WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MARCH 2024

The Beginning
On April 29, 1990, at the age of 23, I started cycling seriously. That first ride was a grand total of 2 miles long, and I had to take a break after the first mile … I was much more out of shape than I thought! For the next few years I put on about 1000 miles a season, and thought I was doing really well.

Then I started increasing my distances, and in the summer of 1994, I rode my first imperial century (100 miles in a day) –- alone. It was so difficult and painful that I said I would never do a ride that long again.

The next year I rode Jasper to Banff (the Icefield Parkway – Canada) in 3 days, which had been a goal of mine since I was 17, when my father did it. I loved it!! And that would have to be when I really started to cycle! Cycling had taken hold and had become a passion!

I did another imperial century (100 miles in a day) in 1997 -– alone again -– but this time I rode smarter and ate better, and it was not a problem. I did centuries just about every year until 2018 … usually several each year.

The Racing Years
In 1998, at the age of 31, I decided to try racing!

I figured I was pretty fast, but had no one to compare myself with because I did most of my cycling alone. I still remember my first race – a very hilly course (for Manitoba), cold, raining, on a borrowed bicycle with Time Trial (TT) gearing. I DNF’d.

For the next 3 years I struggled to train to develop speed – and I was successful to a certain extent, but it was a lot of work. I tried out road racing -– and always got dropped. I tried crits -– and did OK with them. I even won a few! But I hated them because of the high risk of accidents. And I tried TTs -– and did OK, and liked them. In my 3rd year of racing, I only rode TTs.

What’s Next
Meanwhile that year, 2000, I had been riding some longer distances on my own -– centuries and 200 km rides exploring the neighborhood, and I really enjoyed those. So I began considering devoting my time to touring instead of racing.

I looked into touring over the summer, but it just wasn’t quite what I wanted to do. Late in the year, I remembered that I had cut out an article from the newspaper about something called “Randonneuring” quite a few years earlier.

Randonneuring?
I dug the article out, reread it, and decided that was what I wanted to try. It took me a couple months to track down the club in Manitoba -– they weren’t well advertised -– and in the spring of 2001, I decided to try my first 200K (200 kilometres in 13.5 hours including all breaks) brevet. If it went well, I would do the 300K (300 kilometres of cycling in 20 hours including all breaks) … but I wasn’t committing myself to anything.

About a month before the 200K, I tore the rotator cuff in my left shoulder, and the only bicycle I could ride was my heavy Mongoose mountain bike because it didn’t require me to put weight on my left arm. So, I rode that first 200K with my mountain bike! I was very tired, but I enjoyed the ride and decided to do the 300K. I rode that on my road bicycle, was much less tired than I had been on the 200K.

After feeling so good on both the 200K and 300K, I decided to do the 400K (400 kilometres of cycling in 27 hours including all breaks), that went well too, and next thing I knew I was on the 600K (600 kilometres of cycling in 40 hours including all breaks)! I was hooked! I loved long, long, long distance cycling! I also did a few more centuries and 200K rides on my own throughout that year, just for fun!

Going Long!
I had heard about the Rocky Mountain 1200 (in 2002) and the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200 (in 2003) that year. 1200 kilometres of cycling with a time limit of 90 hours including all breaks!! I really wanted to do the PBP, so I decided to use the RM1200 as a test ride since it was in my country and close to relatives.

I had a plan all worked out for training over the winter prior to it – but that plan came to a screeching halt on November 1st when I dropped a pot of boiling water on my left foot which resulted in a bad 3rd+ degree burn.

I was off my bicycle and off my feet entirely for the next 3 months – so much for training! I couldn’t even lift upper body weights because as soon as my heart rate increased, my foot would swell and become very painful. But the first shoe I tried on when most of the dressings were removed was a cycling shoe! And at the end of February 2002, I finally got back onto my exercise bicycle, and started working diligently to get ready for the RM1200. That experience made me even more determined to do it than ever.

I completed the Rocky Mountain 1200 in 2002, the Paris-Brest-Paris 1200 in 2003, the Great Southern Randonee 1200 in 2004, and the Last Chance Randonnee 1200 in 2005. I have completed brevets of one sort or another every year since 2001, and I’ve also had the opportunity to tour parts of the Australia, Canada, the US, Europe, the UK and Asia. In 2005 and 2006, I raced 24-hour Time Trials which I also thoroughly enjoyed!

This chart shows the total number of each length of event I did up to and including part of 2018.



But cycling long distances was so much more than just turning pedals.

It was fun, adventurous and challenging. It was difficult and pushed me beyond what I thought I could do. It was rewarding, fulfilling. It was my life.

I met wonderful people, many of whom I still count as friends. Best of all, on the 2003 Paris-Brest-Paris, I met the man who would become my husband and we got to know each other on several other long events and training rides in various parts of the world. Cycling long distances was a key part of our relationship.

And Now?

In 2018, my husband had a workplace accident which resulted in a severe traumatic brain injury. Thankfully we are still cycling, but not like we did.