Mansfield's Gilbert plans to finish cross-country bicycle race despite wreck
Recent surgery to strengthen her leg, broken last month, with a piece of metal has not kept Mickey Gilbert from planning to finish her coast-to-coast bicycle race.
"I was 276 miles from the finish," she said this week from a wheelchair in her Mansfield home.
Riding the rest of the way to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., will take a lot of work, though, and the retired Ohio Highway Patrol sergeant plans to spend all winter regaining her strength.
"I’m trying to be optimistic," she said.
The goal is to walk down the street by Thanksgiving, then take a 15-minute bike ride sometime before Christmas. If all goes to plan, she will return to her crash site in the Alleghany Mountains around Easter.
"I will finish," she said. "My tracker is still on."
Inspired by 'Inspired to ride' movie about inaugural Trans Am Bike Race
Gilbert grew up near Medina and moved to Mansfield after being assigned to the highway patrol's district headquarters in Bucyrus.
She spent half of her career patrolling the roads, then became an investigator. She was promoted to sergeant.
But in 2015, she retired and left those duties behind. She and her husband were also empty nesters by then, making her calendar incredibly void. Athletics seemed like a natural first option.
"I'm a runner at heart," Gilbert said. "I started cycling around 2010."
As fate would have it, the movie "Inspired to Ride" was released the year of her retirement. The film takes viewers along as bikers complete the inaugural Trans Am Bike Race, a 4,200-mile ride from Oregon to Virginia.
"It's a great movie," Gilbert said. "I watched it the first time, then I watched it several times after."
First Ironman, then the continent
To say the least, Gilbert was inspired.
She immediately signed up for — and handily completed — the 2016 Ironman Maryland, a triathlon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon.
"It gave me something to do," Gilbert said.
Along the way, the ultra-endurance newbie decided she would one day complete the race across the country. Her plan was to prepare for three years, then do it in 2020.
"Then COVID struck," Gilbert said. "The race was canceled."
Family commitments kept her from competing in 2021, so the next opportunity was 2022. Her long-awaited adventure finally began this June.
Roughing it for more than a month
The journey began in Portland, Oregon. Race organizers predetermined the route across the country. Since the event is entirely self-supported, riders had to either carry essentials, or purchase them along the way.
"There are times you could go 80 to 100 miles without any water or food," Gilbert said.
The race uses bike paths wherever possible, so about one-third of the route was away from motor vehicles.
The trails through the Rocky Mountains were some of the Ohioan's favorites.
"It was beautiful, so breathtaking," Gilbert said. "You're only going about five miles an hour, so you can take it all in."
It took a month to get close to home. The tiny tent she toted with her became her temporary domicile.
"I would either camp or sleep in hotels," Gilbert said. "I slept in a post office. That was a good time. It was the fourth of July, and I was across from a saloon."
Other overnight shelters included a fire station and the underside of a stairwell.
On day 32, she nearly doubled her mileage and logged 150 to get to the Buckeye State.
"I was tired of Indiana," she said with a laugh.
She was glad to be home. Her route took her from Cincinnati to Columbus and up to Mount Vernon.
"We have some of the best trail systems in the country," Gilbert said. "I rode very little road. It was almost all trail in Ohio."
She wanted to ride into Mansfield, but that wasn't where the race organizers wanted her to go.
"You can’t deviate, or you get disqualified," Gilbert said.
She rode southeast to Steubenville, through the West Virginia panhandle and into Pennsylvania, unaware that her journey was about to become tragic.
'I knew I was in trouble' after early morning wreck on bridge
Throughout her trip, Gilbert learned that riding during the day was a lot hotter than riding at night, and she got used to being semi-nocturnal.
It was after one such sultry day this summer that she decided to attack a particularly rough portion of the trail early the next morning.
"I had gotten up about two o'clock in the morning," Gilbert recalled.
She was on the Great Alleghany Passage, which stretches from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland. She had ridden the trail once before in her life, which made her feel comfortable tackling it after dark.
"I knew it was not the smartest, but it was a risk," Gilbert said.
She describes the surrounding terrain as being "a white water rafting community."
By 3:30 a.m., she was riding downhill very quickly. She came to a wooden bridge, and is a little hazy on what happened next.
"All I know is I saw the railing, which kept me on the bridge, thank God," Gilbert said. "I was probably doing 13 or 14 miles an hour. I was going very fast."
Her hip took the brunt of the impact. Her phone went flying. In shock, she relied on her paramilitary training to get herself standing and oriented.
"I knew I was in trouble," Gilbert said. "I knew I probably was not going to ride out of there."
She found her phone, and explained to a dispatcher why she was riding the rugged trail at 3:30 a.m.
Fortunately, the paramedics loaded her gently and took her to Uniontown Hospital for surgery.
"They inserted a rod and some pins," Gilbert said. "The fracture is actually a femur fracture. They still call it a hip fracture, but it's a high femur fracture."
'Going to do it in the daylight'
It wasn't long until the injured athlete was heading back to Mansfield to recover.
"That was a very long car ride home," Gilbert said.
Of the dozen riders who started the race, she had been the only one remaining. Technically, she still is, because the race director is allowing her to continue riding once she has recovered.
She still has a long way to go before she heads back to the trail. Most days, she's stuck in a wheelchair.
"I can use a walker a little bit," Gilbert said. "It seems like every day I'm able to do more and more."
She will soon begin physical therapy, which could take a couple of months. A lot depends on how well her injuries heal.
One thing that's certain, though, is that Gilbert is determined to make a full recovery and return to the trail where she wrecked.
"The goal will be to get back on the bike and finish this thing in April," she said. "But I’m going to do it in the daylight. I don't think I will ride that trail in the dark again."
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield woman to finish cross-country bicycle race despite wreck
