Ode to my Bike!

Yesterday evening I ran downstairs, as quick as I could, to get napkins from the garage and suddenly I noticed something missing.  Something was out of place.  My bike!!!   Where the "ef" was my bike?  I screamed just as my best friend and her family arrived for dinner another friend upstairs ran down.  My bike! My bike, it is gone!  Comprehension dawned slowly, somehow, someone had stolen my bike from my garage!  I couldn't fathom it! How? Why? When?

I'm not a very materialistic person.  I mean sure, I like nice shoes (even though I can't wear them anymore). I like my home, love some things in my home, but if you would've asked me about my most dear material possession, I might have said my bike.  We have history.  We've traveled miles and miles together. We've fallen in and out of love together.   It taught me how to ride better...  Gone!!

Today, the police report, the insurance claim, the fear, the anxt- I mean I am doing 2/3 the Malibu Tri in 2 weeks.  I need my bike!  All of this made me feel superficial.  My bike was a possession, I can replace it.  Yes, an expensive possession along with all the assorted gear that was stolen too. However, my bike was more than a possession...

I bought it in the run up to my first triathlon.  I hadn't been on a bike in 10 years when I signed up for that race.  I didn't own a bike, but hey, I thought it should be fun.  After months of riding on a loaned bike, I decided I needed one of my own. Enter my bike!

I knew next to nothing about road bikes when I bought it, but it fit my price range and was comfortable and available, so it become mine.   That race lead to more tri's, which lead to more half centuries, which lead to centuries.  My bike and I became friends.  It wasn't a material possession, but it was freedom! It was also peace.

I run for the endorphin rush, I ride for clarity of mind. As I've gotten back to cycling post my surgery I've realized that my bike brings me peace and calmness. I love my bike, that which it represents not the material, bike, I guess.

My insurance will pay for a new one (minus the deductible).  I'll have two weeks to become friends with it before the Malibu Tri.  I can do that I hope.

Still ByeBye my bike! I miss you!! I can't believe that someone took you from me!