Here I go, here I go, here I go...everyone else has one, why not me? I post a lot of my adventures on http://ridemonkey.com but those eventually get purged and I'm left with nothing. So, I'm going to attempt to record some stuff here.

I'm going to do this in steps. Unfortunately, I don't have too many early pictures of me riding so it's going to be mostly words. Half my riding life is gone. I started just after college. I would run in the early morning when no one was around but animals, I'd run late at night after studying, when I could just be alone, I'd run in the heat of the day..100 degree sun beating down on me as I ascended Cowles Mtn. I was heavy into running, ran almost every day. I ran until my knee wouldn't cooperate, swelled up, and was too painful to walk on. Doctors told me I should quit running and take up cycling because, "it's good for your knees". I don't dispute that, but after all those years of running, my knees would never be the same.

After about a year of riding as a weekend warrior, I took up racing. I'd always had the sense I was fast because I could easily keep up with others. And, I've always been pretty competitive. I played basketball, softball, soccer, volleyball, and ran track as a kid. So, I entered my first race as a beginner. Boy was that a mistake...I won by 17 minutes and promplty moved up to Sport. My second race was a team 24 Hour race and we got second!
Two tastes of the podium left me wanting for more. It was great to get out there and struggle, put yourself up against your own expectations and see what happened. It was a test of legs, a test of skills, a test of endurance, but most of all...a test of heart. Racing led me to great places...more later.