MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Fall 2017

FALL 2017 ML BLUE 37 ATHLETE PROFILE How does a bookworm, who admittedly couldn’t run a mile until she was 20, wind up completing her second Ironman, serving as the team manager for a U.S. cyclocross team, writing a book series encouraging female cyclists, all while carving out a home in Collingwood? If this sounds like an unimaginable transformation (and a crazy schedule), you haven’t met Molly Hurford yet. Small in stature, Molly is mighty in all other respects. She’s passionate about cycling, about women in sport and about her adopted Canadian community. We caught up with Molly shortly after she finished her second Ironman. Mountain Life: Tell us a bit about yourself. Molly Hurford: I’m a journalist who writes a lot about outdoor adventure and specifically bikes. I started writing about this stuff in college when I got into triathlon—my dad was into triathlon long before it was cool. To be honest, I couldn’t run a mile until I was 20. I went from being this nerdy punk bookworm person (who you might find if you read the first Shred Girls book) to suddenly racing bikes, doing triathlons and writing for cycling magazines. I write for Bicycling , I have my website, I wrote a book about women’s cycling issues, we put out our podcast, The Consummate Athlete . Most recently, I signed a deal to publish a middle- grade young adult book series— Shred Girls . ML: And in your spare time, you just finished your second Ironman last week. How’d that go? MH: It was a pretty big relief. It was my husband Peter’s first triathlon ever, which is hilarious, and it was my second Ironman. It went so much better than the first. To finish pretty clean this time, in 11:33, was a decent time and I was happy with it. ML: What’s fuels you to sign up for an Ironman? MH: Absolute idiocy [laughs]. I'm the team manager for a U.S. cyclocross racing team. I was travelling with them and I used to race cyclocross as an elite. I was never fantastic at it but I was pretty good. Suddenly, I’m in a managerial role in this sport and people are asking me ‘Don’t you race anymore?’ So my reply became, ‘No, it’s cool, I'm just training for an Ironman so I’m not racing this season.’ It somehow made sense to me. I did it first when I was 23 and I wanted to go back and have a clean race. When I signed up, I hadn’t realized that I was going to have my book series going by then. In my mind, I had a lot more time to train and do things. ML: You’re from the U.S originally. Tell us a bit about you ended up in Collingwood. MH: I’m from New Jersey but I met my husband Peter at a bike race in China four years ago. We got married last year and I moved to Collingwood. This is the best place in the universe. Peter is originally from Mansfield, but moved to Collingwood about seven years ago. He does cycling coaching and works at Active Life as a kinesiologist. We just got our first condo together, and we lived there for a whole 10 days before we drove out to do the race. It’s nice to have a home base and Collingwood has everything. CYCLIST IRONWOMAN BOOKWORM MOLLY HURFORD IS ONTARIO’S MOST DIVERSE WOMAN ON 2 WHEELS words :: Allison Kennedy Davies ALLISON KENNEDY DAVIES