ScandAsia joined Tour de Gulf – Sofie

It’s been many months since I have used a bicycle. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I’ve been living abroad in places where biking isn’t the go-to form of transportation, in contrast to Denmark. So I was excited about the trip. I had the usual biking clothing which I lent from my boss, a good helmet, and of course – a bike.

But as we met with the other participants the day before, my excitement turned into worry. I was about to bike 73 km in one day. With no experience and no practice whatsoever. Besides, several participants have had minor injuries, causing a few hospital visits. And I was expecting an important visit a couple of days later, so the anxiety of injuring myself grew.

I reminded myself that this is just supposed to be a funny experience, and if it any point becomes unbearable – I can simply just stop. That reminder made me go through with it.

So I went, keeping myself in the slowest group, taking it hour by hour.

The first kilometres were great. The scenery was beautiful. I would’ve never seen these parts of Thailand if I didn’t participate in this – and that motivated me. After 16 km we had our first break. By then, the scenery was no longer as pretty, but we were told this was the case for the route today. Accepted. But that did mean long strokes with not a lot to see but cars and cement roads.

However, that made me really appreciate whenever we would find some greenery in the landscape or I would see a butterfly. Which happened quite often! But the rest of the nearly 60 km did seem like a lot after the first stop. It helped me not to think of it as a ‘race’ – which it wasn’t – but just perceive it as a ‘whole day of biking.’

So that’s how it was. Quite okay. Enjoyable even. The lack of practice did indeed made me slow, but I didn’t experience pain in my legs. The main problem was the pain in the butt. Sitting on a narrow bike seat for hours with consistent friction between your thighs from pedaling causes burns. And once you had it you couldn’t escape it.

Towards the end, I was close to giving up, having only 10-20 km left, simply because the pain became almost intolerable. I was offered to get picked up with the support car, and at first I accepted the offer. But then I decided to continue. We were almost there. And the pain was normal, the other participants said. So they encouraged me, and we sat off for the last kilometres.

And we made it. Proud, surprised and with a very red bottom. Despite the pain, I can conclude that I truly now understand why people do trips like these. You are able to exercise whilst discovering the world at the same time. How is that not incredible? Perhaps I will start considering to make this a hobby myself.