CREATING SMALL REVOLUTIONS OF JOY ONE DAY AT A TIME

My Unexpected Obsession With A Bike That Goes Nowhere

How a running injury led me to a community over 1 million strong and reshaped my life.

4 min readNov 16, 2019

I will be the first one to admit that I have an obsession with a bike that goes nowhere.

Obsession: the state of being obsessed with someone or something.

For most of my adult life, I had been a runner. I did occasionally do other workouts, but my heart belonged to the run and I didn’t feel like I had really worked out if I didn't log some miles.

The highlight of my running career was qualifying and running the Boston Marathon. The emotional rollercoaster of training for and running a marathon can be intense. In addition, it was 2014, the year after the bombing and emotions were unforgettably heightened.

Everywhere you turned there were ‘Boston Strong’ signs and memorials honoring those that lost their lives and those that were injured. It is a memory I hold dear and will never forget.

I didn’t know it yet, but it was also going to be my last marathon.

2 weeks before the marathon I heard a strange pop in my hip. This pop then began to ache and because of the ache, I started to change my running form.

I ran the whole marathon with that ache and with that poor form. In the months and years after that marathon, I struggled with nagging injuries. And then one day, I couldn’t even run 1/2 mile without excruciating pain.

At this point, I was devastated. Running was my outlet and my moving meditation. Then the miracle of the Peloton entered my world.