By Sara McLaughlin
Emily Parker is a 15-year-old student at Halls High School.
But she is not your run of the mill sophomore girl. While most fifteen-year-old girls fill their days thinking about cute boys, makeup and spending time with their friends, Emily’s focus is on sculpting herself into the best mountain biker she can be. She thanks her dad a lot for that. He started her riding at a young age, driving her all over the place for races and buying her all of her bikes and riding gear. “He played such a huge part in my riding,” said Emily. For 15, she’s very well spoken and quite an accomplished young woman. When she isn’t conquering mountains with the boys, she’s playing her bassoon in the Knoxville Youth Symphony Orchestra, cooking, or spending time with friends and family.
Sara: If you were going to tell me one story about riding that really sticks out in your head, what would it be?
Emily: I think this one time I was riding the Virginia Creeper Trail with some friends. So we were riding and I ran out of food. I bonked so badly …
S: Bonked?
E: Yeah, bonked is when you completely run out of calories. I was totally seeing things and my friend Jonathon was asking me if I wanted him to pull me the rest of the way and apparently all I kept saying was “There are horses, Jonathon!” And he was like, “Umm, no!” Um, yeah, that was probably the most memorable ride ever. The ride was about 60 miles, like 30 up and down and we got into snow and stuff. It was a lot of fun … until I started seeing things.
S: So do you just mountain bike or do you road ride? Are you pretty versatile?
E: I’ll road ride if I feel like it. I’m actually about to start training here at the beginning of next month. My coach is about to start making me road ride because it’s better training than mountain biking.
S: Better in what ways?
E: Well it’s hard to keep your heart rate up so high on a mountain bike because you are always running into rocks and stuff, you know? On a road bike you can just go as hard as you need to.
S: On average how fast do you think you are going while mountain biking?
E: Well, on a flat trail probably about 7 or 8 miles an hour on just a casual conversational ride and probably around 10 on a race, depending on the course.
S: What about down hill, when you’re just crushing it?
E: Probably up to like 15 – 17 miles an hour.
S: How long have you been riding?
E: I think we determined 7 or 8 years or something. On the way up to the Vermont trip dad and I tried to determine that. I think age 8 is what we decided on. That seems right; I was definitely riding bikes when I was 8,I started out on the greenways. You know the greenway over around Melton Hill Lake? It was a lot smaller back then, dad had built a sail boat and we used to go sail and I just loved riding my little bitty candy rider on that greenway when we weren’t on the boat. Those were probably the first bike rides we did together. Then we did the Cades Cove loop, which is a pretty big ride for a second grader.
S: Do you ride for someone specifically then?
E: Mmm hmm, I ride for a team based out of Chattanooga called Vantaggio/Specialized. So that’s why I have the two Specialized bikes. We’re sponsored by River City Cycles, which is also out of Chattanooga.
S: Did you ride for Harpers Bike Shop in Knoxville or did you just wear their logo on your jerseys?
E: I think I sort of rode for them. I wrote that down on my race registrations and they always gave me a good deal. So I guess you could say I used to ride for them. Plus we have all done quite a bit of riding together.
S: You’re the youngest one on the Vantaggio/Specialized team, is that right?
E: Yeah the next youngest is maybe 22. Most of them are in their 30’s and have kids. But yeah, so we drove up to Windham, New York first which is just a ski mountain and we raced there, which is just part of the national series. And then we drove to Vermont the next week and that was the actual national championships. To compete you have to have enough UCI (Union Cyclist International) points. You have to qualify in so many races to do the nationals, so I did the cross country race and came in third. All the girls that beat me were like 17 and 18. But I was really pleased with how I rode. And then the next day or two afterwards I did the Super D, which is what I won.
S: I heard that was a horrible race.
E: I actually got a concussion when I did Super D at Windham. It’s mostly a downhill race. There was this super fast descent, kind of gravely. I was able to go fast on that but then there was this rock, and It wouldn’t have been a big deal if it wasn’t so, so” she pauses looking for the right word, “so slanty!” But I just bombed off down it and just drilled my head into the ground and then tumbled down the mountain the rest of the way.
