I've had a lot of people ask me why I would even consider getting back on a bike after all that has happened since August 4th. I've even been lovingly referred to as an idiot, a crazy person, and even someone with a "death wish". Given my history with cycling accidents, those "naysayers" may well have a point.
My litany of injuries suffered while on a bike sounds kind of like the Stock Market these days...The Crash of '73 (broken left leg/ankle bone), The Crash of '87 (broken left collarbone), The Crash of '00 (twisted left ankle), The Crash of '01 (3 broken ribs on left side) and latest but not least, The Crash of '11 (broken left arm, wrist, hand). Those who question why anyone would ever subject themselves to the possibility of yet another collision may well have a legitimate concern. But, I have to tell you-I can't think of anything else that I'd rather do.
Over the years, cycling has become my therapy during those times when life has become very depressing. Spinning those 2 wheels is way cheaper than smoking, drinking, or prescription drugs would be to fight the effects of depression. For me, the more miles ridden, the better. I may be tired at the end of a 20-mile ride but it is a "good" kind of tired. I'll never be considered a pro-athlete in the world of biking but I can "hold my own" on the path, that is, when I'm not too busy crashing. LOL
As a kid growing up into young adulthood in the small Kansas town of Haven, the LAST thing that little Peggy Scott would have ever been described as would have been "athletic". I was this little short kid, deathly afraid of being hit by a flying baseball or basketball. In dodge ball, I always got out first and I'd just have to hope that the ball that hit me would have been thrown by a kid as little as me. And when it came time for kids to choose teams for a game? Well, you get the picture.
I can recall crying as a 4th grader at the precise moment, after a gazillion strikeouts at bat, that I FINALLY hit that stupid round thing they called a softball! I'm not sure if I ever hit a softball again--doesn't even matter because I didn't care. I was so shocked to have hit it that I took off for third instead of first and you can only imagine the rest of that story!
It didn't get any better in junior high or high school either. I hated PE and the grueling calisthenics that came with them. For me to attempt a push up or sit up with my scrawny muscles was next to impossible. Oh, and running laps? Got to tell you that Peggy Miller is NO runner! Not then and most certainly not now. But they expected kids in PE to do that as well.
I believe that I would have been perfectly content to slide through my entire life without any type of recreational physical activity. Well, that was until the day that a used bike found its way to our farm home in Haven. I was 17 years old and had never ridden a bicycle in my life. Heck, I'm not sure that ANY of my 6 siblings had ridden a bike either. So the prospect of learning to ride was rather intriguing to me.
I practiced for a couple of months on that old thing, teaching myself to stay balanced and going straight. I had a few spills, no major injuries (those would come later) and I actually found it to be fun!
Summer came and I decided I'd save my money and buy a brand new bike to take with me to college in the fall. Never will forget that first bike-a bright yellow 10-speed with "ram horn" handlebars. I spent $60 of my hard-earned money from working at my folk's restaurant and ordered it from the Spiegel catalog in Chicago. It was an easy bike to learn how to ride and I rode it all over Haven the rest of that summer.
The crash came a month before I was to leave for my freshman year of college and the story of how it happened is, as the saying goes, "old as the hills and twice as dusty". Rather than repeating it again, let's just say it involved 5 foolish girls riding their bikes, one cute young doctor who had just moved to our town from the state of New York, a heck of a dip in the street, me looking up at the sky right from the doctor's front yard, and the next 7 weeks in a leg cast. Feel free to put those together as you wish and make an even "better" story out of it! LOL Looking back at it now, I realize that if I would have quit riding after that crash I wouldn't have experienced all the fun that would lie ahead from the seat of a bicycle. Of course, I probably wouldn't be sporting this beautiful baby blue cast either--but that's beside the point!
Perhaps bicycling isn't your passion as it is mine. You might be a remarkable bowler and if you are, you definitely don't want "Gutter ball" Miller on your Tuesday night league team. Maybe you spend your Saturday mornings on the golf course or setting the pace for the group you run with in preparation for marathons. I'll be ok with cheering you on but those activities just don't seem to fit me as a participant quite right. So whether you swim laps at the Y or walk the bike path--or if you play volleyball for a church league or basketball on the school playground, I hope you have found your "niche" in the recreational exercise world. The main thing is to stay active, not just in your younger years but in your more "mature years" as well. Your body, mind, and spirit will be better for it! Take care of yourselves friends! If you don't. then who will?
No comments:
Post a Comment