Back on the Bike

Keeping in the spirit of finding balance, I rode my bike today.

I haven’t really ridden a bike since I was a pre-teen. In those days, I used to ride everywhere and loved it. Some of my happiest childhood memories were flying down sidewalks in Miami on the way to the lake when I was ten or bumping along the streets of Cairo to get to my friend’s house at twelve. But I never got a bike when we moved back to the D.C. area the following year and didn’t really live in a bike-friendly city as an adult until I moved back to Maryland five years ago. Even then, it took me until this summer to get a bike.

I got a bike in June with the anticipation of riding it everywhere. To yoga, to dance, to the store. So I bought it online and when it came, I put it together excitedly. And then I locked it up. I wasn’t ready to ride it yet. I needed accessories. Like a helmet. And a bike rack. And a basket. I bought these things and took my bike out for a spin. But it had a flat tire. I locked it back up until I had time to go fill the tire. This took a week or so. I went to the gas station, filled it and soon realized that it wasn’t just flat but had a hole in the tire. I contacted the store, they had to send me a replacement and then I had to go to a bike store to get it fixed. That took a couple of weeks. I would have ridden it after all of this, but it was too hot. Then it rained. Then I got busy.

I realized in this time that I needed to practice riding a bit before crossing major roads to get to yoga or the store.  Also, I never planned properly to leave enough time to actually bike, not drive, to wherever I needed to go. I worried over details about what route to take and if there would be a place to lock up my bike. A myriad of obstacles and objections weighed on my mind. It began to seem such a hassle to go anywhere with my bike and I never had time to just take it out for a practice ride.

So like this, weeks kept passing and soon my toy wasn’t so shiny in my mind anymore and, well, I sort of forgot about it most of the time and when I did remember, it was an inappropriate time to make use of the remembering.

That brings us to today. The weather was gorgeous. The sort of day that makes you feel guilty for every minute spent indoors (and if there is guilt to be felt, I will feel it). I had a couple of hours to kill before I had to get ready for a birthday party and I needed to get a gift from the bookstore was a mile away. “Why don’t I bike,” I thought. My mind started to craft a slew of objections but I stopped it before they got anywhere. I was going. And I went.

I 

can’t tell you how freeing it felt to be back on a bike, in the sunshine after all these years. I did note that for all my exercising the biking muscles in my legs aren’t as well equipped as they ought to be, but the wonders it did for my psyche was amazing. I felt like a kid again. I had to suppress the urge to take off my helmet and feel the wind whip through my hair like it did in my carefree childhood when protective gear seemed a ridiculous notion. I was free and the world so accessible. It was like I was experiencing the same roads I walk and drive down, anew. Seeing it from a new perspective. Finding different routes to suit my dual wheels. Rather than thinking of the shortest route with the least traffic lights, I had to consider hills and oncoming traffic. I realized with sheer delight I could cut through parking lots and take back ways to get to my destination. I felt like I was in on the secret shared by all my fellow bikers. I wondered why I had waited this long. 

I’m sure that by the time I put my bike away for the winter the blush will fade and the biking will become more routine. But for today, I was thirteen going on thirty…well, thirty-something.