In 2018 Kait Boyle became the first woman to complete 18 laps solo at 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, a record that has stood for the last 7 years. That result set her on a trajectory to go on and set a record in the Arizona Trail 300 self-supported bikepacking race and win the 24-hour World Championship later that year.

She had dreams of a career in ultra-endurance racing that would show the world how women can race with the strongest people in the field and that ultimately, you are unlimited. But a life-threatening car accident just 2 months after winning the World Championship changed the trajectory of that dream. This is a story about her long and incredible journey back to 24-hour racing…

December 25, 2018

Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center

The ICU x-ray board lit up like stained glass – the six fractures crisscrossing my shattered pelvis made it clear that my body had absorbed the force of the head-on collision that had totaled my truck and left my internal organs in disarray. Two months ago I was draped in my country’s flag after winning the 24-hr World Championship. I had marveled at what my body was capable of, and assumed it was just the beginning of a long, successful career. A mere 60 days later, I was draped in a hospital gown, staring at pictures of my insides and wondering what this new, shattered body could ever do again: Walk? Bike? Race?

The surgeon walked into the ICU room mid-morning. I’m Dr. Jacobsen. You’re going to be able to have a full recovery. 

Wait, what? My head spun as he went on to draw my pelvis on a white board and explain  why he was thinking external stabilization would be important, as I was at a high risk of bone infection with internal stabilization due to my ruptured bladder. He went on, explaining the severity of my injuries and how recovery would look. Wheelchairs, catheters, fully non-weight bearing, external fixation. But, I wasn’t paralyzed. I would walk again. I was amazed. For the past 16 hours, I had been preparing myself to hear I wouldn’t walk or ride a bike again.

Does full recovery mean I can race 24-hr Worlds again? Dr. Jacobsen looked at me surprised by my question. I just won the 24-hr World Championship in Scotland just two months ago. I want to race it again, I explained. Um, yes, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to do that again, he replied, glancing at my parents, my boyfriend, Will, and friends Kurt and Caitie who had all rushed to be with me in the hospital on Christmas day. They looked on, collectively relieved, surprised, and amused at the same time.

Then and there I resolved to do everything I needed to go from laying in an ICU bed hooked up to all the machines monitoring my being alive with a shattered pelvis and ruptured bladder, a 12” vertical incision up my abdomen from the prior night’s emergency surgery to check the intactness of every single vital organ, to racing for 24 hours on my mountain bike on the world stage. I didn’t have a clue what it would take to do so and the mountain I had to climb just to get on a bike again. But I was blessed with a surgeon who let me believe what could be possible and that belief fueled the resilience, discipline, persistence and fortitude in the years to come.

July 2, 2019.

Victor, ID (home)

With a heavy heart, I emailed the race director for 24-hr Worlds. As the current world champion, I had airfare and an entry to race in the upcoming 24-hour Worlds in Brazil. The race was just weeks away.

I’m writing to share with you one of the most challenging decisions I’ve had to make this year – to not attend WEMBO 24 hr worlds this year. Through May, I thought there could be a sliver of a chance I’d be ready by then. After all, my recovery has been nearly miraculous to that point. This last month has illuminated a couple of things: One is just how energetically taxing the trauma and recovery of my accident was. Once I tried to start training with just two months until worlds, my mind and body cracked. Once I started trying to push training toward a big event, my body revolted – it just isn’t ready to be pushed hard yet.

After consulting with my coach (Kurt), physical therapist, and psychologist, I was instructed by all to wait a year before asking my body to be ready for 24 hours of racing. As I’m sure you can imagine this was a really hard decision to come to terms with. I love the idea of being able to go to Brazil, defend my title, wear the rainbow jersey, and have an incredible comeback story. But I have to take care of myself so there are many more years of racing.

Scar, Kurt Refsnider

I had recently had a 6-month post-op appointment and had been cleared by Dr. Jacobsen to move and live without any restrictions. He was impressed by how well I was recovering. But, he warned, the final 10% or so of my healing would take another 6 months or so, and I would always be at a higher risk for developing tendonitis around my pelvis, due to the nature of the trauma it sustained and the permanent screws in my sacrum that essentially fused my SI joint.

My recovery up to that point had been nothing short of remarkable; I rode a trainer while still in a wheelchair (in hindsight I think the movement of spinning my legs in circles while otherwise immobile facilitated healing that would have been otherwise impossible). I walked 12 weeks post-op, started a PT/mobility program in a gym, rode my bike outside 1 week after walking without a cane, and went bikepacking 5 months post-op. My goal was a little unattainable, but it had also inspired me to show up everyday to do my best in my recovery. The deferral just gave me more time.

July 29, 2020. 

