Day06 心得分享：10C
Grey skies hung over us, with a deep blue sea stretching alongside the road. Cycling felt like a sundial, shadows slowly shifting from long to short and back again, as if time itself was being measured on the ground we passed. We set off early from Hengchun Yiwan, picked up our bikes in order, and moved out along the hills and coastline. The downslope wind kept changing in strength, which meant every pedal stroke required constant attention.
In the morning, the wind felt mild, almost deceivingly easy, to the point that it made people feel drowsy. But once the headwind appeared, everything changed. A short seventeen-kilometer stretch suddenly felt long and heavy, as if the distance itself had doubled. At one point, a dog ran onto the road, and the whole group tightened instantly, but everyone still managed to hold formation.
Along the way, we occasionally heard strangers and passing cyclists calling out encouragement. They were brief moments, but they stayed with us longer than expected. From a bridge, we could already see steel towers gathering in the distance, which meant Kaohsiung was getting close.
In the afternoon, the rhythm shifted again into a tighter city pace. Traffic increased, and red lights appeared one after another. What we had first heard as a joke, “eight hundred traffic lights,” slowly started to become reality once we were inside the city. The group kept breaking apart repeatedly. At first, it felt like just a change in rhythm, but over time each red light slowly drained momentum, and even the hotel began to feel farther away than it should have.
We finally passed through parks and bike lanes and reached City Suites Kaohsiung Zhen’ai Hall.
By then, our voices were already rough from the road. Still, parents were waiting outside the hotel. The road was full, but a path opened naturally as we arrived. When we rode through, applause rose all at once. For a moment, the exhaustion simply disappeared, and everyone smiled without thinking.
Dinner was self-arranged, but no one really focused on the food. Most people were talking instead, trying to piece together the past few days before they blurred. Sitting there with sore legs and loud conversation around the table, it finally felt like the whole journey was worth it.
灰濛濛的天，湛藍的海。騎車像日晷一樣，影子從長到短，再從短到長，時間在路上留下清晰的痕跡。清晨從恆春怡灣集合出發，依序取車後上路，沿著丘陵與海岸前進。落山風時強時弱，讓人不得不專注在每一次踩踏上。
上午的風帶著一種溫和的錯覺，甚至讓人昏昏欲睡；但一旦逆風出現，短短十七公里立刻被拉長成難以承受的距離。途中有狗突然衝出，隊形瞬間緊繃，但大家仍努力維持隊形。
路上偶爾有路人與車友替我們加油，那些短暫的鼓勵，反而成為繼續前進的力量。行經橋梁時遠望鐵塔林立，便知道已經進入高雄市區。
進入午後後，節奏轉為緊湊的城市步調。大車變多，紅綠燈也接連出現。原以為老師說的「八百個紅綠燈」只是玩笑，但真正進入市區後才發現，隊伍被切割得極為細碎。起初像是一種新鮮的節奏切換，但時間一長，前進的期待被一個又一個紅燈消耗，連飯店都顯得遙遠。最後，大家穿過公園與自行車道，抵達城市商旅真愛館。
當喉嚨已經喊啞、路途仍未結束時，飯店前早已有家長等候。人群擠滿路口，卻有秩序地讓出一條通道。騎進去的那一刻，掌聲與歡呼轟然響起，疲憊瞬間被沖散，嘴角也不自覺上揚。晚餐自理，但幾乎沒有人在意吃什麼，更多人忙著把這幾天的經歷一口氣說完。酸痛的身體，在餐桌的笑聲中，終於被證明是值得的。
