Yesterday, the Arizona Trail Race set off - a 300 and 800-mile self-supported bikepacking adventure. The 2021 Arizona Trail Race 300 was my comeback adventure after two major concussions/TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) in two years. At the time, I had only returned to riding my bike in April 2021, and within weeks had decided to do the Arizona Trail 300 bikepacking race. When I returned to riding, I had to relearn how to balance, track my eyes with the movement of my bike, not let the bumps on the trail hurt my head, and do multiple things at once, like pedaling and moving my head to look around. Plus I was out of cycling shape and anxious about another crash. Yet, for some strange reason, I thought bikepacking would be a good way to ease back into cycling, and I really wanted an adventure after being sidelined for a year and a half. Previously, I would have thought this was impossible because all I wanted was to be a normal, independent person.
In October of 2019, I had a mountain biking accident that changed my life. I woke up in the middle of the Happy Jack forest near Laramie, WY, after being unconscious for several minutes. Then, in July of 2020, I suffered my second major concussion from walking into my door jam at work, which set me back further than I could have ever imagined.
The second TBI turned me into a different person. I had extreme bursts of anger, was short-tempered, and experienced short-term memory loss (I would forget what I was talking about mid-sentence or forget what exercise I had just done at my physical therapy sessions). I was struggling with light sensitivity (going outside, working on my computer, or to the grocery store was painful), reading with double vision, unable to control my emotions (I acted out like my 3 year old), feeling like I was always moving (even when I was still – as if I were drunk), overwhelmed with my environment, panic attacks, exhausted, word-finding issues, insomnia, and only able to do short walks for exercise. The list goes on.
Fast forward to April of 2021 - I had sold my mountain bike and was riding my fat bike. This was before we were selling bikes at Link Cycling. My friends Jason and Jennifer Hanson had met up with us in Moab to ride, and Jason had mentioned he had a mountain bike sitting at his house that he would send to me. Sure enough, within a couple of weeks, the bike showed up at my doorstep and was my gateway to the Arizona Trail Race. Not only did he send a bike, he sent some gear and bags I would need. No excuses now.
The Arizona Trail Race taught me so many things - it reminded me that even in our toughest moments (like recovering from a brain injury), there is more power inside that we can tap into to keep moving forward. When we push through – the reward will be there waiting…
My journey through the 2021 Arizona Trail Race was full of beautiful moments and times where I had to push myself harder than any bike race I had ever done in my life. I rode more hours in a day than I thought I was capable of, and covered landscape on a bike that I would have only imagined hiking or seeing on a screensaver. There were moments I wanted to quit so badly, but all I needed was to eat a good meal and have a friend encourage me to keep going. In life, sometimes we hit a hard point where we don’t know if we can keep going, but the AZT helped me to push through that voice in my head and show myself what I was truly capable of.
When I returned home from the AZT, I was on top of the world, and within a month, I suffered a relapse (there was a massive blizzard), and my brain went back to a bad state from a year of hard work. But, I knew that even though it was my 3rd time pushing myself to recover this brain, I could do it—another round of intensive vision therapy.
In November of 2023, I was still dealing with a laundry list of symptoms and was encouraged by another concussion warrior, Al Rocco (from my Podcast, "Get Your Head Back in the Game") to become 100% recovered. I booked a flight to Pittsburgh and saw the world-renowned UPMC Concussion Clinic. Within 4 months of following their protocol, I was 100% recovered!
So, if you are looking for a reason to prove to yourself that you can overcome something, a biking adventure could be that window you were looking for! And if you need a friend to encourage you along the way, Link Cycling is always there for you!
