Once Upon a Time
We’ve invited guest writers to contribute to our blog. The below is by Maggie Lowe, one of our SBT GRVL team members. Maggie is a coffee-loving, adventure addict from North Carolina. She learned to love cycling on a Walmart bike that carried her 200 miles in September of 2019 to raise money for pediatric cancer research.. Learn more about Maggie and the rest of our SBT GRVL team here.
Once upon a time, there was a young woman. Her name…was me. Well no, that wasn’t her name. People didn’t see her on the street and say, “HEY! ME!!! Where have you been?!?” Her name…was Maggie, which is me, I’m the young woman. (Whew. That was hard.)
Maggie enjoyed a lot of things in life – playing guitar and ukulele, the music of Glenn Miller (especially on vinyl), the movies of Gene Kelley, Lord Stewart Rigsby (her dog) – but what she had finally realized was that the thing she most enjoyed…was nature. Maggie loved to hike (with the dog), run, kayak, wild swim, and hammock. But above all of this, Maggie loved to ride her bicycle. She loved short rides and long rides and overnight rides and intervals and sightseeing; as long as she could be on her bike, she was happy and healthy and free.
There were a few things, however, that Maggie let get in between her and her love of cycling. She was very quick to put off things that were important to her to help other people – so they could do what they wanted to do. She felt like she was more valuable when she could play sidekick to her friends than when she was bossing some main character energy in the woods.
One day, Maggie got some wise advice from a friend. This friend said that she should write the words, “I am a cyclist” on her mirror so she was reminded every day that she is, in fact, a cyclist. On top of letting her riding lose some of its importance, Maggie also struggled with identifying herself as a cyclist. She was fine saying that she liked to ride bikes…but you have to meet a strict set of qualifications to call yourself a cyclist.
Your calves should look like young, ripening cantaloupes.
Your body fat content must be triple digits. (In the negatives of course. EX: -497)
You must set aside enough time before each ride to paint something that looks like clothes onto your body.
Your bike must cost more than your car and weigh less than your car’s air filter.
You should constantly be at the point of complete nervous system failure with fatigued muscles constantly cramping and a large, obvious grimace on your face.
Maggie didn’t meet any of these requirements. So she was slow to say she was a cyclist. She knew the advice was good, but she was too nervous to write the line on her mirror because, well, someone else might see it (the last thing she needed was word getting around that she thought she was a cyclist). But while all of this was whirling around in her head, she was also scrolling on Instagram and saw an invitation to apply to be a part of a team that “All Bodies on Bikes” was sending to Steamboat Springs to ride some gnarly gravel roads. She thought, “why not?” and applied.
And she was chosen.
This changed everything. Maggie had never trained purposefully before…and now she did. Maggie had never prioritized rides or resting for rides that kept her on her plan before…and now she did. And an interesting thing started happening.
Life got more difficult.
It seemed that everyone and everything around her had gotten accustomed to the Maggie that played sidekick. And Maggie herself had been doing it for so long, it was easier…comfortable, familiar. She wondered if it was worth it. She wondered if this change was necessary, or even advisable.
Then she read a quote.
“Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert
Hi.
I’m Maggie Lowe.
And I am a cyclist.
I am honored beyond words to be a part of the All Bodies on Bikes Steamboat Gravel team. I have registered for the 64-mile course. That doesn’t feel too daunting after 2021 since that is the year I did my first half-century, my first century, and my first bikepacking trip (315 miles in 4.5 days). What does feel a little overwhelming is the 4,000 vertical feet of climbing that will happen in those 64 miles. That’s a lot for a day in the saddle! But you know what…I’m going to train for it. I’m going to stick to my goals and I am going to work for them. I’m going to ride miles and miles and up and up between now and August 14th. And as I pedal furiously and work towards my goal with the tenacity of my dog when he hears a bag of chips being opened, I look forward to befriending myself once again. I look forward to going out into the mountains, tearing up some gravel, and finding myself. I want my leading lady energy back.
So I’m getting on my bike…and I’m coming for it.
I’d love for you to come along.
