The return of: Over 50 show of hands

[kelownagirl]

Me me me! I can actually join this thread now!

[Trek420]

Me me me! I can actually join this thread now!

Yay! Welcome to the new 30

[shootingstar]

Now, careful. We are becoming abit elitist..in our advancing age??

Trek, you're supposed to say instead crossing the half century mark! Now that is survivor talk!

I'm over the line..at 51. This sounds radical. Crossing boundaries into new territory.
Rediscovered cycling and started cycling regularily at 32.

[OakLeaf]

Yeah ... I have to say, why?

I'm posting because you already know I belong here and I don't want to seem like I'm trying to pretend to newer TE'rs that I'm younger than I am. I am where I am. I did set a couple of goals before the birthday, and more than anything else, that made it quite clear that the birthday was going to happen whether I trained for it or not - other things, not so much.

50, learned to ride on the late side (7 maybe?) because my uncle taught me, not my parents. Rode all the way through the rule that says you're never 29 (not racing the whole time, just the few years surrounding that date) and a couple of years after. Burned out, didn't ride at all for 10 years.

Got a little hybrid in 2003 for <3 mile errands. Thought I'd forgotten how to ride a bike. Not-quite-intentionally wound up on a demo road bike for three days in 2006. Been back ever since.

[Bike Chick]

51 here.....started riding at 46.

[Catrin]

I am at the half century mark I actually never thought that it would feel so good!

I just learned how to ride a bike for the first time in my life in December, 2009. Two months after my 50th birthday and I certainly never thought that I would be able to do 50 mile rides by the end of July!

Cycling has become my fountain of youth - both in health and in outlook. I have lost a great deal of weight, my live now consists more than just working too much, and I have found that it reconnects me to the world around me after spending all day in my data modeling work-a-day world.

Now I just need to figure out how to unleash my inner hill-climbing animal

[Crankin]

56 here, heading toward 57 in November .
How did I get this old?
Started riding seriously at 47 or 48 (I can't really remember which year it was). I rode a lot as a young teen/middle schooler and just a little when I was in grad school and as a young mom. I remember riding the wrong way down Rural Rd. in Tempe, heading toward Chandler Blvd. on my 10 speed Univega and thinking I had gone really far. I think the round trip was 7-10 miles!
Oak, I didn't learn to ride until I was 9, almost 10 years old. My parents tried to teach me at 7, and even then my poor spatial skills/balance were evident. Finally, my mom took it into her own hands, rented a purple Schwinn for me while we were at the Cape, where we stayed in a cottage community with quiet, straight roads, and somehow taught me. I remember she let me ride the mile back to the bike rental place when it had to be returned, on a fairly busy road, as she drove the car behind me, probably at 5 mph. My mom was cool. We used to ride our Raleighs together after that.
Although I was fit and active before, I hardly did any outdoor activity. I also had started to gain weight and was very unhappy with my body when I started cycling. My friends told me it was "normal." Since I knew better, I let myself be humiliated on my first ride, where my DH had to push me up a small climb with the back of his hand. It was a total of 6 miles.

[roadie gal]

51 here. I started riding regularly in 1995. I did my first triathlon, a sprint, at 46, and my HIM last year. I did it because a half iron at half a century just sounded so cool.