Get Dirty

Well, my long awaited first road bike ride happened yesterday; it was very spontaneous.   What a blast!  If you're looking at the picture you should be saying to yourself, "she did say "road bike" and not "mountain bike".  Ahhh, I may be more cut out for mountain biking, but I did great until the last turn for the home stretch....

I put out a couple feelers yesterday to people that I know are interested in biking.  Then decided to call my tennis friend who's husband (pretty professional biker) gave me the bike to see if maybe he would take me out and show me the ropes.  I just wanted to go out at least one time with someone who knew what they were doing and where to go.  Keep in mind, when I met him at 1:15p, I barely knew where the brakes were and for sure didn't know how to change the gears let alone when.  My biking buddy was awesome; patient, fun and positive about my progress.  When we were about a mile from returning home, the endorphins were definitely kicking in for me.  I decided to ask if he knew approximately how many calories we may have burned on our 1 1/2 hour trek (I think he said like 21 miles).  He thought about 700.  I said, "yea, I've totally earned a glass of chardonnay."  He holds up two fingers.  I consider fist pumping at this point.  I'm giddy now.  I'm close behind him and make a big novice biking mistake on last turn.  I didn't have my hands anywhere near the brakes; was totally too close to his bike; going too fast to make turn and flew over handle bars directly (pretty much face first) into huge mud puddle.

Now, there was definitely some divine intervention in the fact that the farm was watering and there was a mud puddle.  A mud puddle makes for a messy, but cushioned fall; thank god.  Seriously, this could have turned out bad, but it didn't.  I'm a little sore, bruised, and my clothes and bike definitely need a wash.  Biking is great.  Loved being outside.  Seeing local things much further out than you can on a run is awesome too!

Anyway, obviously my appearance was a little shocking to my kids.  Had to drive my daughter to drivers education at the High School immediately; she asked me to at least please take my muddy helmet off (I'm sure she was mortified).  The boys thought it was awesome, of course.

Being fully engaged in living life may mean getting a little dirty sometimes.  I'm in; join me.