Mankato city planners looking for bike route input

Even the most pessimistic cycling advocate would have a hard time denying the progress Mankato has made as a bike-friendly community in recent years.

In addition to adding several in-town bike paths, city planners built the Minneopa trail last year and the Greater Mankato Convention & Visitors Bureau released a trail map earlier this year complete with suggested area bike loops.

Aside from that, the Greater Mankato Bike & Walk Advocates verified cycling interest in the area with the successful Mankato River Ramble this past October. The inaugural tour ride drew more than 1,500 participants and drew rave reviews from all participants.

The League of American Cyclists recognized Mankato's efforts this past spring by awarding them with honorable mention status as a bike-friendly community. A prestigious honor no doubt, but Mankato city planners and bike advocates are looking for more next year.

"That really helped us assess where we're at as a bike-friendly community," Greater Mankato Bike & Walk Advocate founder Tom Engstrom said. "They told us what we need to improve on, and the city is taking steps to do that."

A big part of that step has been the city planners providing a large poster board map of Mankato for cyclists to draw out their regular bike routes with markers. According to Engstrom, the objective of the map is for city planners to get an idea of where cyclists regularly ride in Mankato. From there, the city will use the input to determine whether it's appropriate to label bike lanes on those routes.

Greater Mankato Multisport Club founder Chris Crocker said that local bike advocates are also looking into posting signs throughout the city directing cyclists to the various trail systems in town.

"We're hoping to go to the city with ideas of how to have better signage in Mankato and North Mankao," Crocker said. "The trail system infrastructure has already been built. But since the trails aren't all connected, there's no signage to help you find anything if you're not familiar with the area."

The poster board map had previously been available to cyclists at Flying Penguin Outdoor Sports and will be on hand at the Bike and Walk Street Film Festival, which will take place from 1-4 p.m. on January 14 at the Blue Earth County Library.

The festival, hosted by the Greater Mankato Bike & Walk Advocates, is open to the public and will feature about an hours worth of short videos on other bike-friendly communities. Engstrom hopes the viewing will help spark a brainstorming session from those in attendance.

"It'll be cool to watch them as a group," Engstrom said of the videos. "It'll help us learn how things work elsewhere and it might give us some ideas of things we can do here."

After the videos, an open forum will be held where those in attendance can make suggestions on how Mankato can make itself a better community for non-motorized commuters. Area cyclists will also have a chance to mark down some last-minute routes on the map, as Engstrom plans to present the map and the results of the forum to city officials shortly after the festival.

Immediately following the festival, Engstrom and other cyclists plan on going on a short bike ride through town that will likely end at Pub 500 for drinks and social hour.

Both Engstrom and Crocker expect a good turnout for the event and also expect the community's input to have a major impact on city planning in the near future.

"You have to give the city a lot of credit," Crocker said. "People want the community to be more friendly to bikers and pedestrians and the officials are listening."

For more information, contact Tom Engstrom at tje1947@gmail.com.

Multisport club brings athletes together with multi-faceted expo

When you become immersed in an activity, it's good to know that there's other people out there who are just as crazy about it as you are.

For all the exercise enthusiasts and cardio junkies out there, the Inaugural Greater Mankato Multisport Club Expo served as a proclamation that they were most definitely not alone in their interests. The expo was held Monday night at X-Force Fitness and guest speakers on bike maintenance, injury prevention, triathlon transitions and general nutrition for long-distance runners.

After starting off with a group run (go figure, the phrase 'Exercise is my medicine' is on the back of the club's racing jerseys), those in attendance were broken off into groups and rotated between speakers. The guest speakers were mostly coordinated through Dawn Naples, a personal trainer at X-Force Fitness. Aside from the speakers, there was also a raffle for assorted prizes, massage tables and body fat composition tests available for those in attendance.

"We wanted to make (the expo) as inclusive as possible to all athletes," said club organizer Chris Crocker, who kept himself busy by giving the presentation on triathlon transitions, "The topics we're going over are things that all athletes are interested in. I remember when I first got into triathlons and how useful this information would've been to me at the time."

Despite being a new club, Greater Mankato Multisport has already gained some considerable local popularity. The club's Facebook group has 195 followers and Crocker said the estimated total membership is close to 300 people. The club also has a wide range of sponsors like ISJ Heart Center, Nicollet South Bike Shop and Health Improvement Partners.

"The local support for this has has been awesome," Crocker said, "There's a definite interest for it in the area. Whether it's experienced athletes or first-timers, we just want to get people out and exercising."

Crocker said the biggest appeal of the club is in the social connection it gives people. Through the club's Facebook group, members are able to set up group exercises, look for relay teams, set up carpools to races or ask for advice on training. The club also provides what Crocker describes as a "safe environment" for first-time triathletes to try their hand in the sport.

"One of the biggest things that keeps people from doing triathlons is the open water swimming," Crocker said. "But with the group swims we do, experienced swimmers are there to help get people through it."

"Besides," Crocker added. "If I can learn how to swim, anyone can."

As far as future events go, Crocker said the club will try to make the expo an annual event and that they are currently trying to set up open water swims at Hiniker Pond once summer rolls around. The group has weekly runs every Sunday morning at the Mankato YMCA and they usually have a few members sign up for most of the local racing events.

Coming from an self-proclaimed exercise junkie, I like how the multisport club is being so inclusive to all levels of exercise discipline. It's not a club for the elite athletes of the area; it's a club for like-minded individuals who are just looking for some companionship with their hobbies.

Anyone who's ever done a long run by themselves knows how bad it sucks. It's good to know that there's clubs like this out there that help make those training runs a little less lonely.

The multisport club's website can be found here.