Why Not Tri?

"Learn to ride a bike. You will not regret it if you live" 

-Mark Twain

{The first epic adventure of a runner  swimmer learning to ride a bicycle.}


  I bought a bike yesterday. I seriously couldn't help myself. I saw it and I was a goner. It is easily the best, most beautiful thing I have ever owned. Possibly the most expensive as well.
I'm going to be honest right away. I do not deserve this bike. I do not deserve to ride this bike. I do not deserve to own this bike. I do not deserve to look at this bike with the intention of getting on it.  When someone drives past and whistles out their car window I will  know it is not directed towards me. It will be directed towards my bike.

Instead I deserve a bike with training wheels and a horn and streamers. I don't deserve to own a grown-up road racing bike. Why?....I am NOT a good biker. {Now, this isn't necessarily my fault per se. I've never owned a real live bike. The last one I got I bought in the 7th grade and let's just say I got it at Kmart. It served me well for many many years. But it's a bit tired. And I'm a bit too old.}


So back to my new bike. I walked into the bike store with my mom and my boyfriend {both of whom are avid bikers} with absolutely no intention of buying a bike. I do not bike. I run {though not recently} and I swim. So I'm just looking around minding my own business while my mom and boyfriend drool over these fancy bikes that are worth more than my car. The nice salesperson comes up to me and asks if I want to try a bike. I explained my situation to him of course. I told him that I am not a good biker and that no way in the world do I deserve one of these fanciful things that look like the ones Lance Armstrong rides. I WILL fall off...I try to explain to him. The next thing I know I'm on one of these bikes. I ride this bike for a total of 2 seconds. I fall in love within the first second. I go home that night with a bike.


The fact that I now own a bike, and have fallen head over heels in love with said bike, unfortunately does not change the fact that I am not a good biker.


I am good, however, at pretending to be a good biker. I wear spandex. I also bought this really hard-core looking helmet. This is good for two reasons. 1. No one can tell who I am because the helmet disguises me and 2. It's a sweet helmet. Therefore I am able to deceive people  into thinking that I'm actually a good biker, and do not fear falling off from the second I get on to the second I get off.

My bike and I went out this morning for our first ever ride together. To do some bonding. I still don't deserve to ride her, but my A.M. ride went better than I expected. Meaning of course, that I did not fall off {yay}. In fact not only that but I actually felt kind of {gasp} speedy!!! Kind of. Or at least having such an excellent bike made me feel more speedy than I actually was.

 I may not be the female version of Lance Armstrong but it looks like I've found one more thing to distract me in my time of no running. Who knows? I may even grow to love biking like I've grown to love swimming. I don't know if I will ever be a competitive biker but maybe someday when I run again, when I stop being afraid of falling off the bike...maybe I'll give this whole swim-bike-run thing a tri.