On September 23, 2017 Matthew had an 11-year old scout activity of a 10 mile bike ride. They had said that parents could go with them but I didn't think I would be able to do the 10 miles so I was sort of on the fence about going.
Matthew's leaders weren't able to go and asked if I would go for our troop. I pushed me off the fence into going.
I am SO glad that I did. It was a great ride and the couple that was doing it was great. The wife and I stayed at that back and helped those that stopped and had a great chat throughout the whole ride.
I learned on that activity that 11 year old COULD actually start earning merit badges, I just didn't think that they could so young. I thought they had to be at least 12 before doing that.
At that point Matthew decided that he wanted to get his Cycling Merit Badge, which is also an Eagle Scout required merit badge as well.
We used that 10 miles and started our adventure. Matthew was able to go the mountain biking route, or ride biking route. There are many different lengths of miles you have to do for each but the end was either 22 miles of mountain biking or 50 miles of road biking. I didn't think I wold be able to do FIFTY MILES so I helped persuade Matthew to do the mountain biking.
The next weekend we went with the boy scouts and rode downtown Richmond and walked on a pipeline as a side event. We also rode across this bridge to Belle Island which I had always wanted to go but never ventured out to by myself. It was fun biking that island and we had a good time.
We tried some other mountain biking trails and some were fun but others were REALLY hard with huge roots so much that we had to be walking our bikes and that isn't fun. Some trails had tree trunks on them and they were HARD.
Matthew decided that he didn't want to do mountain biking anymore and go to the rode biking but son....come on FIFTY MILES!!!!??
He said, "Mom, wouldn't it be SO cool to be able to ride the WHOLE VA CAPITAL TRAIL?" I thought it would be cool, but that would mean that someone would have to drive 2 hours just to come pick us up. That is the goal that Matthew wanted to set though, so Chris said if I was willing to do the riding with him, he would be willing to come pick us up or drop us off. Whatever was needed. That was awesome that Chris was willing to drive 2 hours with the girls to help Matthew with this. So with that, our goal was to finish the 51.2 mile VA Capital Trail.
I decided to go with what he wanted and do the road biking so we set off riding the other 10miler, 2-15 milers, and 2-25 milers. The first 10 miler that we did with the 11 year olds was on a trail called. The Virginia Capital Trail. It is a paved (about one lane wide) that goes from Virginia's old Capital of Williamsburg to its "new" Capital of Richmond. If you were to drive that distance, it takes about an hour in the car. This trail is usually within a couple feet of the actual road that cars drive on and you do have to cross the road sometimes.
*Let me give even MORE of a back story here.*
A year previous, so about October of 2016, the Cub Scouts had a biking activity. Matthew's Webelos leader, Ronnie Sipe, is AWESOME and he planned this activity. We started in Richmond, by the James River, by a shiploading yard, and then we rode 10 miles to Dorey Park and had a picnic lunch and he was going to have people picked up there.
Matthew hadn't ridden his bike in a LONG time but headed out to do this ride. I enjoy these types of things and I was interested to see where they would go so I went with them. The first 2 miles were pretty brutal. The scenery was nice riding next to the James river, but then you have to go up hill to get out of the city. We had been running late that morning so I didn't really give Matthew much breakfast, I think he might have eaten a banana, and that was it, so no energy, and not much experience on his bike, especially with hills.
Even though Matthew was a Webelos, he ended up being last in the 20 person group that we had. I was a little put off by his lack of ability to do this ride. I kept "encouraging" him and he wasn't doing well.
He became really far back, and couldn't even see any other kids or adults in our group besides Brother Sipe and I. There were some longer hills and it was tiring but he finally just stopped and sat on the side of the trail, just crying and I was not impressed. I couldn't believe that MY child was the one that couldn't do it. I was honestly quite disappointed in him. After awhile I told him that he either needed to get up and get going or I needed to call an ambulance to come get him because he was saying he was blacking out and just couldn't move.
I guess he decided that he didn't actually want an ambulance to come get him so he got up on his bike and started going again!
He got to the top of the hill and was glad to finally get to the top but he was SO defeated because he was the last person and he hated that feeling of not being with the group anymore.
Then we saw one kid coming back. Kamden Fulcher came riding back, with his dad kind of behind him, to let Matthew know that there was a 7 Eleven up ahead that they were all stopped at waiting for him. His attitude completely changed getting that information and he had so much energy to catch up to them, because it didn't feel impossible anymore.
He was SO proud of himself for making it to the top of that hill and achieving such a hard task.
