Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Cycling Adventures

Paul & Paula, Cowboy Trail, June 26, 2007


I have been known to be a bit of a klutz on a bicycle. Enough so, that one might question why I would ever move any closer to the pilot's seat of a bicycle than I am in the above picture. For example:
  • Two years ago, on September 26, 2005 (one day after running the Boulder Backroads Marathon), I was riding my bike home from work, spotted an exceptionally well-played pick up basketball game in progress along side the bike trail, and became so engrossed in the game that I rode right off the bike trail, crashed, and broke my arm.
  • One year ago, on September 26, 2006 (two days after running the Boulder Backroads Marathon), I was riding my bike home from an errand, got to my driveway, swung my leg off my bike, caught my pants (shorts) leg on the seat and crashed backwards, pulling my bike over on top of me, bonking my head, bruising my hip, and torquing my back.
Tomorrow is September 26th. Should I avoid riding my bike? Or should I try to break the curse? I haven't yet decided - but I did have quite the cycling klutz test yesterday when I rode to my volunteer job.

When I left my house a little before 7 a.m., there was a light rain falling. It seldom rains hard in the morning in Boulder so I wasn't too worried. Ha! The further away from home I rode, the harder it rained. In fact, it started raining so hard, my skin started to protest. No wonder - there was hailed mixed in with the rain - and then there was hail covering the bike paths, and then there were rivers covering the bike paths, and then there was lightning, and thunder! What a ride! I did manage to arrive at the volunteer office in one piece - actually, one very soggy piece. A couple hours later, I rode home. No more hail coming down, but mounds of it covered the bike paths, interspersed with more new rivers, growing by the minute as the rain continued to fall. An interesting - and very wet - ride. But I arrived home upright, klutz test passed.

So, brave the curse of 9/26 and bike to work tomorrow? Or......

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mom,
Tomorrow sounds like a lovely time to put your running training to use. Hope your volunteer job is going well.

-Paul

Anonymous said...

PJ -

I think you're fine, since you didn't run the Boulder Backwoods Marathon (or whatever the name of it was). It's not just the 26th that's your problem - it's the fact that you did that 'thon.

I'm glad we had this little talk.