They say the bit outside of your comfort zone is where magical things happen.  It’s dangerous, and scary, and a little intimidating, but it’s OK because unicorns live there and they can show you a whole new world of wonderful things.  Or something like that.  On Sunday I’m taking on my first cycling sportive.  It’s 100 miles long.  And it’s a whole new world to me.

My comfort zone is all but a dot on the horizon right now.  Mostly because I know s**t all about cycling.  Or bikes.  Or how to fix my bike if it breaks.  It doesn’t bode well when you have to phone your Dad from the expo to ask him what sort of inner tube you need, and you still don’t know what you’re look at so the random dude who overhears offers some help and picks the tube out for you after you tell him you have ‘you know, a normal bike…’.  Yep, my comfort zone is basically on another planet.

Genuinely, I’d much rather run a marathon on Sunday, despite not being marathon fit, because marathons are my comfort zone (did I just say that?!).  I know what’s going to happen in a marathon.  I’ve run strong, I’ve run weak, and I’ve run when I probably shouldn’t have.  I know there will be good times, dark times, painful times, and many times when you have to fight the powerful desire to crumble and quit.  There’s little that could surprise me over the course of running 26.2 miles.  Cycling 100 miles however?  I can’t even comprehend how far that is on 2 wheels.

Honestly, this is the event that I never thought I would do.  I owe a huge amount of thanks to everyone who helped get me to this stage, including the Brutterly’s for helping me get kitted out and showing me the basics, my Dad for being my personal bike mechanic (and repeatedly reminding me how dangerous cycling on the road is in case I forget), and everyone who has ridden with me and boosted my confidence.  So thank you.  Now there’s only one thing left to do.  Or two if you include eating all the carbs tomorrow.

Fingers crossed for magic.  And maybe unicorns. #Ride100