Reminiscence of Last Year

When I get ready for the day I take a little time. Probably not as much as most people, but still, some. But when I exercise in the morning my routine consists of rolling out of bed, blurrily eating a bowl of cereal, then throwing on my clothes and shoes and heading out the door. I don't look in the mirror any longer than it takes to put in my contacts and I definitely don't open my makeup bag or pick up a comb. I find that if I let too much time lapse between getting up and going exercising I just don't do it.

One particular morning last summer my routine was just that-roll, eat, dress, run (out the door, not an actual run). I decided to go for a bike ride since the day was looking so nice. As I began the ride I was feeling pretty good, pretty impressed at the speed I was keeping, only briefly acknowledging that it had less to do with my own ability and more to do with the fact that I was riding downhill. Then, the killer of pleasant bike rides hit. Wind. I struggled through it as I hit the very gradual uphill climb that comes through the park near my home at the time, turned and headed for the bike path. This was a steep climb where I was on the lowest gear possible, still clicking my handles in hopes that there might be something lower than 1 and 1. No luck. Finally, I made it to the top and to the point of this story.

Even though I'd reached flat ground, I was still huffing and puffing so I kept my gears the same. I was still laboriously peddling when I saw two joggers coming towards me. As they gracefully loped past I saw they were two teenage girls in cute running outfits, one in short shorts and a t-shirt, the other in sleek black from head to toe. Short-shorts had her hair up in one of those bun/ponytails that deceivingly says "I only spent 30 seconds on this" when in actuality she probably spent 30 minutes on it. The other girl had gorgeous long hair that looked freshly straightened, and both their faces were covered in makeup rather than sweat.

I'm sure they were nice girls, but the brief encounter made me humorously aware of my own appearance in comparison to theirs. While they were looking pretty, I was wearing some old grey cutoffs that had once been pajama pants, turned into raggedy shorts during a Missouri heat-wave (a.k.a the whole summer). On top the ensemble consisted of a red t-shirt underneath a too-small purple jacked I'd zipped up to the chin to keep my cell phone from falling out of the pocket. To top it all off I had on a geeky helmet. Safety over beauty, right? I was laughing at how "the kids these days" have to get dressed up even to exercise and feeling pretty good that at twenty-five years old I'm past that stage when I saw down the road an elderly lady riding her bike. She had on some sweats, a zipped up jacket, and a helmet and was pedaling slowly against the wind. I thought, How cute, that'll be me in 50 years. Then I realized, wait a minute, that's me right now!!

It was a very enlightening bike ride.