The line above is from The Hobbit movie, where Bilbo wakes up late after he misses the dwarfs going away to the mountain and then decides to join them. He runs through the little town where the hobbits live, and someone shouts and asks him where he's going, and he shouts back, "I'm going on an adventure."
Some of us seek adventure, and some of us are driven by the prospect of doing something that is a little bit frightening or a little bit unattainable. Sometimes, that's physical, and sometimes, it's mental. Sometimes, it's to do with family, and sometimes, it's to do with work.
My latest one was riding the length of Mallorca with Alex on our bike trip.
From a while out, we decided we were going to try and do that thing where we went to the Southwest point of the island on the cycle bus (there is a bus to take you there from the north). I was going to dip my hand in the water at Port d'Andratx and then cycle to the lighthouse in the northwest corner.
The total ride was about 104 miles, about 12,000 ft of climbing, crackers, mental.
I spent eight weeks trying to get ready to be able to do that.
As we got up in the dark at 6 a.m. on the morning of the ride, I was excited, nervous, a little bit scared.
The thing about adventures is that they shouldn't be a given. You shouldn't expect to get it done, you shouldn't know you're going to finish. There should be an element of doubt, an element of fear, and an element of anxiety as to whether it will be done.
And so, I felt like that, I felt like Bilbo leaving to go on his adventure.
In the end, I wasn't ready or not ready enough; I'd fallen into the trap of having a couple of beers in the evenings with the guys after cycling.
Maybe that was the difference; maybe I hadn't trained hard enough, or perhaps I was just not strong enough.
But when we got to Pollença after 85 miles and a huge, long day, we started the last ride out to the lighthouse, and on the first climb, I had to turn around.
I didn't have it that day, it didn't matter; it was still the most extraordinary thing: still one of those wonderful days that I won't forget.
And perhaps good because I've left something in the bag.
I'll probably have to come back and try again.
Blog Post Number - 3945