My first bicycle trip

I take a borrowed bike, check out the route on the map, manage to get some food from the kitchen and say goodbye to Juan Carlos with the excitement of starting my first ever bicycle trip. The goal: Lund, a Swedish town where my friends Mariana and Roberto await me. The starting point: Helsingor, a town in north Sealand, Denmark where Juan Carlos was working. The motivation: to make a trip being myself my own engine, a personal adventure and the chance to change my relationship with my own body.

In practical terms, I had already being doing some workouts in the mornings, and running in the local park but no way to see myself on my bike alone, confronting a road of 120 kilometers span. On the other hand, Scandinavian infrastructure as far as cycling is concerned, was on my favor, as there are good and safe routes crossing the Swedish countryside which allows pedaling while one sees people walking their dogs, looking after their gardens, working the fields, hear the birds singing, the sea, the wind running through the trees. I definitely reflected that travel that way offers –as compare with cars that keep us encapsulated- a constant and often fascinating stimuli to the senses. It is worth going slower and in contact with the space that is currently crossed, while in the head, a review of memories and ideas are being connected with what I'm experiencing.

That's how my first pushing pedal through the Swedish countryside was. At first I have everything: the stimulus, excitement, strength, good weather, enough time and the wind pushing me from behind, but as I advance all that gets diminished: roads between towns become longer, kilometers heavier, time is running out, roads sometimes become more confused to follow. Sometimes I get lost and had to go through more mileage searching for my way. The legs get tired and I assume that by walking they would be little comforted, and then, to move on. Finally, when I arrive to the city I find my friends and I share a wonderful afternoon with them around an impressive town, where life revolves around the academy. The feeling of being there with them makes me forget the physical effort and keep walking, using the legs-my leading tool-without thinking about the return.

Next day, after a failed attempt to see the spectacle of the cathedral´s clock and having said bye to my friends, I head back to Helsingor. Once again calculated the same amount of time and follow the route already traveled; it would be easier for me, I thought. However, the road was certainly more difficult from the beginning, because not only had the wind against, making me put more effort, but it was colder and my body was much more tired by the energy expended the day before. Perhaps it was the lack of practice on these physical efforts, or maybe it was a bit of pride from the success of the first phase of the journey. What is certain is that the body, my engine, had reacted and a little after halfway, sugar came down and had to stop for a while, I took some chocolates that I had taken along, in case that that would happen. I got on the bike again, with little strength to keep going, I did so for a while until I was in the middle of the road and with little strength the idea of wanting to withdraw crossed my mind. It was very cold and the clothing and protection I brought begun to be inadequate. Now in the middle of the road had a mental breakdown. I was tired, annoyed, would no longer wish to continue and I burst into tears of despair. I had to take a break, and according to reality, act; because I had to do the same effort to go back to the last crossed village and catch the train or to keep going towards Helsingbor and take the ferry. I was there and had to pedal, it was all I had left over to do, still 10 kilometers to go and would have finished. It was not easy to calm down but that was when I realized that through the mind one can stretch the boundaries of the body. I needed something, anything that would give me the strength to complete the journey, and out of despair strength came out.

The rest of the distance I did it in a little over an hour. I rested a bit during the twenty minutes on the ferry. I got home, celebrated with Juan Carlos the achievement, I showered, ate dinner with a glass of wine and before going to bed I felt the satisfaction of having achieved a personal adventure/challenge. While I know that a trip like this is not at all a spectacular challenge -especially for those accustomed to physical exertion- is also true that through this trip, I was discovering and extending the boundaries of my own body through the power of the mind. I have had in the past some attempts to change this mental conditioning. I´ve always had a fascination of exploring the labyrinths of the human mind-far more than the physical ones- and is perhaps also why I was so much fascinated by this challenge which gave me the clear lesson of allowing me to see that in these times of extreme tendency to speed, convenience and minimal effort, we are becoming fewer people who use the bicycle and the body as an engine, and who do not push our limits towards a healthier lifestyle for mind, body and environment.