Friends and Colleagues,

I wanted to once again say thank you for your support back in 2017 when I had the opportunity to race at the Xterra World Championships! It was a blast and I truly appreciate the support and well-wishes from each of you.  You might recall that I had a somewhat bad bike crash about 11 days before the race, so I felt like I had “unfinished business” that was calling me back to give a proper race effort!  The qualification this year proved to be much more difficult than years past. 

After narrowly missing qualification in May, I determinedly selected Xterra Mexico near Guadalajara for my last chance to qualify this year. Traveling solo, I put my broken Spanish to use and went to the high Sierra Madre Occidental mountains to race at 7500’ above sea level.  After a tough race, with lots of mud, I finished 3rd in my category (see attached photo) and secured a qualifying slot for the Xterra World Championships in Maui in October!

I’m reaching out since each of you graciously donated and expressed support before, and many have told me that they’d love to contribute again if the opportunity presented itself!  This means so much to me!  Thank you !! 

Thanks to the great rewards system with Southwest Airlines (they now fly to Hawaii!!) and of course personal savings, I have most of my travel expenses covered, but am asking for help to cover bike transport, race entry fee, and some of my lodging expenses.