Lance Armstrong I am not!

Donned with Amber's helmet, gloves and biking shorts I climbed upon her bike and with a few minor instructions from Vaughn, set off for a morning workout. However, have any of you ever used clip-on pedals before? Hmm.... not so easy to get used to. At least for this biking guru. Actually, after a few trial stops and starts I felt I was doing pretty good. I still was a little uneasy but felt if I was careful I would be fine. I was having such a great time! In fact I set a new path in my mind, changing from the one Vaughn had instructed me on because I wanted to bike further. Stopping, starting, I was kind of getting a handle (or rather pedal) on it all.

Feeling confident I stepped onto the bike to cross a major intersection after the light change and got about two feet and fell. I just tipped right over because there wasn't anything I could do about it, my feet were locked in and I hadn't enough momentum to keep me going. Fortunately, they popped out (I don't know how?). I quickly jumped up and walked my bike across the rest of the street before the light changed back. Embarrassing??? Well, not as much as when I looked up to see waiting for me at the other side of the street was a policeman/car. lights and all to check on me! Yea, now THAT was embarrassing! As quickly as I could, I reassured him that no, I didn't need him to call someone to check me out and yes I was fine and thank you very much, yes those pedal clips are difficult to get used to. All too soon, I headed back to my challenge at hand; getting on the proverbial bike after the fall. Perhaps getting away from the kind policeman was just the motivation I needed.

I continued to do great until my return back, apparently that street corner became my nemesis because not long after crossing it I found myself making a split decision to either stay on the road or get up on the side walks. (Even as I type this I can almost hear the Lance Armstrong wannabe's groaning, but I can only plead ignorance because I didn't know my expensive borrowed bike was meant only for the road.) Anyway, my decision at hand came a second to late and I caught just a small piece of the curb but enough of it to find myself...well Amber's bike with a flat tire. Urgg... And I was having such a good time too! Now I had to face humility at its worst and call Amber and fess up I needed a ride home. I would have walked the remaining six or seven miles home (apparently I am that prideful) but I was worried that I would ruin Amber's clip-on shoes and or the rim of her wheel. So I hung my head and placed the call. She was so sweet and did not make me feel like the idiot I was. In fact she took most of the blame stating, she should have given me more instruction. Now, she and I both know that probably would not have helped given my inability to follow directions properly, but just the same it did help to bring balm to my wounded pride. Thanks to you Amber.

The good side of this? At least Lance Armstrong wasn't around to witness my humiliation of the sport.