Get Out Of My Way

My latest obsession is Mountain Biking.

After not having a bike for 10 years I am making up for lost time by biking every spare moment I can get.

And with each ride my endurance and confidence grows. Which is not necessarily a good thing since I don't lack self esteem.

My hubris got me into a sticky situation the other day.

Typically I go deep into the canyons behind our home and avoid the novice bikers that crowd the wide, fire roads.

But on this particular day I was short of time, so I took the road more traveled. I encountered numerous riders but as I motored past them I realized that instead of being annoyed I was enjoying the crowd to witness my new skills.

Soon I came to a section I knew well. I was going to drop down a hill, round a corner, then head up another long hill. If I went racing down the hill I could carry my momentum into the next climb.

As I came screaming down the hill there was a family leisurely riding along, as I weaved through them and continued around the corner I could tell they were intently watching me.

I beamed with pride.

I turned the corner to begin my climb and there was one rider, a woman in her late 50's, moving slowly ahead of me, drifting from one side of the road to the other. She was heading left, so I went right. But then she came right, so I went left...

We ran into each other in the middle of the road.

Luckily I had slowed down so we got tangled in each other but neither of us fell down.

It was at this moment I noticed two things:

1. As I looked down I saw this woman's right leg was a prosthetic leg
2. And from around the corner I could hear people yelling: Mom! Grandma!!

As they say, go big or go home.