Zoom Zoom
On Monday, I took the day off from work and went to a Track Day at NHMS in Loudon, NH on my motorcycle. What an awesome day!
I was so nervous leading up to it. I wanted so much to do well and not embarrass myself and my companions [[waves to kr4sh, felis_lupus and kurlon]] and of course there are the obvious fears about crashing and getting hurt. I also had fears of getting there and then discovering something wrong with my bike or equipment that would prevent me from riding at all. I was also afraid that all this fear would stack up and keep me from having a good time.
None of that happened. My bike and I made it through tech inspection with nary a comment. The Boston Moto folks provided plenty of classroom and on-track instruction for us Novices. Having an instructor to follow so we could learn the line, etc for my first several trips out on the track made a huge difference in my confidence the rest of the day.
So I went out there and I did it. I was probably one of the slowest riders out there, I never felt like I wanted to pass anyone, and I got passed several times, but that wasn't why I was there. I was there to learn more about how to handle my bike, to spend time dedicated to riding faster and cornering harder than you can do safely on ordinary streets, to understand how to move the bike through those turns and gain more comfort doing things like leaning the bike over in a corner.
I accomplished all those things and more. I had fun! There was this moment during my third session of the day, when I'm coming around the big sweeping banked left-hand-turn they call The Bowl and I catch the line just right and I'm accelerating up the hill coming out of it and I can just feel it. I'm really doing this. I'm riding my bike on the track and really *getting* it. It was amazing.
I called it "quits" before the last session of the day, but I'm glad I called it off while I was still having fun and I want to go back and do it again, rather than push to do more and make a mistake because I was getting tired and end the day on a grumpy note.
The best part of the whole thing is that I feel like I personally have more awesomeness for having done it. It is cool if y'all think so, too, but it is great that I was able to do something that make *me* think so.
I am utterly indebted to kr4sh for all his support in getting to this point. I couldn't have done it without you.
I was so nervous leading up to it. I wanted so much to do well and not embarrass myself and my companions [[waves to kr4sh, felis_lupus and kurlon]] and of course there are the obvious fears about crashing and getting hurt. I also had fears of getting there and then discovering something wrong with my bike or equipment that would prevent me from riding at all. I was also afraid that all this fear would stack up and keep me from having a good time.
None of that happened. My bike and I made it through tech inspection with nary a comment. The Boston Moto folks provided plenty of classroom and on-track instruction for us Novices. Having an instructor to follow so we could learn the line, etc for my first several trips out on the track made a huge difference in my confidence the rest of the day.
So I went out there and I did it. I was probably one of the slowest riders out there, I never felt like I wanted to pass anyone, and I got passed several times, but that wasn't why I was there. I was there to learn more about how to handle my bike, to spend time dedicated to riding faster and cornering harder than you can do safely on ordinary streets, to understand how to move the bike through those turns and gain more comfort doing things like leaning the bike over in a corner.
I accomplished all those things and more. I had fun! There was this moment during my third session of the day, when I'm coming around the big sweeping banked left-hand-turn they call The Bowl and I catch the line just right and I'm accelerating up the hill coming out of it and I can just feel it. I'm really doing this. I'm riding my bike on the track and really *getting* it. It was amazing.
I called it "quits" before the last session of the day, but I'm glad I called it off while I was still having fun and I want to go back and do it again, rather than push to do more and make a mistake because I was getting tired and end the day on a grumpy note.
The best part of the whole thing is that I feel like I personally have more awesomeness for having done it. It is cool if y'all think so, too, but it is great that I was able to do something that make *me* think so.
I am utterly indebted to kr4sh for all his support in getting to this point. I couldn't have done it without you.