"THE MAN, THE LEGEND" OR THE KIDMAN.

It turns out, after checking some results etc next year will make thirty years of Mountain Bike Racing for me. When I started out I wasn't any good to tell the truth. I had no idea how to go down a hill. I seem to remember at the Whiskeytown Downhill (which took me over four hours and it wasn't downhill) that children on tricycles were passing me on the first descent. My friend Tom Pickett assured me I could do better and he took me out and gave me some pointers. My next race I did a little better and by the end of the 80's I was an accomplished "downhiller". The down hills back then were more like easy Super Ds, but it is what we had.
I digress. I have been doing this for quite a while now. When I finished the Sisters Stampede Race on Sunday Alex McClaren called me a legend. In the photos of the race the caption under my photo is "The Man, the Legend". Well I don't feel like a legend and in fact the term "man" isn't what I think of when I ride a mountain bike. The name for someone like me comes from Kathy's sister Jan. When Kathy and I got married all those years ago, Jan was a teenager. She wasn't sure what the husband of her sister was. A real grownup or still a kid, so she called me a Kidman. That is what I am when I ride my mountain bike a kidman. I just happen to have been doing longer than most others. I still love it. I look forward to every ride. It is hard to explain my feeling other than it is what I felt when I first started to ride a bike when I was a kid. The exhilaration of the downhill, the sweat and feeling of the muscles working on the uphill. Why do I like it more than road biking. Well I don't really, other than we just don't have many roads in Central Oregon that do a bike justice, at least for me. I like the curves, the jumps the fun. I do not like to mindlessly do long workouts. That is why I don't run, or do triathlons. This is not to dis those sports or activities. My exercise needs to include fun, because I am a kidman. I have never grown up. I like a session at the Lair when I ride. Yesterday I had to check out "Funner". It is open and it still funner than most other trails. Some will read this and say, but Don I know you do intervals on the trainer, isn't that mindless exercise? Yes it is, but I keep those sessions as short as I can so I have time to do fun riding later. In fact this year I found a place to do my intervals on my mountain bike. It is a sweet uphill which means a sweet downhill afterwords. The Kidman in me found a way to make the intervals fun also.
If you see me out there be ready to have some fun.
Don