From a very young age I rode a bike. I was the kid in 8th grade that talked about bikes all the time. Never really had a high end bike and was always dreaming.
I have a sister that is two years older than me. In HS she had boyfriends galore, one of them worked in a bike shop. He talked me into entering a race with him. This was an 18.5 mile race, year about 1977. At the time my bike was a 3 speed so my sisters boyfriend loaned me a bike. It was a 10 speed missing the inner chain ring so 5 speed but it did have sew-ups and toe clips. He brought the bike over the day before so I could ride it and I got a flat. He was pissed at me for this but he handed me a new tire.
At the race he was in a group before me so he asked me to hold him upright which I did. Of course I never raced before and wasn't even expecting to even finish so I didn't have anyone to get advice from never mind hold me up before the starting gun. AlI I remember is that once the race started I cranked and cranked and never stopped cranking until the finish. That's all I remember.
After all the racers were finished they called out the numbers of the winners. I remember thinking at the time the teams were where were the fastest rider were. Once they finished announcing the winning teams next came the individuals. One of the kids I knew from school had his number called for 2nd. This really made my sisters boyfriend mad. Then they called out the numbers for 3rd then 4th. When the got to 5th (the last to receive a trophy) there was no response to the number, so they called it again. Still no response, then the announcer clearly annoyed called it again. I thought there was a certain ring to the number so I asked my sister to check the number pinned to the back of my t shirt. I remember being asked by a reporter how old I was and I told him 14. There were probably 2000 riders in this race and I got 5th place individual on a borrowed bike.
I rode and rode until college then rode for about 6 years before kids. When I restarted a year+ ago I was like a beginner. I'm putting in more miles now than I ever dreamed I would at any time previous.