Double Rutted!

The Bike was feeling good. I was finally getting used to the feel of the handling,and feeling confident in conquering the obstacles ahead. I decided to relax a bit and let the bike do some work. That's when I hit it!

Here's how it happened. I started getting into riding dirt bikes more seriously when I was in middle school. I was with new friends and found a few that loved to ride. All my brothers loved riding and racing. They would tell me of the great stories they had and it caused me to want to ride more. It took me a few years to get up the money but I did it, I bought my first dirt bike! I was in High school at this point. It was a little run down and a little beat up. By a little I mean it only costed $300 so it needed a new seat, new finish on the plastics, re-built engine, new fork seals and new tires, a new seat cover, and a few more things. It was a 1998 Kawasaki 125 2-stroke. I Bought it and with the help of my brother, re-built basically the whole bike. We got it to run pretty good, and I learned how to ride on it.
Now that I knew how to ride and hearing the stories of my brothers racing, I wanted to start racing! The racing we do in Nevada is mostly desert, and you never know what is ahead on the track, but I knew how to ride, so I thought, and I was getting faster and faster. My bike was just not big enough for me to race with. There would have been no way for me to race and have a chance at winning, so I asked my older brother if I could use one of his bikes to race with and he decided to let me after I promised to fix anything that got broken. I started preparing, riding as much as I could. It was a bigger bike and I needed to get used to how it handled and how the throttle responded. I rode for about 2-3 weeks getting ready.
Race day finally came. My brother and I tuned up the bike, filled it with gasoline and made sure it was warm and ready to start. we lined up on the track and I watched my brother's heat take off. Then the next one and then it was my turn! We did what is called a dead start where the engine of the bike is off and you have to straddle the front fender and when the flag drops you have to jump on and start the bike, and take off. I was standing there all my gear on, first time ever racing, watching the flag so I could get the best jump! I saw the flag drop, jumped around and kicked the bike and started to go. I was in, what looked like to me, 3rd place I looked all around me to make sure I wasn't running into some one else. At that moment 6 Riders went by me like I was standing still! I forgot to shift out of first gear. I was so mad at myself! I kicked the bike into the higher gears and pinned the throttle till I passed 4 racers! This put me in 5th place in my class. I was excited it was my first race. I was in 5th, way better than I expected myself to do off the start! I started to relax and ride.

 

(Not really me)

The bike was great so comfortable compared to my beat-up old bike. I got about 11-13 miles into the loop that was 28 miles long and was feeling good. By this point I passed a couple people I think I was in 4th in class and catching another guy in the trees. I started to get to where I knew how to use the bike and throw the weight around to my advantage. There were a few ruts from all the other bikes, some big some small and sometimes there were so many ruts it was hard to ride through them. But I was doing okay. I was in a tight section and learned how to ride through ruts. I could hear the bike in front of me and was getting closer! I went into a corner a little faster than the others, there were a lot of ruts, and Wham! Before I could gain control I got cross-rutted and slammed into a tree! I hit my head on the trunk of the huge pine and it threw me right back on the seat of my bike. I hit so hard that it took a minute to regain my thoughts, but when I did I looked at the bike to see what was broke and if I could still ride. I did a quick assessment and found no major damage. I did break the front fender and had a tree limb between the forks, but I pulled it out and jumped back on and tried to make up time! I had to catch back up! I could no longer hear the rider in front of me. I hadn't seen a person in about 6 miles and was getting a little tired. I started to hurt a bit after the hard impact and adrenaline ran out.
I started to question: Why did my brothers think this was so fun and why am I here in this 105 degree weather riding this bike? I decided to take it slow there was no-one for miles. I just cruised in 3rd gear for a while. Then I saw the half way marker, at first I said "Ah man, only half way! I thought I was 3/4 of the way done already!" But then I saw some people They started yelling and cheering for me. They Told me to keep it up and ride hard! I then told my self I need to kick it in gear if I am gonna come close to winning!

 (Not really me)

