What was I thinking?

Maybe I was just bored. Or maybe it was prompted by the baby-oil sunblock (Target was out of the regular "adult" sunblock). And it might have been the four-bladed razor I got for free from the bookstore at the Culinary Institute of America on my bike tour last week. I could blame post-ride fatigue. My different look does make me feel a bit out of place on a lot of bike rides, not to mention the races. Whatever led me to it, it definitely wasn't planned. I had planned on actually being a competitive bicycle racer first. Maybe finishing with the pack would prompt it one day. Instead, without good cause, today was the day.

I started by using the electric beard trimmer with one leg over the dry bathtub. How high to go? I figured just above the bottom of the bicycle shorts should do. That left behind so much hair in the tub that I had to gather it all up afterwards and throw it in the trash. The result from the electric trimmer alone was not so bad, but stubble remained and I wanted to do it right. That called for a bath, the shaving cream and a razor (I've seen women do it plenty of times.)

Have I started something I now will feel compelled to maintain the rest of my life? How often will I have to do this? Will I be more susceptible to sunburn? Will I get an antibiotic-resistant staph infection and die?

I had heard it can hurt, but I went ahead. That particular razor was a little painful on my face, but all razors are. It turns out that shaving my legs was absolutely painless. There really aren't a lot of nerves in the legs compared to the face, I guess. Getting behind my knees and around that tendon on the outside of the knees was a little tricky. I felt a tiny bit of razor burn behind the knees, but that went away after a few minutes. I rubbed it all down with the baby-oil sunblock.

But what's the point of shaving your legs if you can't show them off? So I tried on some running shorts and discovered that I hadn't shaved high enough. Back to the tub for the few more inches and baby oil instead of shaving cream finished the job. I went out and ran some errands wearing shorts and no one started pointing and laughing, so I guess I did a passable job of it.

A lot of bicycle racers come up with all kinds of rationalizations for shaving their legs, including aerodynamics and road rash (abrasion) treatment (so why not shave the arms?), but I did it mostly out of curiosity. I'll probably keep shaving them so as to fit in, even if I am one of the slowest racers in Texas.

Besides, them gams look pretty damn sexy now.