BANNER ELK, N.C. – Director of Sports Broadcasting,
Dallas Renzi, talked with former Lees-McRae Women's Cyclist,
Lauren Moon on this week's episode of Bobcat Banter Alumni Spotlight.
Question: Talk about your time at Lees-McRae and what events you competed in?
Moon: "When I was at Lees-McRae, which is kind of crazy to say because I was just there, but I recently graduated. I was primarily a cross-country mountain biker. All of my racing was major, like vast majority of it was in the mountain bike season in the fall. So I kind of like to, in simple terms, was the person who was riding up the hill and downhill, not just down the hill. So I was doing all of our endurance events like cross-country and short track. So I did that all four years and that was my primary specialization. I went to two national championships had a lot of fun and our fall season was very jam-packed and we'll continue to be back-to-back every single weekend. We were traveling all over the south-east and going to all sorts of different mountain bike races."
Question: What would you say were your favorite memories or lessons from your time as a Bobcat?
Moon: "Yeah, I always look back on my college experience that races were just like a tiny sliver of my college experience as an athlete. In cycling, it's kind of an odd sport, but you're spending a ton of hours out on the roads and on the trails and just so much time on the bike. So what drew me into Lees-McRae originally, was the fact that there were so many women and with it being such a niche sport, it's not very equal in terms of men and women. So there's just not a lot of women doing the sport. When I started, I was really drawn into how many ladies there were and just being able to, I don't know, on a random Saturday, I have three or four hours to ride. I can text any of my teammates and they were like, yeah, I'd go with you. We would just go on adventures and spend so much time together, like in the most brutal conditions and the rain and the snow and all of the fun stuff. Even on the days that the weather was good, it was just such a blast. I always loved going down to Pisgah National Forest and riding the trails down there, kind of like backcountry style riding. With it being such an individual sport, it felt like so much more when you're spending all of that time together, doing that training and doing all of that. So that's where we really had our bonding and it is definitely something that I miss now, just kind of being out on my own. I'm still riding a lot and still training because the beautiful thing is that this is one of the few sports that you can do for your whole life.
Question: Since you just graduated this past spring, what are your career plans and what degree did you just graduate with?
Moon: "Yeah, so it's kind of a very long title, but I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Arts and Design with a specialization in Creative Marketing and a minor in Outdoor Recreation Management. So it was very full of diploma. I am currently temporarily living in Baltimore, Maryland, and I am doing some contractor freelance work doing floral designs for some really fancy weddings in the area. Kind of fell into that, but I'm just kind of taking a little bit of a gap to figure out what's next for me. So yeah, I'm excited to, you know, just be creative and explore new outlets of creative work and see where I land next.
