So reading through all these posts, I'm not sure if I'm encouraged, or discouraged.

20mph average seems so crazy, ridiculously fast, I honestly don't think I'd ever get there. I don't know if the area I live in is just not flat enough, or if I'm just that slow. At the most I can go a mile on flat ground. That's if I take one particular route and go all the way out to the very end of it. Otherwise, for me its up a hill, down a hill, around a small corner and up a hill again.

Is that normal for riding? Are there places that people don't have to go up a hill to ride?

I can make the long trek out the Silver Comet, which is an old train bed, so its flat. My speed averages 14-15mph out there.


And the other thing I'm not sure about is, do I really care enough to work that hard to get fast. Maybe I just don't have it in me.

Yep, definitely discouraged.