Everyone has ambitions, even if it's just getting through the day.
I'm an ambitious guy, I always have been, with many hopes, dreams, fantasies, covering many subjects some probably very common, some quite rare, cars, property, money, career goals, life in general, women (including a few on NN although I think this is at the fantasy end of the scale), there's many more, but for me one overrides all the others....motorcycle racing.
I'd always wanted to but it took me until I was 30 to get round to it, mainly due to a lack of motivation and never believing that I was good enough, the end of a long term relationship was the boot up the backside that I needed to do something with my life.
Like many sports it's classed as a young persons game, if you haven't made it by the time you're 25 you probably aren't going to, but I gave it a go, and as someone that came last in almost every sport at school I found something I could win at, I revelled in it, doing wonders for my self confidence. Over an 8 year career I won countless races and 3 club championships (in the background of one of my pics is a trophy cabinet, the contents of it are among my proudest possessions), although I broke a few bones along the way, but that's par for the course. Then I picked up a big injury which resulted in me being off work for quite a while, so I couldn't afford to race the next year, I never wanted to stop but there was no way to carry on. The plan was to take a year off to rebuild my finances, but it turned into 2 years, then 3, whenever I went to a race meeting people would ask if I was going to make a comeback and I would say yes, but it didn't happen, eventually they stopped asking.
Some people may have noticed that I've spent less time on NN over the last couple of weeks...…..I've been in my garage with a new purchase...
Now 10 years later I've just bought another race bike. I've been told I'm mad (got my NN name right then!!) and too old. Will I be as fast as I used to be ?.....realistically, probably not. Will I win ?...unlikely, but you never know.... Will I have the biggest grin in the paddock ?...... You bet I will. It's been a long time coming, but I've got unfinished business with the sport I love...…. |