Grandmothers bike 62-mile long Silver Comet Trail

They mounted their bikes sometime around 7 a.m. on a Saturday and headed west on the scenic Silver Comet Trail, the cool wind hitting their face.

For months, Dee Burdett and four of her colleagues from Kraft Foods had been preparing for the ride of their lives, lifting weights, swimming, eating mostly raw foods.

Now they were off to the Alabama state line and back, a 62-mile trek.

To this day, they aren’t sure from whence this cockamamie idea originated -- maybe June Bowden, the oldest in the group, maybe Melody Williams, the youngest and author of most of their craziness.

“It just kind of evolved,” said Williams, who had been cycling since getting her first bike for Christmas more than 30 years ago.

As it did, they each embraced the idea just as they had taken up cycling in the first place.

Over the years each of them had become more health conscious either because she feared growing old and ugly or because her well-being demanded it. They had also grown concerned about the health of co-workers, many of whom suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and other ailments related to obesity.

Burdett, a 55-year-old grandmother of six, said she started working out at age 39 while going through a divorce.

“I decided if I had to grow old, I wanted to do it gracefully,” she said.

Williams and Pat Byas-Maxwell, 56, felt the same way.

Bowden, 63, was concerned she might become diabetic like other members of her family, and Linda Johnson suffered from “crippling” arthritis like her mother.

And like her mother, Johnson, 52, said she feared she might eventually lose the ability to walk.

When she heard biking might help and learned Bowden was an avid cyclist, Johnson said she decided to take up the sport, too.

“I’ve been riding ever since and enjoying it,” she said as she ate a bowl of stir-fried tofu. “The back pain is gone, and I feel great.”

That was nearly two years ago. Since then, the women, who became quick friends, said they regularly swim, which was Bowden’s idea, and even indulge in hot yoga, another of Williams’ ideas.

As Williams’ 48th birthday approached early this year, she got to thinking.

“Why eat cake and ice cream when you can bike the Silver Comet Trail?” she asked herself.

The women, all grandmothers, had been in love with the trail and its ponds and trees and bridges from the first moment they took their bikes there.

“No matter what time of year, it’s beautiful,” Burdett said. “In some places, you feel like you’re riding on top of trees.”

They rode that first day for 32 miles, ending in painful bliss. In some ways, they knew then they would eventually bike the entire distance.

Their husbands thought they were crazy, said Johnson, a resident of southwest Atlanta.

On this particular Saturday, just days after celebrating Williams' 48th birthday at Cafe Sunflower, they set out from the “0” marker just off of Mavell Road in Smyrna with nothing more than coconut water, a few energy drinks, bananas, half-baked sweet potatoes and determination.

An hour and a half later, about 15 miles in, they stopped for breakfast and a restroom break.

They continued on through miles of farmland, passing cows and deer racing across the meadows.

As they approached Cedartown, the trek turned skyward toward what would be their biggest obstacle -- a "beautiful" 1,085-foot hill.

They kept going until they made it to the Alabama line. They stopped to capture the moment in pictures. They had made it.

“We congratulated each other,” Burdett said, “then we headed back to Cedartown to spend the night.”

There, they showered and went their separate ways. Johnson and Bowden headed straight for the sauna, Williams and Byas-Maxwell took in a little yoga. Burdett went to bed.

They were up early Sunday.

At 7:20 a.m., they hit the trail and headed home. The rain greeted them, slow at first, then hard and blinding.

“We rode through it as long as we could,” Bowden said. “It felt good.”

There were moments when they thought the rain would do them in, Burdett said, but they used it instead to fuel their energy to keep on pushing.