INSPIRATIONAL: With All Her Races Canceled, She Abandoned Running and Took Up Cycling
/
DepositPhotos.com
For as long as she can remember, Mariah Carey has always loved to run.
“Even as a kid, I ran everywhere,” recalls the 42-year-old mother of three. “It’s just such a joyous way to get around. I’m one of those people who believes that we were indeed born to run.”
That spirit stayed with her through her teenage and college years, as she competed in track and field, and into adulthood, when she ran the first of her four lifetime marathons. She even marked her 40th birthday by running 40 miles.
And then came the coronavirus pandemic.
“Suddenly, all these races I’d signed up for were being postponed or canceled,” Carey said. “It was a real bummer.”
With nothing left to train for, Carey said, she faced a choice: Wallow in self-pity, or find a way to move forward. She chose the latter.
“F*** this,” Carey remembers thinking. “I’m taking up cycling.”
And so she did. Within a week, Carey had donated her running gear to Goodwill, recycled her collection of old Runner’s World magazines, and bought a mid-level road bike. Soon she had outfitted herself with cycling shorts, jerseys, shoes, helmet, and other accessories, and was logging 50 to 60 miles a week.
“What a thrill!” she said. “I’d forgotten what it was like to discover something new. Cycling is amazing. It’s like running, but faster and more exciting. And the equipment is so cool.”
Nearly five months in to her new athletic pursuit, Carey is already eyeing a second bicycle—“maybe a mountain or gravel bike,” she said—and is training for her first hundred-miler.
“It just goes to show you,” she said, “that even when things look bleak, there’s always a way through.”
“If running taught me anything, it’s that.”
