Pa. cyclist explains why she rode 10,000 miles over a year including in harsh weather

For many, 10,000 miles is something you do in a car each year. However, for a Pennsylvania woman, she challenged herself to ride her bicycle every day for a year and accumulated more than 10,000 miles and stops in 20 different states.

Christa Lepore, of Lords Valley, Pike County, enjoys riding her bicycle near her home and at her second residence in New Jersey. “I refer to myself as a free-style endurance cyclist. I’m not a road cyclist, I’m an everyday person who likes to ride a bike,” she said in a telephone interview.

Last year with her 50th birthday approaching, she made a quest to ride her bicycle every day for a full year.

“I wanted to do something big for my 50th,” she said. “I wanted to go into it doing something good, doing something grand, leaving my 40s behind me and coming into my 50s. I wanted to end it right and start it right.”

It’s a challenge she completed on May 28 with a total of 10,152 miles. A number that has significance with her includes 10,000 miles for the year and the 52 weeks of the year. “The 10,000 was only because I wasn’t strong enough to ride 12. I couldn’t do 2,000 miles through the winter. I would love to be able to say I rode 12,000 miles, but there was no way, it was just too cold. So I was happy with 10,000.”

Her passion for cycling continues as she’s hoping to be able to continue riding her bike every day through the end of 2025.

Lepore’s husband, Tony, encourages her to cycle and helps with her bike, but he is not an avid rider.

“He is such a big supporter. We travel and he helps me with my bike, loading it, and unloading when we travel. I wouldn’t fly anywhere this year because I was too deep into the challenge and I didn’t want to give it up so we drove all the places that we went to because I needed to take my bike.”

Lepore has always been a recreational biker from a young age.

“I’ve always loved my bike and the freedom that I have when I’m on my bike is not comparable to anything else,” she said. “I bike for soul. I love it. I love to be outside in nature and I like to make little challenges for myself. So each year I try to go further in my miles.”

Toward the end of May of 2024, she started a challenge where she would ride every day for 30 days for the American Heart Association in honor of her father.

When it was over, she reflected, “Wow I just rode my bike since May 28 through the whole month of June. I wonder if I could do it for July and then August and then September?’ And then I said, ‘I wonder if I can do this for a year?’ And that’s how it snowballed. It just kind of happened. I wanted to see how far I could push myself. I never rode through a winter before. It was so hard.”

She said the winter months were the most challenging because of the snow and cold temperatures. She even took her bike along on a trip to Minnesota.

“It was especially cold. I think that one of the hardest but coolest days that I had was Feb. 1. I got to ride my bike over Lake Superior and in Duluth, Minnesota, and the temperature was negative 6. It was brutal, it was so cold, but I was happy that I did it, I didn’t let the weather beat me and I got to do something epic like ride over Lake Superior,” she said.

In the winter, she wears snowboarding goggles and dresses in layers to stay comfortable.

She looked for roads and trails that were plowed so she didn’t have to pedal through deep snow.

She’s also had rides through heavy rain storms, but she stayed committed to her challenge. “The longest I rode in the rain was 50 miles. As long as it’s not lightning and the wind isn’t too heavy, I’ll ride in rain,” she said. She has protective rain gear including covers for her shoes that help her stay dry.

With the needs of daily life, it can be a challenge to find time to ride including on holidays.

“Thanksgiving was tough. This year we were in Bethlehem (Pa.),” she said. She woke up early to ride. “It was downpouring and it was pitch black. There were no lights anywhere. That was a really tough ride. It was cold and a torrential rain. I didn’t have a choice as it was the only time I had to ride through the day that I could do it.”

She was able to ride in 20 different states as they vacationed north to Maine, west to Minnesota and south to Florida. “I hit each state along the way,” she said.

Each day she rode at least two miles, but most days were longer excursions.

“My average was 10 miles on cold, winter days. As the weather warmed, my averages are 50 to 70 miles a day. Some days I would ride 80 miles,” she said.

