Six years ago Floridian Linda Murphy bought a bike so she could enjoy cycling with her family. She pedaled with her peeps, and then some. Last year she also won the Masters World Championship in cross-country mountain biking. Yeah: best on the planet. This week Murphy offers Girls Teach Girls to Mountain Bike, a clinic on the basics for women and girls.The 3-hour seminar will cover a score of fundamentals that were essential in Murphy's young and stellar run as a professional mountain biker. She learned early that mastery of technique and such visceral and greasy technical matters as fixing a busted bike chain on the spot were ways of harnessing enormous power as an athlete, nurturing an undaunted self-image, and getting a good old-fashioned rush to boot. "When a woman goes down what she thought was an impossible hill, it's a huge power thing," she says.
The clinic is being offered in tandem with the 6th leg of the 8-part Florida State Championship Series to be held the next day. Murphy, a 4-time winner of the North Miami competition, begins her spiel at 1:00 p.m. at Oleta River State Park, 3400 NE 163rd St., North Miami. Registration is free. Contact [email protected] or call 352-873-9279. -- By Victor Cruz
Speak Out
Life lessons from Glades activist
THUR 11/20
She's colorful and bright, like a mid-July morning on Biscayne Bay. But don't let her sunny disposition fool you: Mabel Miller, former teacher, environmental activist, and outstanding South Florida citizen, is no pushover. Since arriving in Miami in 1947 she's become one of the strongest advocates for protecting the Everglades and Florida Bay from overuse, pollution, and development. A close friend of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Miller tells new generations of activists how to save Florida's nature. The lecture is hosted by the Florida Trail Association, which meets at 7:00 p.m. at Palmetto Senior High School, 7460 SW 118th St. Admission is free. Call 305-386-8559. -- By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
