Little Red Riding Hood, My Life On A Bike

I've been wanting a road bike for a while now. Spinning classes are great but I've kind of grown weary of them, to be honest. In truth, I'm a terribly judgmental student. If I don't like an instructor I'm severely critical. Yes, you can call me arrogant. But there are a lot of crappy gym instructors out there who think because they're skinny they'd make a great fitness instructor. No...that's not really true.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box, until I find something new to harp about.

So Kaylin, Mindy, and I bought bikes. It's actually been super fun and SUPER intimidating. I thought I'd hop on my bike and have no problem. That was before I became acquainted with the dreaded clips that clip your shoes into your pedals. I promptly discovered that I was not that great at clipping out.

And so...I've fallen multiple times off of it.

However, Kaylin, Mindy and I signed up for our first road race--the Little Red Riding Hood. Okay, it was more of a ride than a race. As I learned, there's a difference.

Check out my bike...how sexy is that? I know you can't really see it, but I think she's pretty.

That rack was only big enough for two. Kaylin squoze into the back with her bike.

Pre-ride. If only I knew then what I know now. It's funny how when I embark on something new I typically make a million mistakes before I "get it." What's even funnier is this principal applies to just about everything in my life...which should tell you that I'm hopeless.

The line to the bathroom. Seems kind of long, but I snapped this shot just before the next rush of females came rushing in.

Here is where the excitement begins. It was my first ride and I felt a little overwhelmed and rushed. I had this overwhelming need to prove myself as a legitimate rider. What's ironic is that the Little Red Riding Hood ride was merely a ride...nothing else. There were girls on beach cruisers, mountain bikes, road bikes...and they were all just cruising. They were just riding. They didn't care.

And yet, I felt like I had to kill it. I was actually doing fairly well until I hit a railroad track on an underinflated tire. (I know this now after much soul searching and asking the nice people at REI.) As a result, my tube popped just as Kaylin flew by and when I realized my tire was flat, Kaylin was long gone. And I was all alone on a long, deserted road approximately 15 miles from my destination.

Dude...sometimes my life just sucks.

I walked for about 2 miles as girls zipped by. I was so pissed that my tire busted on me. Until a nice lady stopped and showed me how to change my tire. She even rode with me a little bit of the way.

By the way, I was still pretty pissed.

When I finally made it to "home plate," Kaylin looked like she was going to pass out from relief. I actually felt really bad seeing the look on her face. She had no idea where I was and had heard a rumor that a girl had dislocated her shoulder along the ride. She had visions in her head of it being me.

But we all finished. No, it was not a stellar performance but it's all about the experience. And you have to admit that it's a pretty funny story. I can say that now--a month after it happened.

See! I even had a smile on my face! Mostly it was just relief that it was over because I was over it.

On to the next adventure. I'd like to try a century someday--100 miles. I'll really need to train for that.