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| Everyone looked like this. |
Fit Friend: We need to go to the packet pick-up this weekend.
Me: Okay. What's that?
Fit Friend: It's where you pick up your number and your free T-shirt and such.
Me: I get a number? AND a shirt? Awesome!
Fit Friend: Look, I'll do the talking there, okay?
So I walked around all day Friday, seizing on any chance to say, "Oh, I have to go to the PACKET PICK-UP tomorrow" and reveling in how athletic that sounded. As it turned out, I was suffering from heat exhaustion after the morning training ride (20 MILES, people) that Fit Friend inflicted on me; so I couldn't really formulate any complete sentences by the time we did pick up our numbers. They were handing out water bottles instead of T-shirts, but I played it pretty cool.
Training ride - I like how that sounds, too.
There were all these cyclists there, fresh back from a different (meaning, more difficult) training ride sponsored by the bike shop that was hosting the PACKET PICK-UP; they were milling around in their spandex and their funny shoes as I willed my heat-exhausted fingers to hold a pen firmly enough to sign a 2-page waiver form. "Do I need to read it?" I asked Fit Friend.
"Essentially, by signing, we're saying it's okay if we drop dead on the ride," she told me.
That didn't sound quite as good to me as packet pick-up and training ride, but I really wanted that water bottle, so I signed anyway. Then they gave us numbers for our helmets AND our backs AND our bicycles -- I guess so they can identify the bodies more easily at the end. And that was that - I am now officially a person who does bike-a-thons and does training rides and goes to packet pick-ups. Who knows? I may even end up wearing one of those spandex shirts with the pockets on the back. Peer pressure, you know...
Wow- I am so impressed. Back in my younger years I used to ride my bike a lot. I think if I tried riding even one mile today, my knees would pop out of my legs. But they didn't give you a number for your knees so this is not going to happen to you. I hope you have a good time on the ride!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed, too - because I'm REALLY not cut out for this.
DeleteI would be the person holding the water bottle in one hand and the bike in the other because my non-streamlined bike doesn't have a water bottle holder...
ReplyDeleteGood for you--though for all that effort a commemorative t-shirt seems like a must. I have hard-core biker friends and they are all a little crazy-but in the best possible way.
ReplyDeleteMy son rocks the spandex. He says it's really confortable. He shaves his legs too.
ReplyDeleteYour son, I am guessing, doesn't have a 32G bust and a post-menopausal tummy roll. But, hey, I shave my legs, also - so we do have something in common.
DeleteGo you! I would never ride my bike in any sort of competitive fashion. Or anywhere else for that reason!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I don't have a 32G bust - lets add 10 inches and tummy roll doesn't begin to describe my girth, but I'm all in for the spandex/chamois biking shorts. They are wonderful and wick away the sweat. Don't be afraid.
ReplyDeleteOK - I'm really going to rain on your parade here: There were vultures circling around after the 5K I participated in last weekend. We didn't hang around to figure out what they had spied...
ReplyDeleteMay your backside forgive you for what you are about to do...
ReplyDelete(My own hiney would be on strike for the next year!)
Atta girl! You get that packet and start training!
ReplyDeleteOK - crazy biker chic here! I have some words of encouragement however. My first long ride was also an MS ride. I did it with my husband. We rode cheap clunky mountain bikes which made us stand out like sore thumbs. But it's a relaxed friendly ride--all about MS and not about competition, so it's all OK! We saw lots of other "ill-equipped" folks out there- esp. on the first day when all the really serious folks are riding the century (100 miles). By the second day, we felt like pros. By then, the folks who'd signed up to do the 20 mile "family ride" on day 1 were gone. The century riders were on the same trail with us and I thought, "hey, we're hanging with the big boys now!" I got the illusion that I somehow looked like them with their tight bods and equally tight clothes. I was so shocked when I got home and looked in the mirror to find i was still in the same body i left with! Anyway, it was a GREAT time and a huge accomplishment. I've been biking ever since (20 yrs), but ironically, was just writing about how I suffered through my first triathlon last weekend because i CANNOT run. So I know how you feel! Good luck and have fun! :) (and get those shorts - i'm serious!).
ReplyDeleteJust did a 34 mile ride for my second outing of the year (ouch! I need certain body parts to be tougher!) but lived and am hoping to get more bike time in this summer- last summer was pretty much a black hole of crisis and I really fell off the wagon exercise-wise.
ReplyDelete