Clara Hughes Jersey?

So I found a contest to win a signed cycling jersey from Clara Hughes.  All you had to do was to write about your best cycling/biking story.  Here is mine:

My favourite experience on a bike can not be narrowed down to just one experience but two.

My first, when I was about ten years old, was going for bike rides around the neighbourhood, during our summer holidays, with my Mom. “Oh nice”, you say but you have to know that my Mom did not know how to ride a bike.  One memory I have is of her crashing against the curb, in an attempt to learn how to ride a bike.  But she must have gotten back on that bike and learned.  Her learning enabled me to have the wonderful memory of myself, my two sisters and her exploring the neighbourhood on our bikes.  To this day my sisters and I still talk about it.

Fast forward to June 2011, two of my co-workers and I get out of work and go on a 40 km bike ride, from Sittsville to Carleton Place.  Although I biked throughout my childhood and with my own kids today, by no means am I a cyclists.  So this bike ride with my more experienced cycling friends was a true challenge for me.  Although my thighs were burning, between my shoulder blades ached and my butt was so sore, it was so, so, so much fun!  We had time to chat, we saw a baby turtle trying to cross our path, smelt a farmer’s field with fresh fertilizer and thought we might have to dodge bullets as we rode by a firing range.  I felt I had accomplished something and pushed my body to see if it was capable and learned that it was!

Basically, both my biking/cycling stories are pretty simple “rides” but so valuable as a memory to me.  I plan to have many more of these memories with my own children and I hope to push my body much more to see all that it is capable of, maybe not Clara Hughes level of pushing but satisfying enough for me.

 I do not know if I will win...I will keep you posted.

I am soooo excited for the Olympics to start!!!!!