on your LEFT, no the other left

After a very hot and very long week, I was looking forward to the weekend; which in fact turned out to be just as hot and long! Steve's grad party was Sunday so we were prepping for that all weekend and the day was spent running around trying to make sure everything was done and all the guests were happy. We finally got home around 10:30pm.

Last night Steve and I rode the path at Euclid Creek. It was fun except for a few things. I only got in about 5.5 miles because after walking up the giant hill, I was faced with another small hill and was thinking that I couldn't do anymore hills!

So we were riding along and I swear, everybody and their brother was out last night. I mean seriously you'd think they were giving out free stuff or something!

After my frustration of conceding to the hill (without trying for fear of falling over), I stopped at the top and had some water and caught my breath. We rode up a bit further did one smallish hill and turned around. Steve is always concerned that I will fall and spends a ton of time looking over his shoulder. I told him to go ahead that I would be fine and to look AHEAD!

I left myself get up to 18 mphs and I had to slow down a bit. The hill is pretty steep so I was just coasting for some time with light pressure on the brakes to maintain 18mphs. It was pretty funny because I felt like all I did on the last mile or so was coast because of the momentum from the hill. I was trying to make my presence known without being too obnoxious so I would just let all the walkers know that I was coming and then thank them for moving.

Everything was fine until I caught up with these three kids.

The oldest was probably around 12 and then there was a little girl (?) around 5 and then a boy around 9 or 10. So I say, "on your left" and she moves all the way to left and stands there. Then the boy who has this huge stick (like 5 feet tall) is on the right. So I try to split the difference and ride in the center. As I move to the center so does he! Seriously, I slam on the brakes and am almost at a complete standstill with him inches from my front tire. I didn't really know what to do. I mean I'm clipped in and going pretty fast and he is just standing there like a deer in head lights!!! So I seriously thought I was going to hit him. Finally, at the last possible minute, he jumps out of the way and I kept going.

As I continued, I thought about how things would have played out if I had hit him. I mean how do the police handle something like that. I could just see it on the front page of the Plain Dealer, "Boy killed by over-zealous cyclist; charged with vehicular homicide."

As I continued, I kept up my notifications and one group of older women responded in a way that made me go, "Hmmmm." As I passed I said excuse me and thank you and they said, "No problem, thanks for letting us know you were there!!!"

Obviously, we all know who they were referring to. So as I caught up with Steve, I recounted my almost crashing and killing a kid story and then said, "Have you been practicing good cycling etiquette??"

He looked at me sideways and stumbled a bit and said, "Um, yeah, why?" I told him what the ladies had said and he looked at the ground for a minute and said that he thought he had been good at notifying everyone that needed to move. Suuuuuurrreee! ;)

All in all it was a good ride. I practiced going fast and not getting scared AND I practiced shifting which I think I'm finally getting the hang of! Oh and I was clipped in on both feet and didn't fall! :)

Baby steps!!!