Ever since I was young I was on a bike. My parents were avid runners when I was a child and rather than leaving my brother and I at home in bed they would throw us on our bikes and in no time at all we would be 26 miles away from home, racing each other up and down old dirt roads.
The bikes fell away when our legs fell into the sport we grew up watching. My brother and I became runners. 5k's, 10's, 25k's, half and full marathons, there are things you squander from as a child because your parents force you into it.
But when the time is right you grow up and see it is really for your own good what it is they were telling you to do.
For me, my rebellion threw me into gymnastics and cheerleading for twelve years. Another beautiful sport to experience however by the time my rebellion wore off my body was no longer able to accurately run like I finally wanted.
After many surgeries and broken bones my body now screams at me every time I glide down the road in my Brooks running shoes. But I had to retire from Gymnastics so running was all I had.
When I was turning nineteen I went looking for a new job, found my place at a small little running store. I fell deeper and deeper into the running world, struggling through but still enjoying every minute.
One day a road bicycle fell into my sight and like everything else in my life I tore it apart with my eyes.
Studying every angle, every line, every curve, texture, mechanics, every little detail of this beautiful little 15 pound road bike captivated me.
It was like a poem hidden within the depths of an aluminum frame.
I told myself to just walk away and ignore the thing because there was no way I could afford something like that.....even though I could.
That afternoon I went shopping and for the first time ever I caught myself looking at price tags....I will always remember this day because until that day I never did that. I would just buy what I wanted and worry about the cost later.
I went to get a cup of coffee after about 6 stores of window shopping. As I sat there I thought about that darn bike and calculated how many dresses and pairs of shoes I could get for the price of that one little smurf blue and white bike.
Ended up leaving the mall with nothing but a receipt from Starbucks.
I marinated on the thought for a night.
Bought the bike the next morning.
A little impulsive, yes.
But I was in love with this little thing.
funny thing about that is I had yet to be on the bike.
It is not the nicest bike in the world, but there was just something about it that caught my attention. My first trip down the road with her, confirmed my curiosity, this would be my new gymnastics.
I got the bike fever for a few months, riding everywhere my legs could possibly take me and with every spin of my wheels, with every bump, hill, and turn I fell more and more in love with this little machine.
Ernest Hemingway has always been one of my favorite writers growing up and there was a quote I ran across that never made sense to me until now.
"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”
four years later I now have three bikes and I love every single one. I ride any chance I get these days.
A typical day for me these days is an early morning ride or short run, Coffee, then work through out the day in a bike shop talking peoples ears off about why these two-wheel things are so amazing, then ride the evening away.
Everything bad or negative about life just dissipates when I am over two wheels.
whether it be on my roadie or my fixie, I feel in control of my life when I am riding my bike.
I can go where I want and feel absolutely alive while doing it.
There is no traffic, no need to stop, no need to worry, no gas to fret over cost, just simplistic kind of feeling.
All I want to do is ride my bike.
There is something about this community that is so beautiful. People tend to say it is just a fad. Or tell me I am just trying to be a Salesman.
But it is all un true.
I do this because I have inevitably fallen completely in love with this sport.
Cycling can not even be singly classified as just a sport it really is a lifestyle.
Once it comes into your life it is something you'd be stupid to let go.
The people you meet are beautiful and raw full of life.
They feel the things you think only you feel when you ride.
It is impossible to be alone in this world so why not find the people that are similar to you.
Share something as beautiful as cycling with another.
Pass it on and hope it catches on.
Our world is a mess 95% of the time.
It is unhealthy and chaotic.
it is slowly killing itself, and by driving our cars everywhere and guzzling down each piece of fried food we see we are just an accomplice.
Getting on a bike and assisting at getting more butts on bikes will only do good.
The cycling world is growing.
We just need to make sure our words, our stories, our passions, fears, loves, everything we can give gets out into the world. And hope with everything we have it will reach someone, somewhere.
tomorrow maybe there will be ten more cyclist on the road because of something they overheard or read online.
and that thought is almost as beautiful as the geometry of a bicycle.
Happy Tuesday Everyone.
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