Katie cycled 1,000 miles in lockdown challenge

AN Angus schoolgirl is celebrating cycling 1,000 miles during lockdown.

Murroes Primary pupil Katie McBride, 7, recorded the massive mileage in her journal – pedalling out on rides of between 10 and 30 miles most days between the end of March and last weekend.

She said she had been cycling mostly with her mum and dad, with little brother Rory in a seat attached to dad’s wheels.

She said: “My new bike is purple, which is my favourite colour.

“Sometimes I was the fastest, but most of the time it was mum and dad. It was a great way to keep busy during lockdown and I felt really happy (to reach 1,000 miles).”

Katie’s 1,000-mile adventure started off with local rides, but during family trips – as the travel restrictions lifted – she also cycled at Inverness, the Kelpies in Falkirk and the Forth Road Bridge.

Dad Scott McBride, a computing studies teacher at Dundee High School, said he was “immensely proud” of his daughter’s achievement after the family set the monthly cycling targets for a bit of fun while stuck at home.

He said: “She’s kept all the details in her journal, which she was keeping for her school work.

“We chose to set a monthly mileage for something to do as a family and we decided on 200 miles for

Katie and 300 miles for me. Before we knew it, we were at 400, then 800, then 1,000 miles. We just kept going and going.”

He said one of the biggest challenges had been finding Katie a new bike to ride during the lockdown bike buying frenzy. “She has done a lot of miles. It’s the equivalent of cycling to Switzerland and coming up just short of Zurich.

“She enjoyed the challenge. She just kept plodding away.”