Barbie Bike

The last time my daughter rode a bike it was a Barbie bike with tassels and a little bell. The last time I rode a bike I was in college which was........let's just say it wasn't yesterday.  This morning, I had a great idea that the two of us should take a bike ride.  We signed up for a guided bike ride that was 12.5 miles long. I figured great easy bike ride. Well I was wrong.  I neglected to read the fine print.  I neglected to read it was a Level III bike ride.  I neglected to read the 900 feet elevation change and the ride was for advanced riders.  We left completely unaware of what lay ahead of us.  From the start the biking was tough.  My daughter and I kept thinking we are SO BAD at biking.  We had to pedal constantly. We were huffing and puffing. There was absolutely no coasting or resting.  We didn't realize we were biking uphill though - we just thought OH MY GOSH WE ARE SO TERRIBLE.  The topography of the area led us to believe we were going on short little hills upward followed by flat terrain and then up again.  What we were actually doing is climbing uphill the entire duration. We were miserable.  I believe tears were in my eyes as I kept thinking....HOW WILL WE MAKE IT BACK?!!!!  We were only about 1.5 miles from the turn around when we literally could not make one more rotation on our bike pedal.  We simply could not make it.  We were worried about saving some energy for the return trip home.  We were worried that vultures might start circling soon.  We were worried that the last thing the two of us would ever see would be the bike trail. We felt utterly disappointed that we couldn't finish.  We felt a bit like failures.  We just didn't have anything left.  When the rest of the group finished the leg of the trail and made it back to us, it was time to head back.  We SADLY got on our bikes.  We grimaced when we hit the seat and then............WHAT THE HECK! We were FLYING!!!!!!  It was ALL DOWNHILL!  We actually had to use the brakes as the speed limit for that trail was 15mph and we were going too fast. OH MY GOSH WE ARE AWESOME BIKE RIDERS!!!!!! We are the Lance Armstrong of bike riders!!!!! WE SHOULD BE IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE!  We had giant smiles on our faces.  We could get our water bottles out and still we were flying.  I think we pedaled a total of 12 times for the entire ride back.  In retrospect, had we known the entire ride was uphill, we would have made it to the finish as we would have realized we would be treated to an awesome flying coasting trip home. OR perhaps in retrospect had we known we would be biking up a MOUNTAIN we would have stayed home!  My daughter has let me know that she will never, never, never ever never ride bikes again. I wonder why?