S: So what specifically does one have to do to qualify?
E: You have to be in the top ten of so many NORBA (National Off-Road Bicycling Association) sanctioned races. The SERC (Southeastern Regional Championship) series that my team does can qualify you, so I managed to come in the top ten a couple of times. And I qualified in the Super D ‘cause I got top ten in it the weekend before in Windham.(Emily is so modest, what she actually meant to say was that she won first for the women’s race in Super D). **See platform picture**
S: So how long was the Vermont ride?
E: It wasn’t very long, maybe 15 miles, but it was seriously one of the most brutal 15 miles of my life. It was mostly climbing … insane climbing. Like 80 degree angles with rocks. It was gross!
S: But you won out of the women race right?
E: Well, I won Super D. Super D is not nearly as challenging as the cross country race. But I got third place in Vermont, and I was really pleased with the way I rode.
S: When you train road bikes who do you train with?
E: Kimberly Fasczewski, she’s the manager of our team and she’s a coach.
S: How rigorous do you think the training will her will be?
E: Well, it probably won’t be as hard as what an older person would do. She doesn’t want to overwork me because I’m still growing. Emily laughs. At least a little bit anyway, you know … stuff is happening. It will probably be about four days a week and then a big ride on the weekend. I’ll have to start riding the stationary bike, which I hate, but I’ll have to get over that.”
S: So I was wondering, who is your biggest inspiration?
E: Its sort of cliché, but its Lance Armstrong. I like him because my mom had the female version of cancer that he had. It resulted in a lot of bad things and she has since ended up in a wheelchair. But it’s always been such a big amazing thing to me that he ended up the way he did, coming out of it and getting through because I know how big of a challenge that was. It was just something that I could really relate to.
S: What you find to be the most challenging part of your sport?
E: “Hmmmm,” she pauses for a moment, “I’ll have to think about that one for a minute. There are a lot of challenging aspects to the sport. A lot of times for me it’s just the motivation to ride when it’s so hot or so cold outside. I am not a fan of riding in the rain either. It’s always worth it once I get going though you know? Its like they say, the hardest part of running is putting on the shoes.”
S: What do you like the most about it?
E: I like the feeling that I have done something really challenging. It’s very rewarding to know that you have drug yourself through the woods all day, up and down mountains. It’s something most people can’t do. There is a lot of pride in it for me. And I love going out and eating with everyone after a big ride, there is a sense of community in it.
S: Where then do you see yourself ten years down the road with this sport?
E: I’ll be about 25 then … hmmm, I’d really like to go to Worlds, which is sort of like Nationals, but its an international affair. The location changes every year.
This year it was in Italy. But you have to be 17 to enter. I’d really like to go to that at some point. I doubt I’d win by 25 though because so many other countries are SO much more focused on cycling. My goal isn’t really to win, necessarily, qualifying is hard enough. I just want to get there and ride to the best of my ability. As a woman cyclist you peak around 30. I can only get stronger with age, I mean, that is like my whole life over again. If I just keep riding, especially at an elevated level, surely I’ll go somewhere.
S: What advice would you give to the novice rider looking to improve?
E: I would definitely say not to give up until you have ridden a nice bike, because a bad bike can make for
a horrible experience. It [riding] is a really rewarding experience. You don’t have to win races and make money. Its just fun, just make sure you’re having fun and you’ll always like it, you know! And don’t have any expectations, just go out and ride. I’m really bad about having expectations of myself, but you shouldn’t. When you have too many expectations about things they become a lot less fun.
S: Do you and your dad still ride a lot together?
E: Yeah, we do. It gets kind of crazy during the school year. But we try to ride together at least once a week, we usually mountain bike for about two hours, maybe about 15 miles.
S: That’s awesome that you guys get to share that. My final question is this, if you could pick one adjective to describe riding and one to describe yourself what would they be?
E: About riding, probably challenging, honestly, every bit of a ride is always a challenge, about myself, probably adaptable. I can’t think of a better word to describe being comfortable with myself. I don’t worry about too much.
At 15, that’s the way you should be, I tell her.
