Love all the great Valentines Day stories, and appreciate the list's indulgence for the day.
Since I already spilled the "how we met while both working in a bike shop" story with the "spouse" thread a week or so ago, I won't go back there, but having a cycling-spouse always creates the opportunity for more stories.
I remember the first "shop" ride we did together. It was in the Spring, when we had both worked at the shop for only a short while, and we were not dating at the time. I had had a minor crash in the Fall, hadn't ridden much since, and was just getting back to regular rides. I thought the group rides would be just the thing get back to form. Only four of us showed up for the ride, a 30-ish mile loop, and MJ was the only female. We rolled out at a moderate pace and I stayed at the back. On the first climb, our young tri-geek shop-rat hammered off the front. MJ, being the competitive type, jumped after him with the third rider not far behind. Basically dropping me like a rock. I figured I would just hump the hill, set a steady pace, and catch them when they slowed and let us all re-group. Uh, no such luck. I never saw them again! And I mean when I got back to the shop, all their cars were even gone! The next time we were all at the shop, there were lots of apologies for leaving me behind, and some good natured ribbing from me about ride etiquette and looking out for your friends. It seems that MJ and Tri-geek had ended up sparing with each other the whole time, pressing the pace and turning it into an informal "race". Not being there for the finish, I don't know who was the "winner".
I kidded MJ for quite a while about never riding with her again. We did, of course, start riding together. And soon after started dating. She eventually moved in and we lived together for five years or so. When we finally decided to get married, we rented an inn in rural Virginia for the weekend, to house our friends and family. We went for a long ride together in the morning, had a 10 minute ceremony in the afternoon, and partied the rest of the weekend with friends and family. On Sunday evening, we loaded the Honda Civic wagon with road bikes, mountain bikes, all our riding gear and the left over wine, and headed off to West Virginia for a couple weeks of honeymoon cycling.
To this day, when we get into conversations about honeymoons with other couples, and MJ says cheerfully that we went mountain biking on our honeymoon, people usually pause and say "...uh, yea, that's, uh, nice....I guess"
They just don't know.
Happy Valentines Day everyone!
Ciao -
Wayne Bingham
Falls Church VA