I dropped in this gigantic wash and kicked it up I passed a few people who were broken down and kept going cause the sweepers are there to help. I then heard a bike ahead in the trail. It took us back up the mountain and I caught him! Passed him in the Tight section again and took off! I now had all the wind in my sails! I over came the feelings I felt before and the adrenaline was back! I decided to push it harder! I got in 2nd or 3rd in my class and dropped in a big sandy wash and took off. I was running in 5th gear pinned. It was faster than I have ever gone before! I was setting all sorts of new personal records and very happy.
I was feeling good and felt like the finish was coming up soon, when all the sudden my bike began to sputter and it died. I violently tried to kick start it again and again to no prevail! I was out of gas. I coasted as far as I could and then when it finally stopped I walked it off the trail and sat under a tree. I sat there for 20-30 min and my brother finally came by.  He slowed only to ask if I was okay and when I gave him a thumbs up he took off again just as fast as an arrow shot form a bow! I was crushed my hopes of getting back in the race were gone! I was done! I couldn't believe it my first race I got a big ol' DNF (Did Not Finish) I waited for hours till all the racers were through and I waited for someone to come get me. I decided to sleep under a tree in the shade so I didn't burn up. Evening came and I woke up to the sound of a truck coming up the wash which was backwards to the way the course was going, when I saw it was my dad and brother I was so thankful. I started talking to them and couldn't stop talking for an hour straight. It was so good to finally see someone who would listen and help me. We loaded up the bike and headed into town. As we road in I asked how close I was to finishing, and they said about 3 miles. I was even more frustrated that I was so close and didn't finish. After that day I was hooked on racing! After a few days I realized that I really did enjoy every bit of it!

 

 (Not really me)

As I look back at this race I realized that it could teach me a lot about other things in life. I learned that we sometimes have wrecks that throw us violently. We might get thrown into a tree and almost knocked out, but I Know God is always there to guide us back to the seat where we can do a quick self check and keep racing. Another thing I learned is, Although there may be time that we ride and feel alone there are always people there waiting and wanting to support us along the way. There are always people who uplift us and give us the motivation to press hard and keep racing. Sometime we have riders riding by and asking if we are okay, or if we need something. I was trying to tell my brother that I would love his help, but he thought I was telling him to keep going. right then I could have gotten mad that he didn't help me fix the bike so I could finish, however I chose to be happy for him so he could go on to place well. There are many more things we can all learn from this race that could possibly help us through life. Think about this story and any others you've heard over the years and try to pull something from it that could help you. I would love to hear what you got from those stories!

The Flea And Our Journey on Railroad Tracks!

It has been an interesting past few weeks. We have had a lot of great things that have happened. I will start with a few facts about a flea and then tie that into a personal story.
Flea's can jump very high for their height/size. There has been an experiment done that shows that fleas, if caught in a glass jar and the lid put on it the flea adjusts its jump to the height of the lid on the jar. The experiment went on and they took the lid off the jar. The flea kept jumping only as high as the jar's mouth but not any higher. Even though the lid was off the jar the flea only jumped that high, he never increased his jump again.
This story is about a previous companion and I who were walking down some railroad tracks. My bike was broken and we did not have the car for the week. We were walking for miles in this beautiful land of trees, fields of freshly sprouted grass with deep green color, the sound of running rivers, animals of all sorts, and the beautiful Carolina baby blue sky. As we were walking the many miles to our destination we did different things to keep us entertained. At one point they ran and tried to stay only on the wooden ties of the railroad. This pulled our eyes off the things that lie ahead in the trail. We ran for a while until I got tired then we began to walk so I could catch my breath. The bored-ism began to creep in we got so bored that we counted kernels of corn that had fallen out of a train sometime before. This also kept us from seeing the beauties ahead. As we continued we kept doing things to try to entertain ourselves, which made us look down at the ground, and took our eyes off the beautiful trail.

We eventually made it to our destination,  and worked there for a while and our journey home was a lot less eventful because we got picked up and given a ride home.
How do these two stories have anything to do with each other? Well they both tell about our potential and our living up to it. We too are sometimes like a flea when things get placed over us we adjust to the height of it, and then we stay at that level until the thing is removed. The question then becomes are we going to now jump higher or stay at the same level? We often feel the things holding us down, maybe our jobs are giving us stress that hold us back from enjoying the time we can spend with our family. When the "lid" of work is removed by us getting home, are we going to try and jump higher by maybe playing with the kids or doing something for the wife. For the children when we get home from school do we try to spend time helping our parents, and siblings. In my experience of walking down railroad tracks,  I too often looked down not enjoying the things placed around me, at one point in the journey my companion and I jokingly said: "If a heard of elephants crossed in front of us we would probably have missed them!" At that point I realized that I was only jumping to the height of the lid that we placed upon ourselves. From then on out I tried to look more at the beautiful things around me and less on the kernels of corn at my feet (I counted 36 pieces of corn by the way,) and I started looking at the river running by and the field with blades of green grass growing in the field. We saw beautiful birds and animals. The journey became less boring and more exciting because The "lid" was taken off and I was able to enjoy the full blessings of gods creations.
 I Believe that if we can take the "lid off more we will be happier because it will change out outlook and we will see a better more beautiful pathway. There are a couple questions we could all ask ourselves, What are we missing? What can I do today to jump higher? I feel these questions will help us to "stay above the fray" and be a little more happy. When asking these questions there are two key things to remember: 1) Involve God. Pray to him and ask his will, 2) Do what you feel you should do.
Two video's to go with this:
 This one is a link click it to watch(Your Potential, Your Privileges)