BTS #16 A Beginner's Perspective

This morning didn't start out looking promising for a ride. It was cold and drizzling, it rained last night and the sky was not looking good. Jim and I had lined up a sitter to watch the kids so we could actually ride together so come heck or high water, I was going out for a ride.

I must have been bitten by the mountain biking bug because for the first time ever, I was the one begging to go mountain biking while Jim was saying that we should probably hit the road. Like any good husband, he gave in, shot Euro Dave an email and found an appropriate place to ride. We hit the road and were on our way to Powhite.

On the way we saw that Euro D and Plassman were already there and Mason and Jason were on their way. We arrived and rode around until we ran into Euro D and Plassman. They said that they were rolling super slow and turned around to head in our direction. Before I had even clipped in they had vanished through the trees. As I tried to catch up, weaving around turns and dodging trees, I thought to myself, "I don't understand how it's possible to go any faster without slamming into a tree and looking like one of the witch decorations at Halloween."  The only way I could make sense of it is that they must have super Jedi powers. It's only then that I can fathom how they could dodge the trees at those speeds.  Then I started to think about it in Yoda's terms.

"Use the force." Turn your front wheel and your back wheel will follow.

"Truly wonderful the mind of a child is." Stop thinking like a mom and worrying about how you will carry the 1 year old if you broke your collar bone.

"The fear of loss is the path to the dark side."  You must commit when riding over logs, up rooty inclines and down steep drop-offs.

"Always in motion the future is." Look to where you want to go, not where you are.

It became clear to me. To become a better mountain biker I must simply become a Jedi knight like Obi-Dave and Obi-Jeff Kenobi.