Quote Originally Posted by notsportygirl
Thanks so much for the support. I guess that having always had asthma, and being really petite, I have always assumed I just couldn't do certain things...but maybe that's just not the case. Must go ride now...
NSG ~ You can do it.

I was a gym drop out. Hated it, hated all sports! I also have had asthma all my life and was always tiny, weak, and pasty as a little girl. I like dolls and books. I hated sports! Well, I kinda liked gymnastics but wasn't very good. I hated any sport that involved a ball, which is like, most of them, right? My parents were very unathletic brainiacs so never encouraged me to develop any athleticism at all, just to hit the books. Just as soon as I didn't have to take gym, I stopped taking it.

However, my darling husband was into road riding. He bought me my first bike, back in the late '80s. I didn't warm up to it very fast. I rode off and on for years, but never very seriously, and I never stuck with it for long enough to make it a life-long habit.

Fast forward to 2002. I was in my early 40s and wanted to get back into shape. I finally got a decent road bike and got back into riding again. Since then, I've done five centuries (100 mile rides), numerous metric centuries (62.5-mile rides), and a nine-day, 565-mile, self-supported loaded tour of upstate NY last fall. I know how to ride in a paceline. I am an active member of a bike club. I'm on the girlbike.com test team. I have FOUR bikes in my stable. But best of all, I am an ATHLETE, for the first time in my pasty, asthmatic, sports-hating life!

You can do it. You just have to believe in yourself. You can be whoever you want to be, I'm living proof.

Emily