I have recently discovered that cycling may be the means by which I might keep the demands of flight medicals at bay!*
2013 started well with the loan of a swish mountain bike, from a friend who sadly went through a windscreen and is unable to use his machine but he writes great poetry (see Poet at Jayburn). In a moment of madness I thought I would have a lunchtime sprint from Home to L'Ancresse in the north of the Island almost 9 miles according to the AA route planner and I reckoned 30m should do it at full tilt and the same back again, back within the hour, after all I would be warm and it was only 3 inches on the chart (aka map)!
Well I was quick, I was fast, such that I gave my self a bit of a fright going round one corner and was amazed how rapidly the miles on the coast road flashed by! I was thinking my training had really paid was off - tour de France here I come, boy was I good I reached my target plus 1 sec, very pleased with myself. So let's head back...
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| On return looking misleadingly refreshed! |
The wind, the wind it was wild, cold and strong, a real stiff headwind. I had to pedal like crazy just to get above walking pace. The wind on the nose makes a difference when you are flying but a heck of a difference when the only thing spinning is your legs on your bike, that journey took 55min and I took a short cut!
I had totally underestimated the distance, the wind strength and it's direction, my ability and the minor detail that I live at 365ft on the top of the Island and L'Ancresse is at sea level. I had been captivated by the brilliance of me... I was not that good after all I had had a stonking tail wind, all the way north that added nicely to my deception, plus I guess a slight downhill.
Funny how we can think we are better than we are, yet we sometimes think so little of God. I think we would be pleasantly surprised if we thought more highly of God and the adventure open to us!
It reminded me that the only one I want to be captivated by is not me, but the King of Kings and Lord of Lords - My Captain - Jesus.
Malcolm Duncan wrote this great poem worth reading in its entirety, their is one stunning verse which he uses several times
I want to be a God gaizer ,
captured by the brilliance
that springs from the radiance of you
actually I wanted to tweak it slightly
I want to be a God gaizer ,
captivated by the brilliance
that springs from the radiance of you
*As an aside I started cycling in april before the Olympics and cycling 'madness' struck Britain. Though of the billions who watched this event sadly I missed all the excitement, as my encounter with the visual Olympics revolved around 45mins of women's football and some discus all in Arabic at a neighbours! However I did 'watch it' via BBC texts which came every 2-3 mins took something of the excitiment away during the 100m sprint for example!
