On Sunday, Amy Mack and about 40 other cyclists are embarking on a 3,400-mile ride from Los Angeles to Boston, part of it on old Route 66.
That’s a remarkable enough quest. But Mack is doing it three years after she was nearly killed in a biking accident, reports the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette:
Thrown more than 100 feet on ML Avenue as she rode her bike to her son’s soccer game in the spring of 2005, Mack suffered four breaks in her back, including a compression fracture, as well as fractures of a leg and ribs. A helmet saved her from death, but it too was broken, and she suffered a closed-head injury.
She spent two weeks in intensive care and half of that summer in a hospital bed at home.
Doctors at one point were not sure she would walk again.
But Mack has pushed herself far beyond that point, strengthening herself for her upcoming 49-day group ride. She expects to average 80 miles a day, the first grueling week involving a ride across the Mojave Desert.
You can read more about Mack’s recovery here. She’s also created a blog of her upcoming road adventures here, which she plans to update along the way.