This Is How It All Begins...

Gideon has been into road biking for years. And when I say "into road biking", I mean willing to drop hundreds of dollars on bike equipment; riding sometimes over 100 miles in a single day; getting half of his skin scraped off in crashes; racing what seemed like every weekend for years; riding through D.C. traffic to work each day. You get the idea.
This commitment to a sport has always boggled my mind. Who does this? (Not me!) How does it happen? What can be done about it? But now I'm starting to see how this all starts.
You see, I am now a road biker--a novice, at best, but a road biker. It's official. Gideon and I went on a 25 mile ride last weekend and a 40 mile ride today. Gideon's comment when we got home today (after our 4 hour ride) was, "Now you know what it really feels like to exercise." I considered taking offense to this, but I realized that he was right (for the most part... there was that one "Boot Camp" class I accidentally took at the gym).
Truly, I feel like I may become one of "them"--one of those people who are really into something sporty. I even dropped $130 last night on some "gear". That is just plain unusual for me! I'm feeding this new habit of mine.
So, here's why I'm excited about biking: it's great exercise--I have new muscles, I swear; I've been conditioning for months in spin class; I can actually do a 40 mile ride (who knew?!?!?); I can see my town (and the world) in a new way from a bike; and, best of all, this is something that Gideon and I can do together for a long, long time. I think that is really important in a marriage.
So, I'll keep you posted on my growing addiction. In the meantime, I'm going to cruise the bike gear websites.