Monday, February 18, 2008

A thin line - Blinky Lights

At some point early Saturday morning, I realized that I had crossed that thin line between being dedicated to cycling and being obsessive about cycling. I believe it was somewhere between the alarm clock going off at o'dark:thirty and me turning on my newly acquired blinky light to trek to the 7am ride start.

The first clue was that this was the third or fourth weekend in a row where I was getting up earlier to do this ride than I get up to go to work. Sleeping in on a Saturday ? No longer an option. Needless to say, this means that my exciting Friday nights include packing my bike and every clothing layer I might possibly need at 6am into my car and getting to bed before 10pm. And remember, I'm doing this for FUN, right ?

The next clue was when I arrived at the "team house" - Sara/Michelle/Jenny's place. They were just rolling out of bed and I was already through my first cup of Starbucks. Apparently I was running about 1.5x normal speed because they kept telling me I was way too chipper. I excitedly told them all about my new blinky light, which I couldn't wait to use. You see,until recently, I'd never done a ride that started before daylight, so having a blinky light was very novel to me. Re-read the part about "exciting" Friday nights before you judge how easy it is to amuse me.

The final clue was when we were rolling out of the house on our way to meet the ride start at Beach and E/W Highway. I turned on my blinky light and Michelle rolled up behind me, exasperated, saying "Wendy, your blinky light is INTENSE". And thats when I realized ... I have crossed that line. My only comfort is knowing that Michelle, Jenny and Sara all crossed that line with me.

I like to think I'm a trend setter - maybe they'll all be sporting blinky lights next week.

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