With Friends Like These

With Friends Like These

- Kristin Butcher

We all have that friend who ropes us into doing things we’d rather not do. And if we’re lucky, we have a lot of those friends. 

For better and worse, I’m luckier than most. 

Colleen’s that friend who always has an adventure up her sleeve, whether it’s a random road trip to go ride at elevations in the five-digit range or Christmas day ski runs in blizzard conditions. She’s also the friend who doesn’t bat an eye at celebrating your birthday by staying out late before going for an early ride, and then trading bike shoes for quad roller skates at the local rink.

We were grabbing a bite at the same dive bar where so many of our best-worst ideas have begun when she casually tossed out her latest fancy plan.

“We should go for a big ride tomorrow,” she said. This was her first day of feeling relatively normal after being sick. I normally would have taken her seriously, but I’m more than familiar with the overly ambitious feeling of mistaking finally not feeling like death with the ability to do all things.

I hadn’t ridden in months and had already consumed enough Moscow Mules and fried samosas to know that the next morning would range from general intestinal distress to overwhelming life regret. As Colleen talked about linking multiple trail systems that individually were enough to cook my legs, I nodded supportively while fantasizing about eating a plate of bacon for breakfast in bed.

“We’ll start riding and bail out whenever we feel like it,” she assured me as I ordered another drink. You know those friends who talk a big game, but then find some excuse to avoid actually executing their grandiose plans?

She is not that kind of friend.