Memorial ride honors Mike Budak

The question brought silence from Mary Graves. And then, her answer — amidst waves of emotion.
“It’s very sad,” said the widow of Mike Budak. “But I’m very proud. Biking was his life.”
Asked about the meaning of a memorial ride that honors her late husband, Graves also expressed gratitude that people would recognize his talents in some way.
Budak’s cycling career was catastrophically altered when he suffered a severe brain injury 10 years before his death last summer.
Local people may remember the sinewy silhouette of Budak curled over his bike as he pedaled the Sha~Sha hills in his peak years; some carry the image of him on his 1870s highwheeler replica — a colossally wheeled cycle that required expertise to keep in motion. Others may have met him on the Rainy Lake Bike Trail east of International Falls, a trail that he and Burgess Eberhardt were instrumental in developing.
Trophy-winning Budak cared about biking in all forms. The safety and enjoyment of racing, touring, commuting — or simply riding — were of paramount importance to one who kept track of his “life miles” which hit the 100,000 mark by 1993.
His love of a “life sport” began somewhat serendipitously in college when he didn’t have a car. He studied two years in Duluth before transferring to Albuquerque, N.M., for a program in archeology, another of his affinities. Budak would go on to become the site manager for the area’s Grand Mound History Center.
Graves met Budak in St. Paul where they both worked for the Minnesota Archeology Institute. It quickly became apparent that she must learn to bike, she said with a chuckle. The couple began riding in harmony on a tandem bike, each with skills that accorded the other.
“A tandem rider is either the captain, or the stoker, which is the one in the back,” said Graves. “Mike always said I was a perfect stoker.”
He started “Team Dinosaur,” a local cycling club for those age 40 and older, as a way to get people interested in biking. Budak established the “To Hill and Back” annual race in 1985. The course of this race would be distinguished from others by its grueling Sha~Sha hills. Each year, the widely reported event would recruit more than two dozen racers from all over.
But Budak also arranged events for leisure riders. “He was just totally involved in biking,” Graves said.
And he was passionate about bike safety. Budak was a teacher at Minnesota’s “Pedal Power Camp” where he taught both local and regional kids the art of biking. He loved passing on techniques to young riders with whom he also connected through 4-H, scouting and community education.
Even after a fall from his Indus home in 1997 cost Budak his astute mind and physical skills, he would still become frustrated when seeing a child exhibiting unsafe riding habits, according to Graves.
And the man who owned 13 bicycles at the time of his accident, never stopped biking. “It was a lot harder,” said Graves. “And it meant a very different kind of bike.”
Adjusting to his devastatingly altered life, Budak had just returned home from a ride on a new, three-wheeled bike when he died outside in the couple’s yard.
Graves is still grieving the unexpected loss of the man for whom she became primary care giver. After the accident that unfurled cataclysmic changes, life for the couple was permanently different. And now, his absence “still feels very recent” and her life still seems empty, said Graves. She has planned a National Geographic trip around the world in December to help her deal with the pain.
She said the memorial ride could be a healing factor, because biking was such a big part of who Mike Budak really was, and how he should be remembered.
Saturday’s ride
The first Budak Memorial Bike Ride, intended to be an annual event, begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, during the International Falls Bass Tournament. The ride is sponsored by the St. Thomas School and the Backus Community Center as a fund raiser. Naming it after Budak seemed a fitting tribute, according to Backus executive director Ward Merrill. “His was such a strong influence in local biking,” he explained. Others involved in organizing the ride are Milt Layman, Patti Ballan, Jackie Glowack, Hoa Sobczynski and Tom Manka.
It also seemed appropriate to make it a ride, not a race, for families, said Merrill. All are welcome.
The shorter ride of two options offered is a seven-mile, round-trip ride to Ranier. Also offered is a 26-mile, three-hour, round-trip ride to Voyageurs National Park. Registration begins at 8 a.m. on the corner of Third Street and Eighth Avenue. Children age 14 and younger must be accompanied by adult. The registration fee is $35 each, or $95 per family. Lunch will be served for all paid riders at St. Thomas Aquinas Hall until 1 p.m. All paid riders will receive a T-shirt, energy bar, water, picnic lunch and a chance to win a door prize.
Those interested should register at www.stthomas-ifalls.com; [1] or at The Sports Shop, St. Thomas School or the Backus Community Center. More information is available by calling 285-7225; or e-mailing: wardmerrill@backusab.org [2].