Biking Bravado

We were to meet at 6:30 am on that fine Saturday morning.  I was a little bit excited over my first bike trip with my two girlfriends, Annie and Marga, but it certainly did not compare with the usual over-the-moon feeling I have over each and every morning run.  Put it this way, for a run, I am Manny Pacquiao…fight!  For any other sport, such as biking, swimming, or the gym, I give it a good fight like Diaz but there’s just something missing.  There’s no umph.

I arrived at our meeting place to find Annie in complete biking attire, something I have never seen her in since we met as running buddies over a year ago.  She was standing over her driver who was fiddling over the tight chains of her road bike.  Where was Marga?  Probably somewhere in between Bicutan and Sucat.  She biked all the way from her place, and unknown to us at that time, she actually had to walk through parts of the West Service Road as it was under construction.

– Annie testing her bike.  I want a road bike like hers or Margas! –

By the time Marga arrived, at around 7 a.m., Annie had declared that she couldn’t join us because her bike chains needed oil.  As for me, I had lost all enthusiasm for biking under the intense heat.  How could so many things go wrong that early in the morning?!  At that point, there was one thing that could turn things around: McDo!

We decided to bike out of the village for a good meal at nearby McDonalds.  It was to be my first ever bike trip on public roads and I was nervous.  As we biked our way towards the exit gate nearing the first intersection, I yelled out at Marga: “How do bikers stop at the traffic light?”  (Yes, you can kick me for such a dumb question)  I couldn’t quite hear her response and, as much as I wanted to just close my eyes and teleport my way to McDo, I knew that on a bike I would probably find myself at the hospital instead.  Luckily, the light turned green and we just biked along with the cars.  After crossing the street, Annie who should’ve been behind me was unusually quiet (Annie is never ever quiet!) so I had to yell out at Marga again: “Where’s Annie?  Can you check?”  That’s because I can’t even look behind while on a bike, much less scratch my face, fix my helmet, bike in between that narrow strip of flat road between a hump and the sidewalk, nor stand on my pedals to avoid the pain that comes from passing over a hump.  Gosh, I’m such a newbie.

A little over a kilometer later, we were happily chatting about running, boys (to my hubby, I was actually just listening!), and races over our meals.  We biked our way back to the village and, surprisingly, the super short bike trip gave me a lot more confidence already.  It was definitely a more relaxing ride on the way back—I could actually manage a smile!  Yeah, I finally found the courage to explore more roads on the bike.  Give me a month and I’ll be fast and fearless…I hope haha.