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Katie Bolling

One in a Billion

By InnerVoice

March 16^th, 2018

Matters of the heart

As many people know, I’m full of passion, enthusiasm and can be fairly intense - all attributes I embrace - but I think the same roots that brought me these traits have also made me into a person that deals with anxiety on a regular basis. Much of what helps me manage this is a healthy dose of sweat; clearing my head and processing ideas and thoughts. For those reasons, I really love the opportunity to have solo time on my bike.

I love climbing (on the bike), it really helps manage my anxiety. For one, I have a worker’s mentality and it feels good to channel that in a physical way, but it also helps me feel light in my mind. As we all know, it’s good to feel physically light going up, but I like to think it’s good to be mentally light going up, too. When I start a climb, I let the heavy thoughts out and focus on the light ones. I think of my cabin in Maine and hold onto the thought of me sitting on the dock with my extended family watching the kids swim in the lake, with a beer in hand. It may sound silly, but I think of dresses I’ve seen that I love and where I’d wear them. I envision a girl student with a bicycle in rural Zambia. And I think of experiences that I’ve had that fill my heart with gratitude, and dream about places that I’ve yet to go. All the while I’m suffering physically, but these are matters of the heart that seem to flow like a river through me - and I love that.

Then, as I go back down the climb, I still feel light and when the heavy thoughts come back to mind – which they do – they often seem lighter in themselves with more clarity (sometimes solutions to complex things I was thinking through or even a new refreshed attitude of vigor towards ideas that were weighing me down). Lighter all around…and I love that.

Photo by Jered Gruber

Grateful

I went from traveling the world to moving to Chicago to work for an online adventure travel company, where I was the Controller. That is when I started racing triathlon, how I came to meet Chris, and how I took my life as an athlete who was passionate about international development to create a job opportunity at World Bicycle Relief (WBR). Through a strong partnership between WBR and inGamba, I saw a new career opportunity to be able to contribute in a meaningful way to inGamba, which is what led me to where I am today.

I’m fortunate that I was able to spend a lot of time cycling with supporters during my time at WBR. In fact, what I loved most about my career there was the ample opportunities to get out on bikes with the amazing people who made up our community. Perhaps one of the most rewarding experiences was the 2017 WBR/InGamba trip to Portugal. We had a group of about 20 people that came together to enjoy a unique experience together with the goal to raise funds for WBR. The group rallied tremendously well and raised $300,000. It was incredible and now that I’m in my new position, I’m full of pride in having the opportunity to introduce more of the WBR community to inGamba and to continue to nurture inGamba’s strong support for WBR (the inGamba community has now raised over $1MM for WBR). It’s an exceptional opportunity to have the chance to continue to bring these communities together that I’m very grateful for.

Photo by Jered Gruber

Photo by Jered Gruber

Photo by Jered Gruber

Katie Bolling

“I do my best to quiet my mind through a bike ride, or sitting down and making lists. It’s a little like a breathing exercise to me to get it out and see it on paper so I can make a plan to manage the various responsibilities I have, and make a visible plan to regain a calmer attitude and focus.”

Katie Bolling

Fuel to better the world

I’m inspired by any athlete, professional or amateur, regardless of the size of their platform, who uses their voice to make positive change. It’s one thing to strive for personal success and victory, but it changes something from ordinary to extraordinary once there is fuel to better the world.

I’m a huge fan of Christy Turlington and what she’s done at Every Mother Counts. Here is a woman who had a fairly stealth career as a model, and that could have been enough, but she had something extraordinary to offer the world above that. I also love that EMC has really created a strong community around female runners; they are harnessing the power of women coming together in a really wonderful way, and I love that.

I’m a big fan of Patagonia as well and what that brand stands for. I think they are the leaders in incorporating a message of values in every product they sell and I think this leads to people feeling they are part of that message and value system every time they pull out their favorite fleece or jacket.

Photo by Linda Guerrette

Katie Bolling

Photo by Linda Guerrette

Photo by Jered Gruber

Find a way

My inner voice always says “Find a Way”, even if it’s to the point of being absurd or beyond a healthy level of optimism. One example of this is that I did the Ironman World Championship with a stress fracture in my foot. I do remember that it was painful, but you can have a ‘woe is me attitude’ or you can say, ‘here I am competing and living!’. Just think about it: doing sport races (or even just sport hobbies) is something that many people in the world don’t have access to, so it’s good to approach it with that perspective.

Leading up to Kona, Chris was in a cycling crash that led to emergency spinal fusion surgery, and a few weeks after that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. And, I was still adjusting to being a mom and marriage - and the difficulty of finding balance between these important relationships and responsibilities - so there was a lot going on. Through all of it, I continued to think the best and redirect energy and focus as I needed, but what is rational to one person can be absurd to the next person. I kept adjusting the goals for the race, and really became very positively focused around my lofty fundraising goal for World Bicycle Relief, which was to raise a bike for each mile of the race.

