Tuesday is my "Hang On for As Long As I Can" road ride. Basically, it's a road ride out of our shop that is way faster than I can maintain, but I enjoy hanging on for the first 10 miles until I'm dropped. I enjoy the challenge, the guys don't mind me not pulling my weight, and I like to see how far I can go before I'm dropped. So, yesterday started off as normal. There were a few new faces in the crowd, one guy I knew who wouldn't be able to hang on and thought maybe I would end up riding with him. I was really tired before the ride, a bit unmotivated, but once I hopped on my bike, all that went away. We did our warm up, then started picking up the pace. We were flying, I was going as hard as I could for as long as I could and made it a couple miles further than last week....woohoo! The guy I knew made it further than me, but also dropped off. I caught up with him at the light and we set our own pace.
We started the normal Tuesday route and headed up "5 Mile Hill" (it's not five miles long, it's just on a road named 5 mile. The hill is the longest in the area, but we're in flat MI so it doesn't compare to other areas). Anyway, as we came to the top, I noticed there were some birds next to the road making a lot of noise. I took a closer look and saw the saddest thing I've ever seen. Two little baby birds were stuck in the road....they couldn't make the jump over the curb to get to their parents. The parents were standing on the grass, clearly upset, trying to encourage them to make it up. It seriously broke my heart. I couldn't just leave them, but they were scared to let me near. I got off my bike and contemplated what to do.
By this time, the guy I was riding with realized something was wrong and turned back, also asking if I wanted to do hill repeats. I told him about the little birds and we decided to see if we could help (well, I made him help me). We slowly walked near them, and the birds then bolted into the road....almost getting hit. They made it to the other side of the road, it's parents flew over to them and they were still stuck next to the curb. Then, one of the birds crossed back over, so now one was on each side of the road. The guy I was riding with convinced me to leave the little birds since we almost killed them and do another hill repeat. As I turned around to go down the hill, my eyes swelled with tears. I could hear the parents chirping away with distress as the little birds struggled.
We came back up the hill and I HAD to do something. I killed me to continue on my ride. One little bird was on the side of the road, the other I couldn't find (I like to think it made it up). I looked around and saw there was a driveway near the little bird, that if I could just get it to walk to, it could make it to it's parents. So, off the bike I went, I kept my distance, and scared it down the road, not letting it cross into traffic. The mother flew in and landed on the grass near me, keeping a close watch, but not bothering me. Slowly, the little bird me it to the driveway and to it's mama!!!! I felt so incredibly happy after that. I searched the road for the other little bird (hoping not to find it squished), but it was nowhere to be found. One of the birds did seem to understand there was a driveway, so hopefully it was smart and made it. At least, I like to think that. I definitely didn't see a squished bird, so I think it did.
After that, we continued on our ride and did 2 more hill repeats. Overall the ride was OK, but saving the little bird definitely made me feel good. If I hadn't turned around to help the little guy and continued on as the other riders did, I would have had the worst ride ever. It was definitely one of the more emotional rides I've been on in a while.
