My Mother's Day

Late last week, I told my coworker, Melissa, about my Mother's Day gift. She was like "UH! Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?!!...And why isn't this on your blog??!" So here goes...An Official Blog Post About My Mother's Day Gift.

When I got home from work on Friday (before MD) Bella met me at the door and asked me to go downstairs and play with her. I was like "Hang on, Bella, I have a few things to do." She kept asking and I kept putting her off. About the fourth time, I agreed and followed her downstairs, where she led me into our workout room. When I walked in, I realised there was a sign hanging from my bike. It read:

STP or Bust
We want you to succeed
Happy Mother's Day!
Love, Bella and Rowan
(and dad, too!)

So of course I get a lump in my throat. Then I notice that the seat on my bike is different and I thought, Dale bought me a new seat for Mother's Day! How sweet! Then I looked at his bike (about 2 feet from mine) and see that he has the same seat then I look back at my bike and back at his and back at mine and then it donned on me that they were matching bikes.

Yeah! No more Target Special (that was what I called my old bicycle). My new bike is simply awesome. It has a aluminum/carbon fiber frame and the whole thing only weighs 15 lbs. The next morning I did an Olympia-and-back, and it only took 2 hours and 20 mins- That's 20 minutes faster than my best time on my old bike. It is fast and smooth. Man, I am starting to sound as annoying as Dale in this post!

The one thing that has taken some getting used to is that the shifters don't indicate which gear you are in (I am the type that has to know what's going on at all times...speed, distance, gear, time) and when I asked Dale about this, he was like "Why do you need to know what gear you are in? If it's too hard, shift down, if it's too easy, shift up." That's his logical brain for you. I often catch myself looking down and counting sprokets, just because. I guess I am weird that way. He did accessorize my bike with a little computer that tells me all the other stats. He was probably tired of me asking him every time we rode together "How much time has passed? How many miles have we gone? What is our speed?"

I am really, really excited to have a decent bike for the STP. I might actually be able to keep up with Dale (for the first 5 miles, anyway!)