Rebecca Rusch

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Rebecca Rusch wasn’t thinking about world championships when she joined the Downers Grove North High School cross-country team. “I just wanted the free track suit,” recalls Rusch, who, 28 years later, finds herself among the ranks of the world’s elite endurance athletes. In July of 2009, Rusch won her third straight mountain biking 24-hour Solo World Championship.

Since donning those gray cotton sweats and Lycra shorts, Rusch has outfitted herself in the kit of numerous other disciplines: racking up ascents of big walls from Yosemite to Zion, paddling on the world-famous Offshore Canoe Club’s women’s outrigger team in the brutal Molokai crossing and winning adventure races around the world.

When not training in one of the five mountain ranges surrounding her hometown of Ketchum, Idaho, the 41-year-old known as the “Queen of Pain” can be found chasing adrenaline from Tibet to New Zealand to Kyrgyzstan, constantly adding titles to her impressive and extensive resume.

In addition to those three 24-hour solo mountain bike World Champion rainbow jerseys, Rusch is a three-time national champion in 24-hour team mountain biking. She’s Idaho’s Short Track state championship (twice), and its Cyclocross state title. An accomplished Nordic skier, she’s won the Masters Cross Country Skiing World Championship, in addition to taking the top prize at Raid Gauloises Adventure Racing World Championships. And although that’s just cross-section of her palmares, it’s easy to see why Rusch has been profiled by Sports Illustrated, Outside Magazine and Adventure Sport Magazine.

Talking about age draws a laugh as she gestures at her surroundings. "People around here are all 10 years younger than they actually are. And I don’t mean they just look it; they are actually 10 years younger," she said. "Everyone’s out there constantly doing stuff, from biking to skiing to hiking. There’s a collective mentality that if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it."

This mentality, along with what she calls "perfect terrain for training," provides a home base for the typically itinerant Rusch. She is part of the community; for more than two years she has been a stalwart volunteer emergency medical technician and firefighter for the Ketchum Fire Department, and a homeowner. On breaks from her race schedule, she works on her condominium, though the domestic idea continues to bemuse her; the last home she owned was a 1975 Ford Bronco.

Day 0: Travel Jinx

June 1, 2010

In my last post, I talked about how slick I was with packing my bike and how smoothly my airline bike experience has been for a really long time. Well, that comment smacked me in the rear on the way to PA. Our routing was Sun Valley, Salt Lake City, Altanta, Harrisburg via plane. Rental car from Harrisburg, PA then 90 miles to State College and the Seven Mountains Scout camp. We left Sun Valley at 9 AM Mountain time and finally arrived at camp at 2:00 AM Eastern Time. Our very long excursion for stage 0 included running to more than one plane connection, waiting in the Harrisburg airport for 3 hours for our lost bikes and bags to hopefully show up. They DID, which was a huge relief. We planned to just get a hotel in Harrisburg since it was super late and just head to the race in the morning. The TT stage did not start until 3pm, so that would leave us time to have a good breakfast and hit the road. We drove and checked no less than 15 hotels from Harrisburg to State College and there were volleyball tournaments, weddings and who knows what else, but ALL the hotels in the state of Pennsylvania seemed to be full. We had to forgo a nice shower and clean bed and just head straight to the scout camp and our awaiting bunks. The teeny road sign to Sand Mountain Road was nearly impossible to see in the dark. We made a few passes on the curvy, forested road before we found the turn. Then we began the hunt to find Rimmel Lodge on the hand drawn (not to scale!) map of the scout camp.

The accommodations at Seven Mountain Scout camp are a bit rustic. I'm in Rimmel Lodge with about 15 other athletes from CA, CO, MI and of course PA! It's communal living at it's finest among a bunch of adults who have regular jobs, can afford hotels and would probably prefer to camp outside than sleep inside a bunk house. But we're here together tuning bikes, talking about racing and getting to know each other. We have a shared kitchen, although dinners are provided family style for all the racers in the dining hall. We have one bathroom for all of us in the lodge. I picked up matches today at the store to donate the the group facilities, if you know what I mean. A short walk away are gang showers with cold water only. This is the East Coast, so of course there are bugs here. A multitude of flying, crawling, buzzing things that just want to say hello. There are no screens on the windows in our lodge, so we need to keep the doors and windows closed at night to keep the bugs out. I KNOW there are other, larger furry critters around the facility, so food, gels and other stuff are hopefully sealed up enough. I am definitely checking my shoes before I put them on each time. The camp vibe will definitely add color and camaraderie to the race.

Yesterday's TT was a blast. It was a 10 mile sampling of what we have in store. Some hard fire road climbing punctuated by difficult single track, then some really, really fast single track, followed by some more really hard single track. I started out last of the women's field and starting one minute behind me was the first single speed male. Greg was starting just a few minutes behind me as well and the open men were last. My goals for the day were to not get caught by the single speeders or any men, to test my heart rate and intensity levels to see how recovered I am from Australia and to really focus on riding this technical single track smoothly and efficiently. I was able to achieve all those goals and felt like I had a great ride. I finished the TT in 3rd for the Open Women, about a minute off the lead. While I always race to win, I was still really pleased with how my body responded, how I rode and how I handled the little appetizer for the week of riding. It's a little weird to race a TT because you have no gauge of the other riders, no pacing to go off of and absolutely no idea how you are doing. I am predicting that the top three women will have a good, competitive race for the next six days. It will force me to really be on my toes and make the most of my time here. Greg (Club Ride Apparel ) had a great ride and finished the TT first in the single speed division. The top three in his class are also really close and they have a good race on their hands too. My Era rode like a dream and I kept thinking how grateful I was that it got here on time and I did not have to race on a borrowed bike!

Stage 2 is a 40 miles stage that I'm predicting will take me around 5 hours. The trails here take time and the temperatures are HOT, so I'm taking a bit more fuel and water just to be on the safe side. If the TT is any indication of what this week will be like, I'm stoked.

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