Teen with broken foot determined not to miss RAGBRAI

GUTHRIE CENTER — Gwynne Wright, 15, rode the Karras Loop on just 14 miles of training.

Oh yeah, she’s recovering from a stress fracture in her right foot, too.

“I got two screws put in in May, but I was like, ‘I still want to do RAGBRAI,'” Wright said.

Wright’s doctor permitted her to start riding a week ago, she said.

“He said gentle biking only, but RAGBRAI is gentle biking,” she said.

Other cyclists called out words of encouragement and admiration as they rode passed.

“You’re putting us all to shame,” one man said as they pedaled up another hill.

Wright, who lives in the Packwood area, is riding her fourth RAGBRAI.

Her friend and track teammate Maleaha Earnest, 18, is on her first.

“There are a lot of hills,” Earnest said today.

Wright injured herself during the track season and had surgery about a week after the state meet.

The teenager hasn’t let the injury, the heat or the hills slow her down so far.

“When I take off my sock at night it’s kind of gross, but on RAGBRAI you rough it anyway,” she said.

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