Joyride150

Tresa was heading out to one of kind.
Kieran and I headed out to Joyride 150.

I'd never been here before, but it seemed really cool.
I was concerned about whether it would be too advanced for Kieran.
And some parts he was tentative and crashed slightly. But Kieran is a tough customer. And we went through the XC trail and had our challenges on the trial run. But with some practice in other sections of Joyride, he got the confidence to tackle the XC run again, and again. We did it 6 or 7 times.

By the end he was tired, although he wouldn't admit it, or he didn't know he was suffering from muscle fatigue.

He wiped his brow a few times so I knew he was getting a pretty good workout. A lot like mama & papa's spinning classes but more fun, and definitely more risk.

I was pretty impressed with his willingness to try again, eventhough I was definitely not pushing him to try again. I was trying to keep him in the easy area, but he wanted to try again and again. I was the more nervous one ready to catch him if he fell. And he did fall a few times, but he learned to navigate the downhills and hop off the bike on the uphills when he couldn't get his little legs to get him to the top, and he'd push his 14" bike up. Sometimes I'd hear "Papa...I need help" and I hopped off my bike to help. After a few times around the course I knew where I needed to give him a hand. Actually there was only one section. All the others that he previously crashed on, he figured out how to ride them.

There were a lot of kids there. And you know what. You'd think trick bike kids are just rebels. These were some of the nicest kids I've ever met. They would stop to help Kieran if I was too far back, they'd let him push his bike over the hump instead of riding past him and possibly clipping him and then ditching their own bike. And if they did pass him they made sure that he wouldn't get hurt. I wiped out once going over the little bridge where the boards get skinnier and skinnier and it's a good thing the beams are well padded. And one of the little kids asked me if I was ok. I was ok...just embarrassed. And thankful for the heavy padding.

It was definitely a place I would go again to take Kieran. After 6pm it slows down. Most of the kids are in the half-pipe area, and so the XC area is relatively empty. So I wouldn't be in a rush to go there during the peak hours.
My iPhone camera sucks when it's inside a building. Click on the Joyride 150 link at the top for nicer photos. I couldn't take too many photos. I was busy keeping a close eye on Kieran.

After about the 6th time around I could tell he was getting pretty fatigued.
I think the 2nd or 3rd time around he was ringing his bell on his bike on the XC trail. And all the guys on the half pipe area were looking at him. It was brilliant. I had a good time although I was a bit of nervous wreck. But Kieran held his own and conquered it.
Good for him, man.