Radventure
Onward and UPward.
Life exists outside of your comfort zone and sometimes you need to willingly put yourself there. Well, us RAD fellas decided to pack the fat bikes into the truck and make that happen up in Marquette.
Marquette is the Mecca of Mid-West fat biking and it’s known for its wild and untamed wilderness, but also, its almost 100 miles of snowy groomed single-track fat bike trails that span the depths of that wilderness.
Yes, we drank the beers, ate the good food, and drank way too much coffee, but this was about the riding. And the riding was about the adventure. When you head out for a 40-mile fat bike ride in Marquette, on the Polar Roll route designed by freaking Todd Poquette himself, you have to throw a certain mindset out of the window. Whatever you think your comfort zone is, Todd is going to push you right out of it. If there’s a trail that is your favorite downhill trail in town, he’s going to make you climb it instead. That’s how he rolls. And our Polar Roll long-course day made sure to remind us of this right out of the gate. A nice flat tire for Brandon Bender, which saw us reversing course to limp to a bike shop for more sealant, put that mindset-check firmly in place. This was going to be an adventure.
Sparring all of the details of the ride, like hitting trees, high-speed wipe-outs, brutal climbs, blood sugar bonks, etc… I just want to hone-in on the overarching story from our newest RAD member, Danny Carpenter. Danny can shred and I give him about 2 years until he’s faster than all of us, but with opening his new business (Locale Nutrition) and working 14 hour days on his feet for a few weeks, let alone this being only his 4th ride on a fat bike, we will just say he wasn’t in tip-top shape for an adventure like this. Homeboy went DEEP, but he never quit. We’d pull up after a long climb and 20-40 seconds later, there he was, ALL DAY. Riding well outside anything close to a comfort zone for 40 miles and 4,000ft. of elevation on a fat bike is no joke. Even us seasoned Radders were toast and Danny embraced everything Todd and the Polar Roll is all about. Today, for Danny, this wasn’t a bike ride. It was a test of his character and his ability to adapt and overcome. The dude passed with flying colors. Helluva ride, Danny.
And I think I can speak for the rest of us here on team RAD when I say that this is what draws us to our bikes and the adventures they take us on. Yeah, we are spoiled almost middle-aged men with great families and friends and jobs, but being spoiled and having it easy doesn’t produce character. What we are extremely spoiled to be able to do is to willingly create opportunities to test our own character. That bike ride for Danny is just a bike ride, but he learned something about himself that he will need going forward. When life actually hands him hard times, and it will, Danny now has a little deeper of a well to draw from. He can more confidently handle the hard stuff b/c he knows just a bit more what he is made of.
Maybe I’m waxing a bit too poetic about a bike ride, but dang it, I’m proud of the kid. We had a heck of an adventure out there and as I returned to my office on Monday, I coudln’t help but reflect.
Cheers to Danny and here’s to more radventures that toss us right out of our comfort zones.