Yes, It's True, I am a City Girl

This may or may not be a surprise, but I am a city girl. If it wasn’t for mountain biking I would still be in my sheltered city girl life. But thanks to mountain biking there are many things I have learned to do.


I have learned to set up a tent. My first and only tent set up was last year at 24 hours of Moab. I had never set a tent up before, but with the help of team mates I learned and set one up. Can I do it again? I think so, but have not had the chance to find out, and if I am lucky will not have to.

I can use an outhouse. Now this is not my bathroom set up of choice, but before mountain biking I would just hold it until I found a bathroom. Now I can go in an outhouse. Oh, and I have learned to keep a roll of toilet paper and hand sanitizer in the car thanks to those outhouse visits! Mountain biking has still not gotten me comfortable with going to the bathroom in the woods. I have to be to the point of floating before dropping the drawers in the woods! There is something so wrong about your butt hanging out in the air for all of nature to see. It definitely can give you stage fright and make it impossible to go.

I spit. Yes, that’s right, I spit. I spit during my ride, I spit after my ride. And as horrible and disgusting as it may seem, if I don’t I am going to end up choking on my own mucous…yuck!

On of the newest things I have learned to do, is probably the most disgusting thing I have observed. When I first started riding I watched as people would lean over their bike and blow snot right out their nose. In one word….gross! I didn’t understand how they could do this, it was gross for one thing and for the other how do you get enough mucous built up in your nose to be able to blow without it getting on you?!? So for two and a half years I watched as others took on this feat. Then it happened. I broke my nose, had nose surgery and I am out riding and all of the sudden I have a nose filled with mucous and no where for it to go. What should I do??? Well, I did the unthinkable, I leaned over to the right plugged the left nostril and blew! Out it came…icky. However, I no longer had a stuffed up nose. Since that time I have learned the fine art of launching snot rockets while riding a bike. It still seems gross, but it is better than having snot run down my face.

So yes, mountain biking has added a little bit of variety to this city girl. It hasn’t taken the city out of me, but it has definitely broadened my horizons.