My Mother's Day Gift- My Specialized Dolce

I got my Mother's Day gift early, about a month ago. I picked it out myself, although my 3 year old son was with me. The guy who sold it to me was super awesome and played with coins with my son while I tried riding different bikes outside the store. I sent my husband a text and said, "Can I?" and he replied yes, just give him a few minutes to move some money around. I had chest pain. I didn't know if I'd love cycling, triathlons, the bike itself... and I pretty much doubled my original budget to buy this bike. When people say running is cheap, I think they lie. When people say cycling is expensive, I know it is true. The bike is just the beginning. I walked out of the store with the bike, a bag that fits under the seat to hold a spare tire tube, a CO2 cartridge for airing it up, and tools to pry the tire off the rim... basically the absolute minimum I needed to get started. I was borrowing my husband's helmet for a few rides. Since then, I've bought: a helmet, clipless pedals, shoes, covers for my shoes, bike shorts, 2 jerseys, gloves, lights for the front and rear, a mounting bracket to transport the bike in our truck, a bracket for my Garmin (which reminds me to research cycling computers because I'll probably go that direction over the Garmin watch at some point), chain oil, and I'm probably still leaving something out. My husband has asked me to wait until payday to buy more a couple of times, but he's never given me that look that says, "Seriously? You do not need this". But better than all of these things I've accumulated, my husband bought a bike and I have a riding buddy. We did 40-something miles together this week, some of which in the rain. This is what happens when you're 10 miles from home and the rain on the radar catches up to you. It was fun, like being kids, except we had to carefully dry our precious bikes when we got home.

I gave my son my phone so he could play Angry Birds and discovered that he took some pictures

My Specialized Dolce (2010)