In Seattle, May is Bike to Work Month and the 15th of May is Bike to Work Day. It’s great: droves of bikers are out there peddling their way to work, sharing their stories and bonding over Cliff Bars. This is the third year that I’ve participated, and while it’s going to sound really cheesy, I have to say that biking changed my life—and I am by no mean a serious biker. (Yes, I wear biking shorts, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to shedding the baggier, less revealing basketball shorts that I pull over them before leaving the house.)

I spent a good many of my younger years smoking and drinking and not paying any mind to my health. About 5 years ago I got invited to play on a soccer team. I loved playing soccer when I was younger and had always wanted to get back into it as an adult. So I accepted. I nearly died the first game. I had no idea how out of shape I was (though I guess the fact that I was getting winded going up a flight of stairs should have tipped me off).

I stuck to it though. Around the same time I started becoming friends with some guys at work who were into playing basketball at lunch. So I started that as well. I continued to play more soccer and basketball and spend more time with the people I was playing with. The tipping point for me was when my brother-in-law offered to sell me his very nice road bike for next to nothing. This happened to be right at the time that I finally decided to give up smoking for good, right at the beginning of May. So I started biking to work 22 miles every day, playing basketball at lunch and soccer in the evenings.

I had never felt better.

The most important thing that I learned on this little journey to a more active lifestyle was that you have to find what works for you. For me it was chasing a ball, liberating myself from commuter traffic and most importantly finding a network of people who were into the same. Like everyone involved in Bike to Work Day.