Nadine had been bugging me for some time to rent bikes and ride down at the beach, but I always managed to find one excuse or another. This is a tall order living in Southern California, where the weather is beautiful most of the year and there are bike paths everywhere in close proximity to amazing scenery like this.
And this scenery helps too!
When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike lots of places. I still remember my Dad teaching me how to ride when I was little, helping me lose the training wheels one side at a time until I was flying around on my own. But in the back of my mind, I had this nagging idea that getting back on a bike for the first time in over 20 years was going to involve me falling or hitting something. Come to think of it, I rode straight into a parked police car on one of my first "solo" outings in the street as a kid. You can imagine how long it took to live THAT down since the whole neighborhood was watching at the time!
But I finally ran out of excuses when Nadine's and my mutual friend Chelsea Alexander got on board, so we headed down early to Venice Beach to rent bikes, and I climbed on to my non-threatening lime green beach model.
It took a couple of tries to get the seat adjusted to the right height, and then there was nothing left to do but take a deep breath and start pedaling. I wobbled for a few seconds, but surprised myself at how quickly I found my balance. You know how they say riding a bike is one of those things you never forget? Whoever said it is absolutely right.
Fifteen miles later, with the bikes returned, my fear was gone and all that was left was the enormous smile I had from a beautiful morning at the beach with my girlfriends. The only problem with adding a new fitness activities to my list? Now I'm trying to figure out how much I can afford to spend on a bike....
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