Memorial Day weekend always brings to mind my reintroduction to cycling.
Like most everyone else I practically lived on a bike during my childhood and even teen years.
When I was in college, not owning a car, I biked to classes and work. Biking actually wasn’t that prevalent when I was in college not like it is today.
Once adulthood set in (parenthood and work) I put away my bike. For exercise I ran some, played a little tennis but rarely considered biking and I’m not sure why.
That changed when one Memorial Day weekend my then 10 year old daughter said, “Mom, let’s ride bikes to my school”. Her school was 7 miles away and partly over dirt and gravel roads, but it sounded fun so I said sure!
I remember I packed for that first bike ride like I would pack now for an all day ride – several snacks and a lot of water and we set off. I rode my old Sears Free Spirit bike, the same bike I had in college. The old 10speed-drop-handlebar-skinny-tire bike that wasn’t really intended to be ridden on gravel, but we took our time and made it to the school.
Like kids do, after we had been there for a little while my daughter was ready to ride home. I on the other hand was not. I stalled like any mother worth her salt until I was rested and fairly confident I could make it back.
Although I was only 35 years old at the time, I thought 35 was pretty old. The way people in their 20’s and 30’s do until they get to their 40’s and beyond.
I also wasn’t doing any kind of cardio exercise on a regular basis plus, I am ashamed to admit smoked cigarettes at the time so those 7 miles and the 7 to get back taxed me to say the least.
After a bit we got back on our bikes and headed home. We both felt a sense of accomplishment and pride after we were safely home at how we had ridden our bikes 14 miles!
Unfortunately I didn’t get back to riding or any other form of regular exercise after that. But lo and behold the next Memorial Day weekend my daughter gets up and says excitedly, “it’s our annual ride our bikes to school day”!
I had completely forgotten about the previous year’s trek, but of course she had not. My response to her was something like I’m too old to ride a bike that far!
The rest as they say is history.
The first time I rode my bike on Free Wheel, the weeklong bike ride across Oklahoma, (in my early 40’s) and all the other years I rode it she reminded me of my I’m too old whine. The time I rode the MS 150, 150 miles in 2 days, she reminded me and each and every time she did, we had a good laugh!
And I learned that you’re never too old to begin again, and that in many ways I’m younger now than I was then.
The following September after that first Memorial Day ride I got a Schwin hybrid to ride around the neighborhood and any future treks to schools or wherever with my daughter.
That bike is the bike that as an adult I fell in love with cycling. I couldn’t get enough of riding, that poetry of motion, and I still can’t.
In many ways I owe my profound love of cycling to my daughter Jessica, and that first bike ride to her school – thank you Jessica!
Since that inaugural ride I’ve logged tens of thousands of miles on one bike or another and every Memorial Day weekend I go for some sort of ride, or two or three – and I always think back to that first ride 20+ years ago this weekend and smile – and I still feel a sense of accomplishment and pride that I am still at it and still love it.
That’s my story. What’s yours? What got you (back) on the bike?
*Image is not the property of All For the Love of Bikes, but is shared here. Creator of image is unknown..
**Edited 5/26/2013
Oklahoma City’s own bike share program kicks off on the National Bike to Work day, Friday, May 18, 2012. How’s that for timing!
