Digital Gee

This morning I'm blown away by and extremely grateful to the posters on this board. You have all been so helpful, so willing to give advice and opinions and most of all encouragement. Without this board and the people on it (particularly the 50+ forum), I really doubt I would have stuck with cycling.

Cycling (for me) is such an isolated endeavor. I don't ride with any group (although one of these days I'll try it), so I'm out there by myself with only my own inner voices to hear. But yesterday, on my birthday ride, I could swear I could hear each and all of you, egging me on, telling me not to quit, giving me attaboys when I started another loop after a stretch break, and so on. You were on the bike up ahead that I decided to catch and pass. You were standing alongside the road giving me a wave as I pased.

I thought many times, during my ride, of what I would say in my post about the ride. I composed it on the bike. I almost couldn't wait to get home and tell all of you about my accomplishment. Maybe that's a bit strange, and I'm a bit off my rocker, but so what? There were real live people around the planet who actually cared whether I made it or not. And without these people, and my own determination, I probably wouldn't have even tried.

So thank you, thank you, thank you! And a special thanks to DnvrFox for pulling together all those posts I wrote. That was a wonderful gift -- to see my own progress in my own words. It's amazing to me that a ten miler now is just a way to get warmed up, that a twenty miler is a nice stretch, and that a thirty or forty miler is a good ride.

Someone asked when I'm going to do a Century now. I even thought about THAT on the ride. I heard myself saying, "That's way too far!" and I heard myself saying, "You know, that's not out of the realm of possibility..." I suspect that a few months from now, perhaps next spring, I'll do my first Century.

Anyway, I realize I'm (once again) rambling, so I'll close. Just leave you all with one thought -- it is the community of people on this board who add so much to my experience of cycling. Thank you again.