I was very happy to see my friend and reigning “Queen of Pain” Rebecca Rusch be featured in the latest issue of Switchback magazine. The article covers what has to be one of the most insane feats of athleticism and endurance of recent memory: Rebecca’s record-breaking ride of the 142-mile Kokopelli Trail.
Click here to check out the digital version of the feature.
The Kokopelli navigates rugged backcountry terrain between Moab, Utah, and Fruita, Colorado. It’s an extremely tough trail with technical descents, big uphill slogs and beckoning single track. Most people take five or six days to complete the ride. On April 27 of 2013, Rebecca did it in 13:32:46.
During the record-setting ride, Rebecca pushed through the pain. Grinding herself down. Harder, faster. Two hours before dawn, the headlamp mounted to her bike helmet went out. She continued in the waning desert moonlight. In what was close to total darkness, she flipped over the handlebars and badly dislocated her finger, tearing open the skin. Blood pooled and poured from her glove. She got back on her bike and pushed on.
Rebecca is a longtime friend and one of the more incredible, interesting individuals I know. She has an uncanny ability to push herself harder, and for longer, than maybe any other endurance athlete, male or female, alive. The reputation has earned her the appropriate moniker of “The Queen of Pain.”
When I first found out from Rebecca that she was planning to try to break the female record on the Kokopelli Trail, I was simultaneously approached by Red Bull to document her journey. The still and motion shoot was extraordinarily challenging due to logistics of geography, distance and time of the event (Rebecca rode at night).
Given the tremendous logistical hurdles involved with shooting the Kokopelli Trail, our small footprint production—consisting mainly of myself (Director and Still Photographer), Dane Henry (DP) and Sean Haverstock (RC Heli Pilot and Assistant) —decided that we’d have to shoot, as inconspicuously as possible, what we could during the actual ride, then return in the aftermath to shoot B-Roll or “cover footage.” In other words, we’d recreate moments of Rebecca’s ride in order to capture the imagery and motion footage we needed to tell a greater story of inspiration that happens to be rooted in the specific details of this event.
Read a behind-the-scenes recap of our whole shoot here.
Watch our video “Rusch Hour” here.
And once again, congrats to Rebecca for continuing to be recognized for this tremendous achievement, and for continuing to inspire all of us to push ourselves just a little bit harder.