24-Hour Worlds in Armidale, Australia is deferred due to Covid-19. 

August 1, 2021

From the WEMBO Press Release:

We regret to announce that the 2021 WEMBO World Solo 24 Hour Championships cannot take place due to the effects of the current and forecast Australian responses to the COVID-19 pandemic… No 2021 WEMBO World Solo 24 Hour Championships titles will be awarded. The 2022 WEMBO World Solo 24 Hour Championships will be held as planned in Finale Ligure, Italy 27-29 May 2022.

Wyoming, Kurt Refsnider

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile I reached a point of riding, racing, training, adventuring at a level that suggested an accident had never happened. Every year I would have 24-hr Worlds on my calendar and like so much of the world, plan for the best and then pivot as Covid changed plans. In that in-between time I was rebuilding strength and endurance at home in the Tetons and through adventures like bikepacking in the Wyoming Range, in Bears Ears National Monument, on the Arizona Trail, the Maah Daah Hey Trail, and the Alpine 7 Trail.

Kokopelli finish, Rugile Kaladyte

This rebuild culminated in setting the Fastest Known Time on the Kokopelli Trail. Following Kokopelli, I developed tendonitis in my right glute/hamstring. It healed and I carried on. Then in spring 2022, I raced the Pisgah Stage Race as part of my build to 24-hr Worlds. The race went great, I finished 2nd in the GC and won the Enduro overall. After a recovery block I started training again for 24-hr Worlds, which was just a month away. And to my dismay, the right glute niggle returned. Kelly and I threw everything at it – dry needling, PT, a topical steroid patch, ultrasound, visualization, etc. It was manageable and I continued to train without really poking the bear…

May 28/29, 2022

Finale Ligure, Italy

24-hr World Championships,

It was finally cooling off from the unseasonably hot afternoon that kicked off the World Solo 24-Hour Mountain Bike Championships. I had moved into the lead of the women’s elite field, my body was recovering from the heat of the afternoon. Will and Kelly, and friends Rachel and Dave were all there, an entourage of love and support for me to fulfill my dream of returning to 24-hour Worlds. I was riding strongly and feeling ready for the night, ready for my lead to grow as I continued to pace for a 24-hour effort. Then, slowly, I felt my glute starting to protest.

I ignored it for a couple of laps. But before I knew it, I couldn’t pedal smoothly through my right pedal stroke. Then I couldn’t weight my right leg as I was getting off to switch bikes at the pit. I cried out in pain, and Kelly grabbed me, pulling me off the course as I cried. She worked on my back, sacrum, and hips, trying to get my backside to let go. Rachel helped me breathe and led me through a psycho-somatic breath exercise to calm my nervous system. I still couldn’t weight my right leg as I got shooting pain through my hip and down my leg with each attempt at standing. I quit racing at 1 am, from first place to last in just a matter of moments.

Will, who had been through the trauma of not knowing if I was alive during the initial hour or so of my car accident, then lived through the highs and lows of my whole recovery by my side, asked me to never put my body in that place again. I agreed. I announced I was retiring from 24-hour racing and ultras; my body couldn’t do it healthily, and if I couldn’t have both, I was choosing a long, healthy life of sport to honor my body and get to bike and ski with my then-fiance into our 80s.

Alps, Kurt Refsnider

November 4/5, 2023

Sedona, AZ

I was leading group rides and teaching workshops at Roam Fest Sedona while 24-hour Worlds ran in Armidale, Australia. The passing of the event didn’t register as I was fully present in the final event of my season. I had enjoyed a full year without a single hip/pelvis-related injury or setback. Will and I had eloped in the mountains that spring, ski traversing for 5 days in a snowstorm. Kurt and I had spent a month bikepacking in the Alps in search of as much big mountain singletrack as we could manage.

Breck Epic, Leslie Kehmeier

I raced Downieville Classic and then Breck Epic, finishing 3rd in the Pro Women’s field, and I recovered without issue from that. I bikepacked on the Continental Divide Trail with Kurt, climbing and descending 8,000’ day after day on a loaded bike at altitudes of the Colorado Rockies. I was happy and grounded in my body and excited to be doing big, hard, things again, now with a strong and healthy body.

Off-Road to Unbound XL, Kurt Refsnider

May 31, 2024

Emporia, KS

My stomach turned with butterflies. I was on the startline of Unbound XL knowing my body could ride the upcoming 350 miles. I had just ridden 1,300 miles from home in Idaho to Emporia. Why? Because I wondered what would happen if I tried. My body was strong and healthy going into the spring. I knew I could go bikepacking. Somewhere, deep down, I didn’t believe I couldn’t race an ultra. So I chose one that didn’t include much pressure, and chose to bikepack there first. I figured if I rode there without issue, I could probably race the race without issue, and I was committed to stopping if I needed to. Just getting to the startline felt like a win.

