For their 80th birthday, most people take life easy. They go out to dinner or maybe go to a movie to celebrate. Perhaps they enjoy a quiet birthday party with friends and family. Nothing more.
That’s not how Sandy Gettle enjoyed her big 8-0 birthday. She and her partner Warren Smock, 78, got on their bicycles and started riding from their home in the Sun City retirement community near Phoenix. She rode a mile for each year of her life. Actually, she rode that plus one more mile, for a total of 81 miles.
Let that sink in for a minute: 81 miles on a bicycle in a single day at age 80. Plus, she doesn’t ride an electric bike or have a throttle, which are popular these days with many seniors. She rides a traditional road-style Trek Madone bicycle that is powered solely by her pedaling.
“I wasn’t in a hurry and the roads here are mostly flat, so it wasn’t that hard,” said Sandy, describing the birthday ride that weaved through Scottsdale and Phoenix and toward Tempe.
It might not have seemed like a big deal to Sandy, but for most seniors that would be quite a feat. I’m an avid cyclist myself and 11 years younger than Sandy, but I have yet to ride that far in one day. Most cyclists never do.
Now that she’s 80, Sandy has also joined a Facebook group for cyclists age 80-plus called The Royal Academy of Octogenarian Cyclists. The group has more than 1,100 members, all of whom share Sandy’s devotion to bicycling. Quite a few of the group’s members are in their 90s.
See Related Story About the Royal Academy of Octogenarian Cyclists
Cycling Adds to Good Health
Sandy credits her staying active for her good health at age 80. Whether your choice of exercise is cycling or walking or something else, she says it’s important to keep moving.
“We always say ‘keep moving,’ that’s the main thing. No matter what you’re doing, keep moving.”
Riding a bicycle is a popular sport with many senior adults. It’s easy on the joints, good for the cardiovascular system, and at least to those of us who cycle, a lot more fun than walking. You can ride solo or make it a social occasion. Cycling has gained in popularity with seniors thanks in part to a growing network of off-road trails that make cycling safer.
“It (cycling) is good for you,” Sandy said. “It’s good for the environment and you’re not in a car that is polluting. It’s not expensive; it can be but it doesn’t have to be. It’s my social life too. We stop to have coffee. We go out to lunch. We make friends.”
“It (cycling) is good for you. It’s good for the environment and you’re not in a car that is polluting.”
Exercise, in whatever form, also has mental health benefits for senior adults. It can improve our mood and fight depression.
“It’s a stress reliever,” Sandy said. “I’ve often said that when I start out (cycling), the first five miles or so I’m thinking I should be home doing the laundry or I have things to do or calls to make. After that, you forget everything else and it’s fun. You just ride.”
Sandy hasn’t always been an avid cyclist. She came to the sport rather late in life, proving that it’s never too late to pick up a good habit.
“I was never an athlete. I was ‘mom’ and didn’t start riding until I was close to 50,” Sandy said. “I feel like it (cycling) has helped keep me healthy.”
“I was never an athlete. I was ‘mom’ and didn’t start riding until I was close to 50,” Sandy said. “I feel like it (cycling) has helped keep me healthy.”
Like many people who enjoy riding a bike, Sandy said she soon came to love the activity and yearned to ride longer distances.
“Once the kids were old enough to leave by themselves at home, I started riding and kept going farther and farther,” Sandy said. “I found out that I loved it.”
She and her family were living in Indiana at the time. Her first experience in long-distance cycling came when a friend at church asked her if she wanted to ride together to St. Louis, more than 200 miles away.
“I had no experience traveling that far,” Sandy recalls. “I had no idea what to do. It was three days of hot, July weather. I nearly died but I loved it.”
After that experience, Sandy said she resolved to make a point to ride more bike trips.
Since that time she’s made many more long-distance bike trips, including along the California coast, along the St. Lawrence River, and Vancouver Island.
Riding the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route
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One of her most memorable long-distance cycling trips was when she and two friends rode the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route, a 2,000-mile journey from Mobile, Alabama, to Owen Sound, Ontario. They used maps produced the the Adventure Cycling Association.
“I think my two women friends and I were the first ones who did it,” Sandy said. “We did it on our own (without a guide). It was 2,000 miles, with no hurry. We were not fast. We were all in our sixties. It’s the greatest sense of freedom to have everything you need on your bike and you meet wonderful people along the way, that’s really the best part of it.”
Sandy was 65 when she and her friends undertook that long bike journey. She said many people along the way were shocked and curious to see three older women on such an adventure.
“The question we were asked the most along the way was ‘how old are you?’”
Retiring to Arizona
After she retired from her job as a legal secretary, Sandy said a trip to Arizona changed her life.
“When I retired, I flew to Arizona for one week and just fell in love with it,” Sandy said. It helped that it was January and still cold in Indiana, so Arizona’s warm and sunny climate impressed her.
“I went home said ‘pack up, we’re moving.’”
The warm weather encouraged her cycling habit, which she could now enjoy year-round. Her husband passed away two years ago, but Warren, who was a long-time friend from Indiana she had known for 25 or more years, became her new life and cycling partner.
“He’s Mr. Bicycle,” Sandy said. “He rides twice as much as I do,”
“He’s Mr. Bicycle. He rides twice as much as I do,”
Sandy and Warren belong to a bicycle club in Sun City. She said they ride two or three times each week, with rides ranging from 30 to 60 miles per ride.
Bike safety is something Sandy said she takes seriously. She always wears a helmet and even though she’s an experienced cyclist she’s taken bike safety courses to improve her skills.
“I’ve had a couple of accidents, most everybody does, but you get over it and you get back out again,” Sandy said.
Even though she’s now 80, Sandy said she has no intention of giving up her interest in cycling. In fact, she’s planning ahead for more biking trips, possibly to include the Razorback Trail in Arkansas and trails in Utah and elsewhere. P
“As long as I’m able to ride, that’s what I like to do.”
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Want to Read More Stories About Seniors and Cycling?
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