She’s at it again.
Bike Friday owner Carol Collins went to the National Senior Games in Cleveland, Ohio, in July, and walked away with three more gold medals.
Collins, who lives in Houston, won her age group in the 5K and 10K time trials, and the 20K road race. That age group? The 90-94 category.
At age 92, Collins is a numerous gold medal winner.
According to reports from her daughter, Cathy Brechtelsbauer, Carol won the 5K in 15:26, the 10K in 38:08 and the 20K road race in 1:03:52.
Collins won both the time trials, the 5K and the 10K.“I thought you would be interested in these reports I sent to family and friends from the National Senior Games,” Cathy said. “You would be proud to know she wore her Bike Friday jersey, so it got in a lot of photos. And of course, the bike received a lot of attention. The other bikes seemed to be of the highly competitive sort.”
Carol proved to be quite the media magnet.
“Many people wanted her picture,” Cathy said. “Also, she was interviewed by NPR reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty.”
Extremes, it seems, define Carol.
“She was quite a celebrity for being the oldest woman in the race and for having the tiniest wheels,” Cathy said. “Soooo many people wanted their picture taken with her, even the National Senior Games officials. See photo below with granddaughter Chris Arnette Daugherty too. In the 2nd photo, the medals seem different colors, but they are all gold.”
Cathy said the road race course was up and over an overpass — twice! That meant four long uphills!
“When I saw her off the bike pushing it up part of the first uphill, I knew it was going to take awhile,” Cathy said. “But she must have made up for it on the downside. Then I thought I saw her take a wrong turn and miss the start of her second lap. But someone must have got her around in the right direction.
“Her time was 1:03:52 — faster than I expected. And get this: there were two or three cyclists who came in after her, even though they started at the same time! The announcer got all excited at mom’s finish and called her over to ask some questions. She answered that “It was all right, except for the hills.”
“Pretty funny, since the course was nothing but the up and down. He got her to agree to come to the Games in Minneapolis in 2015.”
Victorious!