In case you missed it, adventure racer, MTBer and general bada$$ Amanda Batty was the most recent in the Real Life Shred Girls series over on Shred-Girls.com. And some of her advice was so amazing — and so ageless — that I wanted to drop a few of my favorite quotes on here as well. I think she has some great pearls of wisdom for the young girls I’m hoping are part of the Shred Girls community, but as I re-read (for the fifth time) her answers, I realized that she had fantastic advice for women of any age, and so I wanted to make sure her messages got around. So, let’s dive in! (And definitely give Amanda a shoutout on Twitter or IG @abattycakes!)
What makes her proudest…
Scaring myself almost every weekend, evolving as a rider, doing the stuff I thought impossible at one point. Pushing my limits on my own and dictating my own growth. It’s been a long road (5 years in 2018), but there are so many things I never imagined I’d do, in places and situations I never thought I could do them. Whether it’s finishing (and winning!) a race with a broken back or showing up to Nationals this year and taking second place on a wet course that had eaten me for lunch all week… It’s never about the podium as much as it has been proving that I can do stuff. And yeah — I still question that. But I’m learning that my trajectory is only limited by my imagination and what I’m willing to work for, so a lot of that has changed what comes for me.
On getting started in MTB and being nervous…
Go ride anyway. Go ride everything you can find. Push your limits in a safe way and enjoy the ride… And then sign up for a race. You’ll make friends. Jump in with both feet, have fun, make mistakes and keep doing it.
Her tips for talking to new people…
Everyone is dealing with their own stuff and fighting their own battles. We have more in common with people than we imagine and when we take that first step to just say ‘hello’ or flash a fast smile, we can make friends. It’s taught me so much about the simple things — connecting with other people and loving them is so, so worth a moment of discomfort… And it gets easier. Maybe only a little bit (and I constantly have to remind myself that I’m okay, that “I got this”), but it does. Like anything challenging but ultimately worth doing, it takes practice. Just saying hello, asking how people are, truly engaging and connecting with people is really cool, and there are so many rad folks out there — I look at it like another adventure. I like to ask myself “What secrets does this person want to tell? What’s their story? What don’t they get asked a lot? What made them, them?” And it helps, because ultimately it’s about caring about that person as a human.
On what gear she loves the most (she and I have this in common)…
My race kit. I feel like a superhero in it because a few years ago I found that I really liked rocking red and it shows up well in photographs, so I snagged an entirely red race outfit… And I adore it. It’s the superhero costume of my childhood dreams because it makes me feel like I can do anything and go as fast as I want. Every single time I suit up for a race, I smile. It makes me that happy.
On her advocacy and relentless pursuit of equality for women…
My motto is ‘Do no harm, take no $hit.’ … I also think that having a moral code to live by helps my confidence — at the end of the day, is what I’m doing making the world a better place? Did what I do today/this week/last year improve lives somehow? Was it more important to speak out in order to protect others than to potentially protect myself? I think being an advocate goes beyond just standing up for ourselves, but also doing our best to help other people and give them the space and ability to stand up for themselves as well. But the key is just standing up, standing for something. What’s important? What matters most? What changes would we like to see in the world, as a community, as individual people?
Read the whole article here!
