I'm a real rider

When we moved to Boulder, we had never lived somewhere where outdoor sports were so popular. Hiking, running, skiing, biking, triathlon(ing?), kayaking, and on and on and on. If you could do it outdoors and it didn’t involve a surfboard, people were doing it in Boulder. It was so inspiring to be around that kind of activity all the time; it’s telling of the general tone of the town that after snowstorms, the bike paths were plowed before the streets. There in Boulder we purchase our first bike trailer as well as my first bike as an adult. I loved it and took full advantage of the many bike paths around town. It became part of our lives, riding our bikes to get from here to there. There were weeks where we would park the car after church on Sunday and it didn’t move again until we got into it to go to church the following week.

Biking being such a huge part of our lives, I was really concerned when we moved here that I wouldn’t be able to carry on riding as much. And it’s true that I really can’t – Target is not within biking distance, and the grocery store is a bit far to ride there every time we need something. But for the most part, I’ve been able to ride pretty much everywhere we need to go on a daily basis, leaving the car in the garage most of the week. We bought bikes within weeks of arriving here as it was too expensive to ship ours, though we did ship the Burley. Waiting for it to arrive was the longest six weeks of my life (that might be an exaggeration, though not much of one) and I’ve made full use of it since then. I suppose I’ve become a bit of a recognizable figure around our part of town as I ride to Abe’s and Hank’s schools, the library, parks, and yes – even grocery shopping once in a while. It’s happened several times that when I’m talking to parents from the school and introduce myself, the other person says, “Oh you’re the one with the bike trailer!” And when they’re amazed that I’m riding in the rain, I tell them it’s nothing – I used to ride in the snow on occasion back in Colorado.

So the other night while Ben was flipping through channels, this commercial came on during the Tour de France coverage:

I was only half paying attention, but Ben – who bought a gorgeous road bike from Giant in January and uses it to get to and from work every day - said, “Steph, you should totally do that.” I got online and took a look and by the time I was finished reading about the sponsorship package (check out the Lifestyle one - eep!), I was so giddy I couldn’t calm down for bedtime (seriously, I think it took me an hour to get to sleep). I might be biased, but I think I’d be a perfect candidate. We don’t have any photos yet of me with my bike, but I did fill out a profile. I’m going to do one for Abe, too – there are days when his bike is the only one on the racks at school, probably because I’m the only mom mean enough to make him ride in the rain. But he loves biking as much as I do, and is very proud of being one of the best riders in his class (I think the criteria there is that he’s one of the only kids who lives close enough to ride to school). We could both use better bikes as ours were purchased on a tight budget, and I can’t think of a better way to get one.

So keep your fingers crossed for us, and we’ll let you know if we get it. Even if we don’t, I applaud Giant for this campaign – hopefully it will get more people thinking about getting out there and riding more often. Sure, it’s slower, and you often arrive sweaty or soaking wet with rain at your destination, but people are very forgiving when you tell them how you got there. Be a real rider!