A race to beat the heat

For a large part of my life, I have been taken around on trips whether I liked it or not. Whether It has been to hike a mountain in the rain or melt in the blazing sun as we examined ancient buildings of the earliest people of Sri Lanka. However, the bike ride on a Sunday morning would take the cake when it came to being the most blazingly hot trip I have taken in quite some time.

Our bike ride experience started when I got up at 5 in the morning. The night before I had stayed up late and was hoping to sleep in till late in the day. That dream would be crushed quite quickly when I awoke to my dog jumping on my stomach causing me to sit up quite quickly. At first, I was confused about what was happening and then I remembered, I had a bike ride today. With groggy eyes and very heavy legs, I slumped my way to the kitchen where I had my breakfast and prepared for a long day ahead. By the time I fully woke up, we were in our car getting ready to meet up with our friends for the trip.

Now, this trip was going to be quite different from the usual trips which I had done with my dad, as we were heading to a new location. The majority of the bikes ride would be biking beside both the seaside as well as an old colonial canal built by the Dutch during the period in which they had colonized Sri Lanka. it is called the Hamilton Canal and it ranged about 14 km long. Our plan was to travel all the way around which would total to about 28 km.  When we arrived, already our friends were waiting for us and so we were able to leave quite early rather than waiting for others.

And so our bike ride began with our friends. Although at first the ride was mainly covered by the trees as well as the houses to help shade us. It soon became apparent that the sun was rising fast and we knew that it was going to get hot soon. however, this did not stop us from appreciating what was around us, such as a giant monitor lizard which we saw had caught some prey and was beginning to devour it. Further on during our trip, we came across a group of people who were participating in an extreme marathon that lasted for about five days and went all across Sri Lanka. Interestingly enough, I noticed some of my teachers participating as well. But as the hours passed by, the group and I began to feel the heat a bit too much. In fact, by the time we got 2 thirds of the way there, I had already finished my water and was starting to feel very dry. For most of the bike ride, I stayed ahead of everyone else, as I wanted to try and push myself when it came to biking by increasing my speed and intensity, which I would come to regret the next day. But finally, after another hour of biking, we had reached our location, only for us to realize we still had limited amounts of water. As we got ready to pack up, we said our goodbyes for we knew we would be very sore the next morning. That would be especially true for me, because the next day when I woke up, not only did I feel sore in my legs, but I actually managed to catch something as for the next few days I could not go to school due to being sick.

Overall this trip had been especially painful to do for me as I had been exhausted, however, I felt fulfilled having done the trip as It was a fun new experience to do.

This CAS post highlights Learning Outcome 4 (show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences). Throughout this trip I committed to the ride and even in difficult lengths I did not give up.