Unbound XL, Chandler Binson

5:45 am, June 1, 2024

Unbound XL route mile 200

The sun was about to come up on me and Cory Wallace, 5x 24-hr World Champion. He asked if I was going to 24-hour Worlds in Australia that Fall. It seems like you’re back, he observed as I steadily pedaled on into the second half of Unbound XL. I’m not going to 24-hr Worlds, I replied. In fact, I didn’t have any plans for ultras. I never actually thought about what it would mean if I finished Unbound XL. The future beyond that moment out there in the Flint Hills was wide open.

Unbound XL, Chandler Binson

I finished later that day, crossing the finish line in 4th, though the sensations of finishing were greater than any race I’d ever won. Despite riding straight through the night during the race, I couldn’t fall asleep that night, or the next. I was reeling with joy from having FINISHED an ultra and without any injuries. Up until after the race, I hadn’t thought about what finishing would mean and what could and would follow.

Worlds AUG bike, Will Stubblefield

Sept 28/29, 2024

Canberra, Australia

24-hr World Championships

I was back. I had registered and bought plane tickets from Jackson Hole to Sydney just 3-weeks prior. Will was with me. I had recovered smoothly from Unbound. I had trained for the Colorado Trail Race and missed lining up after an untimely wrist sprain. I pivoted, trained for one more block, packed two Mach 4SLs and everything for Will to run a pit solo and we flew around the world.

At packet pick-up, some kind people told me they were so happy to see I was back, and it was remarkable all I had been through. Tears welled in my eyes. While setting up the pit, our neighbor told me he was so happy to see me healthy again, and congratulated me on winning in Scotland (6 years prior!). I swallowed tears. On the startline, reigning World Champion and Scotland silver medalist Kate Kellet put her hand on my shoulder and told me how meaningful it was to have me there next to her and how truly happy she was for me.

I cried behind my glasses as the Australian national anthem played. We raced tiny circles – 6.5-mile laps – all afternoon. Each lap, someone on course would remark on how incredible my journey was, how happy they were I was there, etc. Tears ran down my face, and concurrently, I struggled to maintain what, on paper, should have been a sustainable pace for me. I was convinced I was sick, had over-trained, or had tapered wrong. As the sun set, I looked out over the Main Range and dreamed about how far I could be riding; how many mountains I could be going over in the 24 hours I was riding in circles. That’s what I wanted to be doing, I realized.

Worlds start AUS, Will Stubblefield

When night fell I got the chills, then nauseous and dizzy, and vomited. I begged Will to let me quit. I was so flat, I felt like shit, but my hips and back were fine. So I kept going as he encouraged me to not give up. I watched Kate lap me, stoked to see her having a strong defending performance. Then I watched Monique lap us all, with complete joy for her, knowing how incredible it is to have the ride of your career.

I rode my 28th lap with Lucy, grateful for such great company and thrilled to be scheming to do the Picnic tri-sport adventure together in the Tetons. As we left together for our last lap and the first lap since sunset that I initiated on my own will, without any convincing from Will, I saw how happy, how utterly ELATED Will looked to see me finishing the race. And I realized that we had accomplished this together. Disappointment in not having my best possible physical performance dissipated. I was proud of myself, and so grateful for him.

Worlds last lap, Will Stubblefield

From the ICU to finishing 24-hr World Championships 6 years later. The dream was realized. And the end of the chapter was written. We did it, and the end result of finishing, regardless of my final place in the field, became irrelevant.

In hindsight, the outlandish goal to win 24-hour Worlds again, following a life-threatening accident and my deep drive behind it, was needed to have the recovery I had. And I was surrounded by people who let me believe, too. My family, friends, sponsors, and my PT, Kelly, all gave me the love, support, and guidance I needed to go from the ICU to a wheelchair, to a stationary bicycle, to crutches, to my first steps, to riding outside again.

Fatbike ride, Cort Muller

But in the process, I had to let go, accept, and embrace the process my body needed. In doing so, I found what I actually love about ultra-racing: the adventure, unknown, challenge, beauty, and inspiration that is experienced while unveiling my true character and potential as the landscape unfolds in front of me, beneath my own humble human power.

Alps 2022, Kurt Refsnider

Author’s note:

I’ve been encouraged to write a book about this journey. While this is a long narrative of my journey, it is far from complete, and I can’t share this story without sharing how instrumental the support of Will, Kelly, Kurt, my parents, my sponsors, my community and friends, and every doctor, bodyworker, coach, and therapist I’ve worked with. I’m indebted to so many hearts and hands to get to write this story to share with you all. 💖