Kait Boyle is an ultra-endurance mountain bike racer whose achievements on the bike include winning the 24-hour World Championship in 2018, holding the women's record on the Arizona Trail 300, and being a two-time winner of 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. Her results often challenge both female and male records, and she continues to hold the fourth fastest time on the Arizona Trail 300. In this episode, she tells Payson about how a rock climbing injury got her into mountain biking, and how she started bikepacking before she knew it was its own sport. She talks about the inspiration she draws from the other women racing at her level, and from her love of the landscape around her. She also talks about the longer process of navigating the mental landscapes of the sport, and how this process developed alongside her physical evolution on the bike. They talk about the brutal challenge of the AZT 300, where racers are forced to carry their bikes for miles at a time on steep mountain terrain, and how ego in races like this can be the greatest determiner of success and failure. Kait also talks about the car accident that she suffered at the beginning of 2019 that nearly left her paralyzed, and what it was like watching fellow bikepack racer Lael Wilcox attempt to beat her record on the AZT 300 during the week that Kait was just starting to walk again. She also shares how the pandemic has brought a few silver linings to her racing career, how her bike setup has evolved over the years to mitigate the devastating physical toll of multi-day races, and why she waited until 2017 to get a smartphone. 

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YouTube: Payson McElveen