Hi! First of all, congrats on Leadville, you go girl! I read all the questions on the website and googled your name- lots of great interviews and pictures! What I didn’t find and am now wondering is how you got into all this! I know you ran x-country in high school, but what after that? How did you go from a “”cross country runner with a bum knee”" as one website said to a professional athlete who excels in everything from x-country skiing to mtn biking? Is there anyone you credit for getting you into biking, skiing, adventure racing, etc? What age did you begin all these sports? Okay, so that’s more than one question, but I was wondering if you would give us a more in depth bio. A huge thank you for being so fan friendly with your website, facebook and twitter feeds.
A: I credit my high school running coach with sparking my passion in sports. I never had a bum knee. I ran in college, but was turned off by the negative coaching style there and quit the team. I briefly dabbled in road biking in college, but didn’t really pick up another sport until I learned to rock climb a few years after college. Rock climbing was the 2nd spark in my life that led me to outdoor sports and my love for adventure. Climbing brought me West and that snowballed into paddling and then adventure racing, skiing, and finally cycling. I have had mentors along the way in pretty much all of these sports, but the common theme was always someone saying “you should try this” and I said “OK”. I was open to new experiences and that has in turn opened doors for my career, to new friends, to living in Idaho. Just for reference, mountain biking was my most recent sport added and I didn’t get into it until well into my 30’s. It’s never to late!
Posted in: Motivation