He made it to the 7 Eleven, got more trail mix in him and then powered through to the park with the rest of the boys.
We stayed at the park for a couple hours and I was feeling good, and so was Matthew. I thought it would be a GREAT idea, instead of finding someone to take us and our bikes back to the start, we could just ride back.
Matthew came along with my plan. HOWEVER, only about a mile into our ride back, I became the one that was wanting to quit. My bum hurt so bad.....my bum was MUCH too large for such a SMALL seat. I also felt every muscle in my heads screaming at me. Matthew became the one that was "encouraging" me. What else was there to do but keep going. If we stopped, it just hurt more to get going again.
I hate almost every minute of that ride back but Matthew was the trooper and did awesome!
We did make it back but I hurt SOOO bad and laid on the couch for the rest of the day, HURTING.
Him conquering that hill has really helped him throughout this year because when he came to something hard he then remember that he was able to conquer that hill so he could conquer whatever hard thing he was trying to overcome.
Then fast forward a year and Matthew is trying to get his Cycling Merit Badge.
It was getting cooler and all of those rides take a lot of time and thankfully the kids weren't doing Saturday morning sports anymore so we had more time to ride some miles. On the next 10 miler, again we rode the Capital Trail, but this time we took Allison and she did pretty well. We started timing our rides and figuring out how long it took and what our pace needed to be and such. To do this 50 miler, we had to complete it in 8 hours.
Then I decided that I wanted to get all of these rides done sooner than later because of the colder weather that would be coming so I had to start figuring out WHEN we would be able to take these rides. To get things done, we started riding on the weekdays and that wasn't easy either because Matthew doesn't get home from school until 4 and then it starts to get darker earlier. So many different things I was thinking about. Our first ride out ON THE ROAD was a pretty scary one. Matthew had never actually ridden with traffic, and I was glad that I was there to help him out. It was also rush hour traffic on a busy road, so it was crazy. We left about 4:30 after getting everything ready and went on as many back or side roads as we could to go out 7.5miles and come back 7.5 miles. It was a hard ride for Matthew because it was very stressful with all the cars at rushhour, but we survived and got it within the time we wanted.
Then we did a 25 miler, which wasn't too bad, per se, but it was also on the Capital Trail. It was actually pretty fun because Matthew and I ate talked, ate candy and just road. We rode out 13 miles and then rode back. The last 6 miles of that trip, we each had ipods and just listened to music and finished our ride in our allotted time.
The last 15 miler that we did I was going to do on a different part of the trail but Matthew said that he REALLY wanted to try THAT HILL again. The one that he almost didn't make up when he went with the Webelos the year before. I was worried, I wasn't going to have him do "THE HILL" until the day of our 50 miler but he wanted to see how he would do so we did it.
It was a Tuesday night, we started down by the James River and rode and rode and rode. We had a good time and kept wondering where the hill was.
AFTER we got up past THE HILL, I let Matthew know that he already did THE HILL and he didn't even know it. He actually didn't believe me, that is how much training he had been doing. He didn't believe me until I pointed out that this is where Kamden came back to tell us and he still didn't believe me until he saw that wonderful 7 Eleven sign. It was SO cool to see the accomplishment on his face that he did THE HILL and didn't even know it.
We went out 8 miles (the trail has mile markers so we used those) and then came back and the ride back was much more pleasant this time, not as much hurting going on.
The last 25 miler was a crazy one. Matthew got to go on his FIRST campout with the Boy Scouts. There was always something else going on that he had to miss the other ones they have had but he was finally getting his chance to go. He actually couldn't believe that we were on our way to the church to drop him off. He said, "This feels like a dream, are you sure there isn't anything that is going to happen so I can't go tonight?" He really wanted to go.
Anyways, he went on his campout, then they went to comic book day and got back to the church at 1pm, and I was there waiting with our bikes getting ready to go. We had a 25 miler to do in 3 hours before our Ward Halloween Party was to happen. I had our map of where our 25 miles was to get from the church to the party. Though we did have to go about a mile more because we ran into some private property, which I didn't know, and we got yelled at. I was crying and it was just a long ride, but we went back and continued along our way.
