I am NOT the next Lance Armstrong

As my Mother said, "Ever since we put you on a 2 wheel bike, we knew you were an accident waiting to happen." Looking back over my bicycle career, she is probably right. We used to summer at Fish Creek where we used to bike 5 miles in the morning, bike to the beach, and then bike 5 miles in the evening every day for weeks at a time. You would think I would be an Olympic cyclist by now. Sadly, that is not the case.


First, I have the attention span of a hummingbird. I get bored easy so biking around the camp sight every day led to distraction. I would be people watching and counting the number of fires instead of watching the traffic and the road. When I was about 10, I ran into a parked trailer sitting on the edge of the road and cut my eye open. A parked trailer, it is not like it is small like a stick. It was attached to a truck and probably slept 6. As I lay there on the ground bleeding, the park ranger came by. Me, my Mom and my bike were loaded into the truck and it was off to our campsite we went.

Not to be outdone as I young teenager, I decided to bike down the mountain from our house to my grandmother's house with my parents and my sister. I am not sure why we decided to do this, but not more than 1/2 a mile from home, I hit a patch of dirt and went flying off the bike. Dad had to bike home to get the truck to pick me and my bent bike up. No more trips to grandma's on the bike!

Junior year, I decided to bike to finals. Why on earth my Mother let me do this is still a mystery. Well my bike got caught in the railroad track, the bike stopped, I did not and my face slid across the pavement. As I pushed my crinkled bike up the steep school hill trying not to bleed on my cute navy shirt and white shorts (I was looking tres cute), I knew this was not good. In NY state, Juniors take state-administered finals so if you miss then, you fail. No exceptions. The nurse cobbled my face together with some butterflies, we called my Mom and off I went to take my English exam with a killer headache.

As soon as it was over, my Mom rushed me to Saratoga hospital. By then, my eye was so swollen, they could not stitch so I was given pain killers and medicine to help with the swelling. Back to school to take another state exam - an oral and written French test. I could barely speak English coherently at that time, I knew this was going to be lots of fun!

The next day, I had a finals break so it was off to have some plastic surgery on my eye before taking my Chemistry the final the next day complete with huge gaping bandage. I was a sight for sore eyes! I am happy to let you know I got "A"s on all the exams even with the drama!

For years after this, I avoided bikes like the plague. I preferred my own 2 feet or vehicles with 4 wheels. One year, my ex wanted us to start biking. After telling him the story and showing him the scar that I still have 18 years later from the last great accident, I thought I had convinced him that biking was not a good idea. That was until a bike showed up for my birthday - but this time with a bike helmet. Whoever invented these, where were you 25 years ago? Why are they in vogue now but made fun of when I was growing up? I could have been spared quite a lot of pain!

I hate to say that the bike still only gets used a couple of times of year. I like the exercise bike - I rode my old one until the wheel burnt off. I like the tandem bike - I will pedal as long as I can look around and not worry about traffic and steering. I like watching unicyclers in parade reveling in how good a rider these people are. I even braved my fear in Hawaii by biking 26 miles down the volcano with my husband on our honeymoon and did not end up in the ER while there. But biking like running, is something I would rather reserve for when someone is chasing me and I need to get away!