Senior cyclists share fitness lifestyle with students

Sixty years separate La Conner High School students and a group of local senior cyclists.

But their shared commitment to exercise has seen them frequently cross paths here.

On June 7, they enjoyed a downtown rendezvous at Calico Cupboard.

Members of teacher Suzanne Marble’s lifetime fitness physical education class met with the seasoned riders over homemade cinnamon rolls for which the First Street café and bakery is famous.

Still, the big treat was bonding over their health and fitness lifestyles.

“We met this group in the fall,” Marble told the Weekly News. “We thought they were just out for a (leisurely) ride.”

Marble was leading the class on one of its regular bike-hike outings, an outdoor curriculum that has included what she calls an “epic ride” on the McGlinn Island trail near the Hole-in-the-Wall.

The senior group was on one of its many rides along “Fred’s Loop,” named for member Fred Loffer and a course that runs from Tillinghast Drive to the La Conner Marina north basin, through downtown, out to the gate just south of Conner Waterfront Park and back.

More chance encounters followed.

“We kept seeing you guys around town,” Loffer told the students during a visit to campus last week.

“We kept meeting,” recalled Brad Bradford, who covers the loop on his stylish pedal-assisted three-wheel Raleigh. “I ended up asking, ‘when are you going to join us?’”

It heartened Loffer, Bradford and cohorts to see Marble and the students out and about so often.

“Suzanne was always with them – whether front, back or behind,” Bradford said.

There was a reason for that.

“I tell the kids,” Marble quipped, “that for them to get an A they have to keep up with the old lady.”

The retirees have been making the grade, too.

Bradford routinely logs 100 miles or more each month and has pedaled over 2,700 miles since the group began riding, a distance nearly equal to that between Los Angeles and New York City.

For both groups, outdoor exercise has been a way to shake off pandemic-related doldrums.

Marble said the lifetime fitness class is a direct response to COVID-19, when for two school years students took online classes and video games were often substituted for physical activity.

“After COVID,” she explained, “we were just trying to get back in the swing of things.”

Her students are all-in for that.

“It’s a chance to be outside and get some fresh air instead of sitting in classrooms all day,” said freshman Effie McGaughey, who noted that the McGlinn Island ride was “quite challenging, but we all pulled through.”

“We do a lot of different activities to help us stay active through life,” added McGaughey’s classmate, Christian Fix, a Braves’ soccer player.

In addition to hiking and biking, the class adds yoga, weightlifting, basketball and other indoor pursuits to the mix.

Marble said the adult cycle group –Loffer, Bradford, Rich Cushing, Bill Kohlhaase, Rick Linton and Ollie Iversen – along with former La Conner mayor and distance runner Bud Moore, has served as role models for the class.

“We came across Bud on the boardwalk,” said Marble. “He’s 90-years-old and has had knee replacement surgery and is still out there walking.”

Marble said she is thankful the district supports lifetime fitness instruction for its students. It has received a grant allowing the district to purchase 45 student mountain bikes, helmets and vests.

“It’s a real good program,” Cushing said of Marble’s class. “There should be more of that.”

Marble’s student aide, senior Rachel Cram, said La Conner is an ideal location for the class.

“We’re a small town,” she said. “It’s safe to walk and bike around.”

To show their appreciation and admiration for the adult riders, Marble and Cram presented each with blue La Conner schools t-shirts.

Bradford spoke for all in accepting the gifts.

"I feel so privileged,” he told the students and Marble, “to live in this community with these guys and you.”