Watch the video of Joan's 2011 Race Across The West. She became the first woman to finish the race solo and finished in an impressive 2 days, 22 hours and 58 minutes.
The race is essentially the first one-third of RAAM, going from Oceanside, California to Durango, Colorado.
Coming Soon!
I came back to Race Across Oregon with an axe to grind. It had kicked my butt in 2009, and I wanted to kick its butt right back. I brought in a rock star crew consisting of: Sandy Earl, Lee "Fuzzy" Mitchell, Mike and Jason "Pudu" Pierce. They managed to keep me motivated and moving along.
Despite the heat and the scads of climbing, I finished with plenty of time left on the clock. RAAM was looking more and more like it might be within my reach.
The 2009 HooDoo 500 turned out to be my redemption for DNFing at the Race Across Oregon earlier in the year. I had a great crew consisting of Mike and Jeff and Diana (two friends from the tri club who also are into long distance stuff. I ended up being the first solo woman finisher, setting a course record that wasn't broken until 2011 when Seana Hogan broke it. And really, having your course record broken by her isn't so bad.
Coming Soon!
The 2008 Furnace Creek 508 was my first foray into the world of true ultra-distance cycling. My crew consisted of Mike and my brothers, Carson and Peter. We were all new to this craziness, but it worked out in the end and I finished as the 6th place woman in 36 hours and 22 minutes.