Challenge #19: Sarah vs BMXing

I was probably about seven-years-old when I gave up riding my little blue bike. Coincidently, it was around the time I bombed down the hill where I grew up, took my hands off the handle bars and went straight over them, creating a mess of both the pavement and my face.

That painful face-planting incident - along with the very wise decision to give up riding a bike - flashed through my mind as me and my BMX smashed into the ramp we were attempting to ride up. It was a combination of nervousness and indecision, I got a bit of a wobble on, made a half-arsed attempt to go up it, couldn't quite decide which ramp to go up and then... crunch. We were only 20 minutes into a two-hour BMX session and it was already the second time I had fallen off.

I like doing things that have an element of danger to them and get the adrenaline pumping, so I thought BMXing would be right up my street. Sadly, I hadn't taken into account the number of years it had been since I last rode a bike or my ability to injure myself at any given opportunity. I was crap and the falling off certainly didn't help my confidence, especially when the place was full of children who weren't falling over.

Having said that, normally in these falling over/knocking something over/doing something incredibly silly situations I would be mortified, but on this occasion I wasn't. I didn't actually give a shit whether anyone was watching it or filming it for YouTube because it was very funny and I'm happy to laugh at myself. Within just 20 minutes of entering the building I was bruised and bleeding.

That face says 'what the fuck am I doing??'

Evidence I did ride the bike

 And went up the ramps

Dan's so fast he's a blur. He was also very good,

which made my efforts look even worse.

Bless

Things I've learnt

Ok, so I was completely rubbish at this challenge, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. Up until now I had enjoyed all of my challenges and while I was a little gutted I couldn't get the hang of it, it's not the end of the world. I'm good at lots of things, but I can't be good at everything and there's no shame in that.


Other things I've learnt

BMXing is very cliquey. If you're into it and good at it, they have time for you. If you're not your 'instructor' will watch you fall over and bleed and not bother to ask if you are ok, and will then piss off and leave you to it because he basically can't be arsed with you. On a positive note, not everyone that worked there was a dick, but some really were.


Even more things I've learnt

Cheesecake makes everything better...



The aftermath

It wasn't until I got in the bath that night that I realised quite how much damage I'd done to myself. I haven't counted the bruises yet, but there are a lot.

Verdict: A wobbly and bruised win, but I don't think I'll be trying it again