A bike commuter is born

Today I finally got off my lazy ass and rode my bike to work. All week as I walked to the bus I felt a stab of guilt every time I saw someone riding their bikes (especially with the nice weather the past few days). Before I had kept putting it off saying I wanted to wait till after a practice run on the weekend, however every weekend I would either be too busy or lazy to do a practice run. Not sure what changed, but I suddenly felt ready to get over my nervousness and just do it. No more excuses, no more delays. I told as many people as I could, knowing that it would help prevent me from changing my mind in the morning.

Overall, it was a really nice ride. From my house I went down Harrison, through Ladds, taking SE 16th until Salmon. After that I went up the waterfront on the east side then under the Steel bridge. The waterfront was very beautiful this morning and I was extremely glad I had decided to take that route. The bridge dumped me onto Natio/Front and there was one moment where the bike lane ended and I had to "play car" (as Lindsay would put it). The whole reason I took this route was to avoid downtown and "playing car", but really it wasn't so bad. I did get a little turned around when I turned off Natio/Front onto NW 17th. I though I had found Thurman, but it turned into an on-ramp and I had to turn around for a little while. Eventually I found Raleigh and took that till 24 when I got back on Thurman. When I reached Montgomery Park, it was 7:50 (I had left my place at 7).

I'm sure that once I get my route down, and my speed and strength up, I can cute that down to 30min I think. By the time I crossed NW 21st, I was getting very tired. Still, it was very invigorating to ride to work. Mostly, I'm glad I finally stuck to my promise to myself to become a bike commuter. Unfortunately, I stupidly bought a bus pas on Monday, so I will probably only ride at least once a week this month. However, next month I'll only get bus tickets for rainy days and ride as much as possible.