a milestone in my life

holy cow, what a day! wait, let me back up a few years and tell a story first:
when i was 16 i went mountain biking at a local park. 2 hours later i was taking my first ambulence ride to the nearest hospital where i would spend the next 3 days while they put my knee back together...2 surguries, 84 stitches, and a 7 inch scar later, after 2 months on crutches and 6 weeks of physical therapy, i was walking again...and vowing that i would never EVER ride a bike again...
so fast forward almost exactly 3 years later... i had a long talk with my dad and i decided to start training for a triathlon. i thought i would put off the biking part as long as possible...a certain someone had a different idea however. so today after i went and picked out tires to convert my mountain bike into an okay road bike, my buddy brent told me that "that day is today." at first i was like, NO WAY! there was no way i was ready to ride yet...but that's why brent's my coach...he doesn't take excuses like that. so while brent was taking a warm up ride, i had a long conversation with myself and this bike of mine...it was like a showdown at noon in the OK Corral. could i really trust this thing again? i know you're thinking i'm crazy cause i was sittin there having a conversation with an inanimate object, but this was a huge thing for me... so i got on the bike and sat a while...it felt okay...then i started walking around with it and then i just took a huge deep breath and let go...it was like i was 7 all over again, just learning how to ride for the first time... and there i was, learning the true meaning of the expression "just like riding a bike..."
first milestone covered...i could handle the flat parking lot pretty well...so when brent got back, i had no choice but to follow him out onto the road...tentative at first, then doing pretty well... then we came to the first hill...up no problem, my knees were burning a little, but hey, i just got released from the doctor from another knee injury (later story) yesterday...then the huge leap of faith--the first downhill--needless to say, i rode my brakes all the way and crawled down that hill as slow as i could...no good, you can't do well in a triathlon that way (as i was told). so we came to our last downhill...and i was told to not use my brakes all the way down. and can i just say that this was no baby hill! it was huge, across railroad tracks, onto a major road... i was super scared, but determined to make it, so i just pushed off and let go...how amazing it felt to feel that wind in my face and know that i had finally conquered that ghost that's been haunting me for 3 years...
all in all we rode about 5 miles...10 short of where i need to be by august, but it was a start! a huge breakthrough...i really feel like i can do anything right about now! if you're thinking right about now "girl, you're crazy...it's just a bike!" well, then that's your perrogative, but i feel like a free woman right about now!!! praise the LORD!