Don was riding laps on Lookout on four different bicycles to commemorate his sixty first birthday on this early Sunday adventure (1- his cruiser bike 2- the red Spot 29er seen in this picture  3. his snow bike and 4- his gravel bike). His fifth bicycle is at least semi-permanently attached to his trainer at his house in Golden.  He rode home and switched bicycles for each lap resulting in 6993 feet of vertical for his birthday rides.  (Go ahead and shake your head as you read this, but keep these figures in mind for your own 61st birthday cycling celebration.)

Don grew up in Maryland and attended Northwestern to get his degree in material science engineering.  After college he moved around a bit with his job and his interest in Ultimate Frisbee.  Though he does not admit to being overly competitive, he is very accomplished.  His job was making semiconductors for satellites for IBM- a division of the company that was eventually was sold to Lockheed Martin.  His avocation eventually transformed from Ultimate Frisbee to cycling and his move to Colorado initially facilitated his indulgence in both sports. He has ridden the 24 hours of Moab.  He has ridden in mainland Spain and Mallorca and looks forward to riding in France soon.  Though he has not raced too much, he has ridden Denver to Aspen and ridden the Triple Bypass.  His PR on Lookout is 24:05 when he was in his early 50’s but his last sub 25:00 was just last year.  He said that he had to “work really hard” for that one.

Don retired from the space industry and later taught chemistry and physics at Lakewood High School.  He helped start bikewalkgolden.org and he is currently on the Golden City Council.  

Oh,- his wife is “just about the same age” and she recently rode thirty one minutes up Lookout. 

Losing a few pedal strokes with age?…..not these two.