Five years ago, when Rebecca Rusch explained what she did for a living, she’d often get a blank stare in return. Adventure racing? Was she on one of those reality shows? Did she eat bugs? Today, the concept of a grueling, multi-day, multi-sport contest is familiar to people around the world; and as captain of the crew that won the Raid Gauloises World Championship in 2003, “Reba” Rusch is acknowledged to be the strongest team leader in the sport. Also a standout in solo endurance events, Rusch is inspiring other women to play with the boys in some of the most punishing – and exhilarating – endeavors on earth.
Brave enough to try
Born in 1968, Rusch (pronounced “rush”) grew up in Illinois. “I was a tomboy,” she acknowledges. “We’d build forts, or go camping… I totally dug it, but I didn’t plan to be a professional athlete.”
After majoring in business and marketing at the University of Illinois, where she was on the cross-country team, Rusch got a job at a Chicago gym that happened to have a climbing wall. Things just fell into place. Rusch turned out to be an outstanding climber, and she moved west, recording first-female ascents. Then she met some “outrigger canoe girls” and raced with the famed Offshore Canoe Club team. (Also a member of the U.S. Whitewater Rafting Team, Rusch has racked up paddling accomplishments including winning the Canadian and U.S. Outrigger Canoe Nationals, the Whitewater Rafting U.S. Nationals, and the International Outrigger Canoe Championships.) With two female teammates, in 2001 she reached another aquatic milestone: the first self-supported river board descent of the Colorado River, a trek of over 300 miles.
“Don’t get me wrong: I’m extremely competitive and I train hard,” Rusch comments. “But I feel super-lucky to have encountered these sports. I guess I was brave enough to try things lots of people don’t feel confident enough to attempt.”
Rusch’s bravery was put to a new test when she decided to attempt adventure racing: her first event was a qualifier for the Australian Eco-Challenge. “We ended up winning the race. The rest is history!” she grins.
Completely hooked, Rusch quit her job, made a home of her Ford Bronco, and set her sights on becoming the best. She quickly realized she wanted to be a team captain, a role that entails formidable organizational tasks and strategy decisions.
In 1999, she captained a team of three women and one man to fourth place in the Eco-Challenge – a groundbreaking achievement because, while adventure racing teams are required to be co-ed, most include only one woman. As the new millennium progressed, so did Rusch. In Kyrgyzstan in 2003, the athlete reached the pinnacle of her sport when she captained the otherwise all-male Team Montrail to victory at Raid Gauloises, the preeminent event in adventure racing. Rusch was named “Adventure Racer of the Year” by Competitor Magazine and one of the year’s top 25 female athletes by Outside.
Eager to inspire
Adventure Sports has called Rusch “Adventure Racing’s Queen of Pain,” and Time featured her in an article on “pounding your body too hard.” So what does it feel like to be the poster-girl for punishment?
“It still seems impossible that I do it,” Rusch confesses. “At the start line for every race, I get nervous and think, ‘This sport sucks! I’ll never do it again!’ But then at the end it’s this huge accomplishment.”
Rusch also appreciates seeing sights that few others ever experience. “When you’re moving for 20 hours at a stretch, you have time to look around, and you realize, ‘Wow – this is really cool,’” she explains. “In fact, if it weren’t for the visual stimulation, these races would be impossible.”
Amazing scenery helps distract competitors from a host of problems: acute blisters, full-body rashes, altitude sickness, and the overwhelming desire to sleep. “It’s interesting to find out what you can do when you get only 14 hours of sleep over seven days,” Rusch notes, explaining that hallucinations are sometimes a side effect of the deprivation.
With her heightened understanding of the mind-body connection, Rusch continues to explore new avenues in racing. “I’m starting to do more endurance events as an individual and long-distance mountain bike racing,” she says. “We’ll see how it pans out.”
So far, so good: she dominated 2005’s 24 Hours of Moab competition, setting the fastest individual lap time in the women’s expert category as she anchored the win for her team. And Rusch is also determined to help other people – especially women – experience the same kind of satisfaction she has received from sport. A recreational telemark skier, Rusch coaches a women’s cross-country ski team near the home she’s established in Idaho, and she hopes to captain all-women endurance teams like the one she guided to second place at the 2005 Women’s International Adventure Race.
“I feel strongly about giving women the confidence to learn to snowboard or tele-ski or whatever,” Rusch asserts. With a modest smile, she admits, “People seem to be inspired by me.”
Rebecca Rusch
