How Quickly We Forget

As I mentioned in my first post, at the time I started my triathlon quest I had not ridden a bike in about 25 years (seriously). So, since I knew nothing about the current bicycle market I decided to go to the person who has always ridden a bike, and ridden it well. That person was my husband, who will henceforth be referred to as "Dave" because, well, that is his name (hehe). Anyhoo, Dave took me to the local REI where we talked to some lovely salespeople. Upon hearing that I needed a bike for my FIRST TRIATHLON they could barely contain their excitement! They regaled us with stories of how wonderful the Danskin triathlon is, and how some women bring their rusty old 10-speeds to the race. I, on the other hand, was in luck because I was going to get a road bike and would be able to sail past all the other racers! So I left with a brand-new, beautiful road bike, with absolutely no experience in "hand-brakes" or gears. Of course, we were talking about riding a bike and you know how the saying goes...

Once home, Dave coaxed me into taking the bike out for her maiden voyage. I walked her down the driveway and hopped on (I *may* have hopped on 5 or 10 times before sticking the landing). I headed off down the road feeling like I was going uber-fast. In retrospect, it was really just my heart hitting top-speed. Nonetheless, I had a clear impression of how I looked on my sleek new wheels:

 Unfortunately, according to Dave I looked more like this:

*Note if you will the severe bike lean to the right, paired with the severe body lean to the left (balancing each other out, of course) and the butt sitting squarely on the outermost edge of the seat.

This led to the following views of my neighbours' dog at the end of the street:

And that is why Dave insisted I start wearing knee and elbow pads.