This is a really cool thread!

This is my story:

I occasionally borrowed my roommate's mountain bike in college. It was this taxi cab yellow Trek and every time someone new came to our room, they would comment on it. Not too many people had fancy Trek mountain bikes in Maine in 1987! Anyway, after college, I bought my own. It was a Nashbar bike back when they had a real brick and mortar store and no internet business. I rode that bike as my all-around bike, but I don't know that I ever took it out on real trails until I moved to the Poconos in the mid-90s. We would do some trail riding, but I decided that I really didn't like the bike all that much. I traded it for some skis! Then I spent $900 (an ungodly amount of money for a bicycle ) on a Specialized Rockhopper. All of a sudden, I loved riding trails. My boyfriend would come down from Boston and we'd spend all weekend riding (with my dog running along side). I still have that Specialized. I love that bike! It still has its original tires!

Then I moved to FL where I met and married my husband. He liked mountain biking, so I tried it (swamp biking)with him a few times, but really didn't like it. It was too hot, too muggy, too swampy...cypress roots are painful...The bike proceeded to become a dust collector.

Fast foward another 7 years and we move to NC. By then, I was already heavy into fitness and weight lifting. I hated cardio, but figured out that it was because cardio HURT. Custom orthodics didn't help. Getting off my feet and onto a road bike did though! My OB/Gyn had just lost like 85 lbs by taking up biking, so he totally talked me into it (knowing that I still had 10 lbs I wanted to lose and my feet were literally giving out on me). One 15 mile ride on the rolling hills in my area and I was instantly hooked. That was in July of 2005 (four years ago next week!).

My husband bought his first road bike a week later. I immediately signed up for the local MS150 with a group from my office. After having a blast on our first 35 mile group training ride, my husband signed up too. The following summer, we did our first two century rides. The summer after that, we started climbing mountains in NC (which was one of my original biking goals).

Then we moved here to Oregon and bought a mini-farm. Biking has fallen off pretty drastically as we are constantly swamped with getting our house/farm/garden, etc up and running. My hope is that by next summer, we have a better handle on it and can start training for some good rides again. I really want to do the Crater Lake Century in 2010!