New wheels!

You know, I used to ride my bike all over the place in college - rain, snow or shine. It saved me a lot of time. But the city is a little more spread out than the campus was, and I've only ridden once since I graduated six and a half years ago. In the meanwhile, my bike has deteriorated and is (was) just not adequate for a triathlon. I rode it down to the bike shop this evening, and on the way I had to stop twice because the chain came off its track and once it actually got caught over one of the bars - I have no idea how I did that. But that finally convinced me I couldn't ride it in the triathlon. And just about every bike my size in the city of Denver is already rented out for the triathlon weekend. Hmmm...wonder why...

So, Eric met me down at the bike shop and bought me a nice new road bike. It's soooo much easier to ride and shift than my old bike. I had to have an odometer for it so I can track my progress in the race. I don't think I could stand not knowing if I was almost done or just barely halfway. We left it there tonight to have the odometer installed on it. So, tomorrow I can probably post a picture of it. I've never had a road bike before. I've always had wider wheels. But road bikes are much more appropriate for racing. So, I have some adjusting to do between now and August 6th, but it's still much better than trying to fight with my old bike, which we donated to the shop to fix up and give to charity. I'm also hoping that with a nicer bike, I'll be encouraged to ride more during the mild months, even if it's just for exercise, rather than a viable mode of transportation.