The last 1-2 miles was EXTREMELY HARD!!! I did not know how steep those hills were going to be. THEY WERE STEEP!!! There were probably about 3 of them all in a row. It was CRAZY HARD!!! I was behind Matthew about 99% of our ride so I could keep track of him and keep him to the side of the road and such, but on the first of these hills, as I was going up my chain came off. I told Matthew to keep going so he didn't stop on a hill, but he didn't really worry about where I was and never stopped. He just kept going even when he got to the top. So I was fixing my chain, then trying to start on a steep hill, with a chain that would pop off again, I was really far behind. I finally got it on and got to the top but Matthew was already going down the next hill and just kept going. It was so scary to see cars passing me and see him moving into the middle of the lane, and just praying that he would move over and they would see him because I was too far away for him to hear me yelling to get over. It was HARD, did I say that? They were LONG, STEEP hills and there were at least 3 of them. It took me awhile to actually get caught up to him, but you know what? He never stopped once!! When I FINALLY caught up to him, he was either on the verge of crying or he was crying because it was SOOOOOOO hard. I was on the verge of crying with him!! I couldn't believe how well he did!!
But right after I caught up to him and tried to calm him down a bit, I realized I saw the bouncy house that was suppose to be at our ward party. We were there!! We made it to the Ward Halloween Party!!!
We were about 30 minutes late, but we made it.
We finished it to the end and both kind of just collapsed on the ground for a little bit, thankful we were done. He was grumpy but it was well understood. It was SOOOOO SUPER HARD!!! BUT HE DID IT!!!
I was very impressed with him and he realized that "THE HILL" wasn't a hill at all compared to those monsters we just slayed.
He was finally able to recuperate and enjoy the party the rest of the night.
Then the following Saturday, November 4, 2017 we set out to go on our 50 mile road bike adventure.
I was excited and nervous. I still wasn't sure I would be able to do it, but I was anxious to see how it was going to go, and we had been training for it.
Chris and the girls, drove us to Downtown Richmond, a little bit before the trail even officially started to make sure we did the WHOLE things.
Here we are before we even got out of the parking lot, before even getting on our bikes.
(I wish I would have put makeup on for these pictures...but oh well)
There are some paths and sidewalks before the Capital officially starts so we had him drop us off at the VERY beginning. We rode on some sidewalks and then we finally got to the sign that started the trail.
We found the beginning of our trail. I guess it was officially the end of the trail since we finished at mile marker 0 but that way we knew how many miles we had left.
Matthew (11.5yo) working on his first Merit Badge
We had trained to ride about 10 miles and with our pace that would give us plenty of time to make it in 8 hours.
"THE HILL" wasn't a problem at all this brisk morning.
This was our first stop, about 12 miles in, at 4 Mile Creek Park. We had a little snap, peed, and just rested for 10 minutes.
I think this was about Mile 20. I was starting to hurt I think. Those last few miles of our 10 miles stents were REALLY far apart.
You can see right behind us is the road we ride on. The road farther back is the road for the cars.
About mile 27 Matthew was starting to not want to do this anymore. He was done and didn't think it was really worth it anymore. He started complaining more and I tried to convince him to just keep eating whatever candy he had in his pocket. He was hurting and just wanted to be done, but we had to just keep going.
This was mile 30.
I was hurting. Matthew's attitude had changed and now he was the encouraging one to me. He did really awesome. My back just hurt so every time we stopped I just laid down whether it was gravel, concrete or grass.
We ate our lunch here and had a bigger break because we had the time.
Matthew came up with the great idea that since we did have the time and those 10 miles seemed to be too much, that we should stop every 5 miles and it wouldn't be as hard. We worked hard at the beginning to let us have more time to rest more in the last half.
From this point on, it was all Matthew being the go-getter. He would stop many times because he knew I needed it, he didn't but I did. We had time so we could.
We had a great time together. Talked so much, enjoyed being together, enjoyed the scenery, enjoyed this experience, laughed together, ate lots of candy, and listened to music.
The last few miles there was a pretty steep bridge that we had to go across. It was big, but in comparison to those HUGE hills we conquered a week before, it was just long not, as steep so it wasn't that big of a deal, though it is weird and a bit scary to actually ride on a bridge over that much water. Not my favorite thing to do.
We finished the 50 miles before our 8 hours but I wanted us to finish this 52 miles that we did in 8 hours, since we could. We used about as much time as we could but at the end I was pushing us so we could say we finished 52miles in 7 hours and 55 minutes!!!!!!!
SUCH AN ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!!!!!
I AM SOOOOO PROUD OF THIS KID!!!!!
HE DID AN AMAZING JOB!!!!
He earned his first merit badge!!!
Our excitement of actually doing this.
How we actually feel
Here is the end for Matthew, Mile marker 0!!!
However he did ride 52 miles this day and rode the whole VA Capital Trail!!
SUCCESS!!!!!!!
