Why I Ride-Kyla Templeton
Kyla Templeton lives in Bentonville, AR. With a BS in Industrial Engineering and Management and a MS in Leadership and Ethics, Kyla worked in project management and training and development at Walmart and Sam’s Club for 7 years. Kyla is the co-founder and state director for the Arkansas League of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association( NICA). Kyla is founder of Girls Bike Bentonville, a Bentonville women’s cycling group. Kyla has a passion for connecting people to each other and with bicycling as a sport and lifestyle. She is also a USA Triathlon certified coach.
Photo by: Patty V. Photography
I’ve been riding consistently since the end of college. I bought my first adult bike with the money I made from a summer internship - a mountain bike I called ‘Ol Yeller. I quickly realized I wanted to be riding on the pavement and bought a road bike a month later. I grew up a swimmer and started running toward the end of high school, so biking was the third leg of the triathlon for me to master, and I think that was part of my motivation for wanting to start riding bikes. But I quickly fell in love with it. I loved the new community and relationships it opened up for me. I loved being able to explore places I thought I knew but realized I didn’t. I loved the feeling of the wind in my face going downhill (that road bike I named White Lightning riding down a hill in north Stillwater one day) and the burning in my thighs going uphill.
I had no idea how much the bike would impact my life and turn into a career. My first 10 years of biking was almost exclusively on the road. After my first son was born, I started and led a women’s cycling group. When my friend Alan asked me to help him start high school mountain biking for Arkansas I hadn’t ridden my mountain bike in 10 years, but he started to teach me to ride the trails. Falling in love with mountain biking was a much slower process than falling in love with biking in general. It was so scary at first! But as I developed skills, it built my confidence, which enabled me to really enjoy it. And now I can’t get enough. Mountain biking fills so many things for me. It helps me to connect with God - last weekend I took myself on a ride for Mother’s Day and riding along in the woods on the north side of Bella Vista I could just feel God’s presence with me as I rode along. It helps me to connect with people - I’ve formed some of my closest relationships through experiencing the trails and great rides together. It helps me to connect with and give back to the community by introducing mountain biking to junior high and high school kids - and their whole families! It helps me connect with the outdoors - something I’ve discovered I need so deeply. It helps me connect with myself - it takes me out of my comfort zone to learn new skills and it also gives me time to think and process. Experiencing new places and sharing those experiences with my family is probably my favorite thing about riding bikes. Yesterday I went to Mount Nebo with my boys to preview the new trails there. We got to see things we’ve never seen before. There’s something about the movement that etches those memories in my brain in a different way than just simply being in a place.
Photo by: Quartz Creative
Photo by: Quartz Creative