The first time I rode the Bronx River Bikeway, I detoured off the paved path and took the single-track dirt trail a part of the way that passed very close to the river. As I described to my wife and family later that day, at one point, I lost control of my bike and nearly lost it to the raging rapids below. From that point forward, I was a trail-tested, rugged mountain-man biker in their eyes...at least until I took my wife on the same ride and realized (for the first time) that the "river" was essentially a trickling brook, just a bit more ferocious than a stream of pee traveling down the cracks of a sidewalk.
Don't record your rides. They will always be better in your memory than they were in reality.