I have lived in Santa Maria, Ca. pretty much my entire life. Santa Maria is a quite, small farming town about an hour north of Santa Barbara. From the get go I have always been a very active and outgoing person. As a teenager I was involved in Cross Country, Soccer, Swimming and Jobs Daughters. After graduating from high school I attended the local college and was fortunate to travel for about a year. Once I was done traveling I was at a point in my life where I wasn’t sure what to do with it. So after a little nagging from a friend I went on a blind date with a friend of hers. As fate would have it this guy would turn out to be not only my soul mate but my future husband, Rick.

After a couple of years dating Rick introduced me to the sport of mountain biking. I think he got tired of me nagging him to take me with him when he went riding. He would come home with these awesome stories and I wanted to take part in them. So for Christmas one year he got me my first bike and the creation of the “monster” began. At first he wasn’t sure if I would take to the sport but after a while it wasn’t him waiting for me, it was me waiting for him.

A year later my casual riding turned into racing. I started out with a local cross country race in which Rick and I both entered at Parkfield, CA. I will never forget coming up on Rick while he was changing a flat and him yelling at me to pick it up because I was the first women. I knew at that point there would be more races to come. A couple years after my first race I heard about a 12 hour race at Big Bear and entered as a team. Although we didn’t win I told Rick I was coming back next year and doing solo. I think he laughed at me and said we will see. Sure enough I came back the very next year and not only competed in my first 12 hour but also won it. Then I heard about a 24 hour race to be held at Laguna Seca. I somehow convinced Rick that I could do this. Boy was that race a learning experience. We were not prepared for any of the problems that can arise during a race but the most important thing was I didn’t sleep and I finished it. After the race Rick and I knew this was what I wanted to do and no matter how sick this sounds – I LOVED IT!!!!

So now 6 years later the only thing that has changed is my name, yep we finally got married after 8 years and that I went back to college to earn my degree in accounting. It has been so exciting to see how much I have grown in the sport of endurance mountain biking and I look forward to many more years and challenges in the sport.