Yesterday, I fell off my bike. My pedal met the curb. Swiftly followed by the rest of my bike, and me. The result? Two very sore knees, one teeny cry and then a cycle home, feeling a bit sorry for myself.
This was the first time I had fallen of my road bike and I don't think I'll be in a hurry to repeat that experience. Falling off your bike is never fun. Especially not at 6:30am, in the dark and cold. When it happened I didn't really know how to react. It was the first time I'd also fallen of a bike with my trainers in holders, so I was pretty much attached to my my bike as it went down. After it had happened, I had a short sob, tried figuring out if I wanted to sit down or stand up, walk around or just do anything. I thought about phoning home and letting my dad know there and then, seeing if he could pick me up. But, I quickly got rid of that thought. I was out cycling, I needed to get myself home. I needed to sort it out myself.
I picked my bike and went to pedal. The chain had come off. Brilliant, I thought, but nothing that I can't fix myself. After sorting that out, calming myself down and getting back on my bike, I took it slow and started to head home.
Yes my knees were hurting and it was painful but I couldn't sit there all day moping by myself. I knew a fall was likely to happen and I'm sure it won't be the last but when you fall you need to learn to get back up again. It wasn't easy or pleasant but there was a feeling of motivation I had when I put my chain back on, got back on my bike and cycled.
In the words of Alfred (yes I am about to quote from Batman) -
"Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."
We'll never know how to get back up again if we never have the experience of falling in the first place. Sometimes it's not always pleasant but getting that initial experience out that way means, if it repeats, it can be a lot easier to handle the second time. I'm not likely to forgot that first little fall of my bike, the bruises will probably take a short while to disappear, but I know that if I happens again I will - get back on the bike and just cycle.