Tracy, with a history of 35 years at the school, loves traveling the world and going on biking trips, mostly road biking, with her husband and three children. She said, “It allows you to experience a city or countryside in an intimate way, and it’s faster than on foot.” Some of her trip locations include Ireland in 1999, Napa Valley, CA in 2012, Victoria, British Columbia in 2018, and Portugal in 2024. Additionally, she has ridden more than seventy miles in one day to the shore for the American Cancer Society at least five times and has participated in the Breakthrough Bike Challenge in the Oley Valley close to ten times.
Tracy’s passion for biking started after she and her husband, Ernie Tracy, bought matching bikes in 1986 after their engagement. They “have been biking together ever since. It’s something that we both love and love to do together,” Tracy said. Even when they had kids, she said, “we would go on training rides with a child in a trailer.”
In 2014, after the death of the Tracy’s close friend who had been treated at Penn Medical Center, Ernie Tracy, Tracy’s husband, “started a bike ride called the Breakthrough Challenge, and it’s [every] September, and over three hundred people ride,” she said. The event has raised a lot of money overall. Tracy’s team alone has raised almost ten thousand dollars.
Winslow Tracy, Tracy’s daughter, has accompanied Tracy on many rides, including at least five in the Breakthrough Challenge supporting Penn Medicine. The ride leaves from The Daniel Boone Homestead in Berks County.
“One of my favorite biking memories with my mom was when we did a biking tour around the palace and gardens of Versailles in France. Since we were on a mother-daughter trip in France, it was so fun to do something that we love to do together in an iconic and famous place. It was especially memorable because it was cold and rainy so we were biking around in big rain ponchos,” said Winslow.
When asked if the experience of biking with her mother strengthens their relationship, Winslow said, “Definitely. Having something that we both love to do together makes the time we spend biking together even more meaningful. Since my mom and I both love biking and exploring new places, bringing these together is a fun way to travel and a different perspective to seeing something new and it’s fun to experience something new together.”
Ernie Tracy also finds riding to be a great family experience. Speaking of their trip to Ireland he said, “It was extra special to ride, eat meals, and hang out with my family. The weather was changing constantly; we had rain at some point every day, and the distances covered resulted in strenuous days, which I loved. Karen is very close to my family and we have nothing but the fondest of memories from this trip.” All family members who were asked about the trips with Tracy have positive memories to share.
“When I was in Portugal in June, we biked over a lot of roads consisting of really old cobblestones,” Tracy said. “Our bike leader referred to it as a ‘Portuguese massage.’ You couldn’t have that same experience any other way. Getting to the top of a ‘spicy’ hill is a really satisfying feeling. But you always know when you enjoy a fabulous run down a hill, there’s going to be an upside to it, too. And the topography in the Douro Valley is incredibly hilly, so some of our rides were miles of serious incline.”
About future bike trips, Tracy said, “We have a long list of places we want to visit… I hope someday to be able to spend extended periods of time in other countries, or even in our own country, in a state that I know little about… I love seeing cities around the world,”
“I don’t know where we will go next but I’m excited to study abroad in Europe next fall so I imagine we will be biking wherever I end up,” said Winslow.
