do like biking. I love the park. But perhaps next time I will go into town (mostly downhill) and ride the bus back :-). Here's for a good effort though, eh?
In Christ,
Chris
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