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Age is no obstacle for this 81-year-old bicyclist
Age is no obstacle for this 81-year-old bicyclist
By Blair Anthony Robertson - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Catherine McCormick is about to reveal her age, and she's not entirely thrilled about it.
It's not that she's ashamed she's old enough to have lived through the Great Depression or that she remembers growing up in Orangevale when car-clogged Greenback Lane was really a lane.
No, it's just that she doesn't feel 81 or look 81 or act 81.
How many 81-year-old grandmothers, after all, have a custom-made road racing bike and answer the front door clad entirely in Lycra?
McCormick is a cyclist who just happens to be 81. Each day when the sun comes up, she is riding her bike, getting ready to ride or thinking about riding.
That might explain why she's about the same weight – 125 pounds – as she was when Eisenhower was in office.
She is also known to enter races. She has so many medals from senior games past that she doesn't know what to do with them all.
"Just thinking about getting out on the bike trail and riding along, I could just do it all day – and sometimes I do," she said with a smile. "I don't know what I would do if I couldn't ride my bike. It's just about the major thing in my life."
McCormick, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Rancho Cordova not far from the American River bike trail, has seven children and 16 grandkids.
She can trace her bike-riding adventures to fourth grade, when she pedaled near the family fruit farm in Orangevale.
It was not until she had her own kids – and the kids all had 10-speed bikes that began to collect dust in the garage – that she really got into cycling.
"When we got old enough, we were driving and it just wasn't cool to ride your bike any more," said her daughter, Babe McCormick, 45, who grew up to be a triathlete and personal trainer.
"The bikes just sat there and then she said, 'If you're not going ride them, I'm going to.' As soon as she got on the bike, it just made her feel so much better. When she got home from work she looked forward to getting on the bike trail."
Catherine McCormick started out riding a few miles at a time with a friend. Then she found she could go farther and farther and her legs and lungs grew stronger. After her husband died of lymphoma in 1984, she bought a road bike and she increased her speed.
One day when she was 62, she opened the newspaper and learned a senior games event was going to be held in Sacramento.
"The story said they were going to have cycling and I said, 'I can do that,' " McCormick recalled.
It was that simple.
Two decades later, she is a veteran of many senior games and has competed on the national level. She also holds records in her age group.
She doesn't train. She doesn't taper. There are no intervals or recovery rides. She simply rides her bike. And then she rides some more.
Her exploits have not gone unnoticed. Sacramento bike builder Steve Rex, who hand-crafted McCormick's bike a decade ago, often spots her while he's riding to his shop in midtown.
"She is always out on the trail in the morning. It is just awesome to see her there," said the owner of Rex Cycles. "She is inspirational. I just hope that I'm doing it at that age."
Rex, who has made bike frames for people of all ages and from many walks of life, added, "She is an example of the fact that anyone can be a good cyclist. I'm sure she has some natural talent, but she just got out and did it – and that's what it takes to be a cyclist."
McCormack is a modest cycling champion. She says she just loves to be on the bike and especially loves the 32-mile trail next to the American River – the scenery, the people and the variety of wild creatures she gets to see.
She admits she is slowing down as she grows older, but she hasn't lost her competitive spirit.
"When I get passed by the younger riders, I think I know how they feel. I wish I could go that fast," she said.
But if someone passes on the trail who looks to be about the same age?
"I try to pass him back," she said.
Though she tries not to let her age define her, McCormick says she tries to cherish time and manage it as best she can.
"The days go by so fast," she said.
Last year, her older sister died at 86, and it jolted McCormick.
"That makes you realize you are not immortal," she said.
