A 91-year-old Salmon Arm-area cyclist will compete in the 55+ BC Games in her hometown with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren cheering her on.
Mary Pakka, who lives at White Lake, has been competing for more than three decades, starting with the BC Senior's Games in Dawson Creek.
“1992 was the first time I went,” Pakka said. “But it wasn’t cycling then, I was playing softball.”
In 1993, when the games were held in Cranbrook, she switched events to participate in swimming.
“I think I only did that, maybe one year,” she said. “The thing was, for swimming, you had to go into town and get into the pool and all, and tell somebody you're going and get a ride in and whatnot, but cycling was so easy.”
“You just run out the door, jump on your bike, and away you go,” she added.
Despite her many years of 55+ BC Games competitions, Pakka insists she’s not a competitive person.
“I'm not a very competitive person, but you go, you see your friends there and it's fun,” she explained. “It's a social thing.”
For many years she has competed with her friend Jean Nelson, from Clearwater. These days Nelson is often the only other rider in her division.
Despite participating in the games for many years Pakka claimed she still feels anxious as the competition approaches.
“I think, after all this publicity I've had, I hope I don't fall on my face halfway up the hill or something, you know,” she said. “I'm a bit nervous.”
With the games fast approaching Pakka is preparing for the race by going for rides on her bike, however she does not have a strict training plan.
“I went this morning,” she explained. “I just go to the fire hall here at White Lake and back; just takes 20 minutes.”
“There's a few potholes you have to be careful of,” she added.
Pakka was born in Saskatchewan and moved to White Lake with her family during the Second World War. She still lives in the house her late husband’s family lived in when he grew up in White Lake, just down the road from the property her family farmed.
Along with cycling, Pakka is also a big baseball fan.
"Oh I gotta show you my shirt," she said as she proudly showed off a new Toronto Blue Jays shirt a friend brought back from Toronto, sporting the name and number of star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.
Looking back on her fondest memory from the games she recalled a cold and rainy day in Kamloops.
“We were lined up for the time trials now, and we were all waiting for our turn to go. It was cold, and I was nervous and shaking and freezing and everything,” she recalled.
“Some lady came along, she put a coat around my shoulders, and it was just wonderful. ... I wish I could do that for somebody."
She plans for this to be her last year competing.
“I’m too old and too stiff,” she said.
Despite planning for it to be her final year she's entered into all three cycling events — a 16-kilometre time trial, a 37.2-kilometre road race and a two-kilometre hill climb.
And to celebrate her final competition she will be competing in front of eight great grandkids as her children and grandchildren bring their families to watch her compete in her hometown.
The 55+ BC Games in Salmon Arm will take place from Sept. 10 to Sept. 14.
The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday Sept. 11, where Pakka has been chosen as one of the athletes to carry the ceremonial torch.
