Flat Bars, Hybrids and Old People

I waited for our group to assemble for tonight's ride. My shoe was loose so I got down to retie it. A woman approached and said, "Yup, this is the group. Flat Bars, Hybrids and Old People". I cringed but managed to get a smile on my face before I stood up. I figured if she wanted to call herself old that was fine. It made no matter to me. But she didn't stop there. "I'm 66", she said. "She's 65", she continued pointing to another in our group. Then she looked me right in the eye and pointed at me and said "And your in that range too".

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So instead I shrugged and said, "I'm 54.". She had nothing to say to that. She just turned to find out how old everyone else was.

My first thought was "I guess I'm officially over the hill now." I've never had anyone guess me to be older than I am. Most of my life it's been the opposite. No one has ever (out loud at least) over shot my age at all let alone by the margin this woman did. But that was just my initial reaction. I shrugged it off and had a great ride.

It occurred to me later that maybe she didn't actually think I looked ten years older than I am but rather was trying to elicit my age so she could feel better about being the oldest in the group and still able to keep up. Kudos to her by the way for that and I'm sure she doesn't get how obnoxious her comment was. Let that be a lesson to us all to think before we speak.

And yes it occurs to me that she really did think I look that old but we'll just ignore that possibility for now. ;)