To avoid muscle and joint fatigue, she does daily stretches and uses Advil when needed.

“I’m an endurance cyclist. I love to ride distance and my body is strong enough,” she said. “The way that I feel my best is to get right back to it. If I lay around and don’t do anything, I feel that my muscles ache more, but once I start moving them again I start to feel better and the soreness just goes away.”

She enjoys trails and paved bicycle pathways, staying off roads when she can. She has several favorite places to ride including Lancaster, Philadelphia and the long D & L Trail (Delaware and Lehigh Trail).

“That is my favorite trail in Pennsylvania. If you start in New Hope, Pennsylvania, you can take it all the way to Washington Crossing and visit all the historical places over there,” she said. In addition, she sees a wide variety of wildlife and birds along the way including deer, mink and eagles. “There’s so much to see and it’s usually very quiet.”

Her bicycle is a hybrid design that’s good for both trails and roadways, but the tires are not wide like on some fat bike designs that are better for sand and snow.

Through the course of the year, she had eight flat tires.

“I had to replace my back rim due to heavy cracks in the roads and potholes. I went through two bike chains and I added one cassette (the sprockets). So there’s been quite a bit of maintenance, but overall my bike did great,” she said.

She’s had the bike a few years and is ready to replace it.

“I have almost 20,000 miles on this bike and it’s only 3 years old, so I’m ready to retire it from its main daily duties,” she said.

What she learned about herself

Looking back on her physical and mental well-being a year ago to now, she realized a few things about herself.

“I learned that I’m stronger than the weather. I’m stronger than anybody’s criticism or anything that’s going on, I know that I can overcome. I feel so strengthened by this challenge that I proved to myself that no matter what it was that day that I could overcome it. My will was stronger than whatever life was throwing at me,” she said. “I can beat whatever is presented to me now. I can endure a lot.”

Physically, she feels stronger and has more endurance to go longer distances and can ride 70 miles a day for seven days straight.

“My body is strong enough to do that,” she said.

Now that she’s completed her quest, she is still riding every day.

“I don’t know how to stop now. It’s because I really enjoy what I get out of my daily rides. If I didn’t have it, I would miss it so much and it’s become such a part of me, I’m not ready to stop. But if there’s a really bad snowstorm, I’m not going out this year,” she said. “I would love to get to New Year’s but I’m not sure I’ll get that far,” she said about continuing her daily streak.

“It’s kinda like breathing, it’s something that’s become part of me now. It’s something that I do to function,” she said. “Without my daily ride I think I would be lost because it’s the first thing I think about when I wake up.”

Advice for endurance challenges

She’s hoping her experiences will inspire others to go biking and possibly do a challenge of their own.

“If they want to try and do something like this each day, I would say start off kind of slow. Work yourself up to more and more,” she said. For those having a goal of riding every day for a period of time, she said the cyclist needs to understand that it’s the new priority for their days. “It doesn’t matter what comes up, the goal is more important than anything else and surround yourself with people who are going to encourage you.”

Having people who understand what you are trying to accomplish can be the fuel that motivates you to continue.

“If they’re thinking about doing it, just do it, don’t give up and don’t let anything stop you,” she said about those who have a goal. “Do it no matter what. Do it when you’re tired, do it when you’re hungry, do it when you’re hurt, just do it every single day and you’ll feel so good at the end when you accomplished something so great. Mentally and physically, it’s euphoric.”

What challenge is next?

“My next challenge is actually not going to be a 365-day challenge and it’s not even mileage, it’s states. I want to ride in each of the 50 states. So far I have 32 states,” she said. To complete her quest, she’s planning to ride on the west coast and southern states. “I want to say I rode my bike in each state.” For Hawaii and Alaska, she plans to rent a bike because they will have to fly, but they will drive with their bicycles to the other continental states.

“We love road trips,” she said about exploring the country by vehicle and bicycle.

Reporting by Brian Whipkey, Pennsylvania Outdoors Columnist / Erie Times-News