I was feeling fairly good about everything, and then four weeks before Kona I was doing a session at the track in Chicago when I heard – and felt – a very painful crack in my right foot. I felt I knew the diagnosis right then, but still tried to remain so positive those next few days. When I saw the doctor and learned it was a stress fracture, so many people had supported me with the other challenges leading to that point that I felt it would have been completely unacceptable to feel like a victim or be a pessimist. Instead, I rallied. I didn’t run for four weeks and simply looked forward to the time in Kona with a healthy husband, a mom who literally completed her final radiation treatment and got on a plane, my son who would feel the salt of the ocean for the first time, and a day celebrating the impact of my fundraising efforts for WBR.

For me it was like a journey that brought to life the message that you need to keep moving despite physical and mental pain. You have to find a way to keep moving towards the light. I remember some of those miles of the marathon as the sun was setting over Kona – thinking of how blue the Pacific was, feeling the heat from the pavement radiate around my legs, thinking of the caregivers in Zambia who would be mobilized with bicycles, and focusing on my family who were waiting for me at the finish line...in a nutshell...truly thinking how blessed I was to just simply be there in that spot at that race with that kind of abundant life. One in a billion.

That’s me - one in a billion.

Katie Bolling

Katie Bolling

Katie Bolling

Katie Bolling

filled with joy

I really care about everything I do and I’m also quite hard-charged and sensitive, which can be a unique combination. There have been times I’ve thrown my hands in the air and said, “I’ll try to be a little cooler and pretend I don’t care.” And that lasts, like, two minutes before I say, “That’s a terrible way to live. I f’ing really care.” Then I just move forward and accept that I’d rather be true to myself and take whatever comes my way than have an attitude of indifference. I think it’s so much better to really feel things than to distance yourself from embracing emotion.

I will never forget my first day at World Bicycle Relief. It was the Tuesday after Labor Day in 2008 after I made the proposal to FK Day, Leah Missbach Day and one employee they had at the time, that they should hire me to start a “grassroots network”. I had not thought through how I would set off on that objective but to quote Mark Twain: “With confidence and ignorance – success is certain.” Well, they went for it and I was hired. That first day I was going through some basic database training with Jill, my colleague at the time, teaching me how to enter checks in the system. I asked her, “What if it’s a new donor?” and she looked at me point blank and said “We don’t get new donors.” I think I had an awkward, scared look on my face but I thought “Well, that’s good. I have a lot of work to do.” Those years that followed, say 2008-2013, it was like this huge jigsaw puzzle that was a thrill to put together a piece at a time. In 2010, I hired Rebecca Much, a silver medal world champion cyclist, and we had this blank slate and all this vim and vigor that just couldn’t be contained. We banded together and I liken it to a happy tornado. We’d hold off-sites for the two of us to focus on ideas and how to deploy them – I mean WTF – who holds off-sites with agendas with two people. Yes – we did. We’d get off the plane from trips and be so excited that we’d sit down at the airport and comb through new action plans, we literally took a red eye back from Chicago after our biggest ride of the year to set up a booth at the US Pro Cycling Challenge the following morning. And that whole time…when we were mostly accountable towards just ourselves…but we believed so much in what we were doing that we so joyfully and effortlessly worked with full hearts towards this concept of building a global community that believes in mobility through the Power of Bicycles.

And now, looking back and how WBR’s community has grown and you can truly imagine thousands and thousands of people with bicycles in rural Africa that were mobilized…that makes my heart soar and truly, truly fills me with overwhelming joy.

Katie Bolling

“A book I read when I was younger had a line that read “Even in Godly terms, a life without passion is no life at all.” I really believe that. I’m fortunate to have Chris in my life who has really embraced this about me.”

Katie Bolling

Katie Bolling

Katie Bolling

Family team

I’ve been a part of teams in sport, business and I would add “family team” to that list as well. I think they can all be so challenging and rewarding to navigate. I think the key is to find environments/teams that you thrive in so you can be the best version of yourself while also positively contributing to the people around you. That’s my hope for the teams that I’m part of.

One of my favorite books is The Power of One and I had this custom wooden piece done that is outside of my kids’ rooms that reads:

“The vines are people who are afraid of originality, of new thinking. Most people you encounter will be vines; when you are a young plant they are very dangerous. Always listen to yourself, Peekay. It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step toward a fulfilling life.”

I want my kids to understand what this means and I also try to keep this in mind with my family – my parents, Chris, and everyone else in my life who I consider family. We are all on our journeys. We all need to be authentic and genuine to ourselves while also respecting that others are on their own journeys. This concept of “living our personal legends” is really important to me and I’m really fortunate that Chris understands and accepts my passion for this. I feel I’m really wired in a unique way and I try, try, try to keep this front of my mind. It can be all too easy to start being swallowed up with comparisons, expectations of society, definitions of what others consider to be successful and acceptable, but you have got to stay true to yourself and you’ve got to give people the grace to do the same.

Photo by Jered Gruber

Photo by Jered Gruber

Photo by Jered Gruber

Katie Bolling

bosslady

I’m both ambitious and goal-oriented in most of what I do with athletics and my career so I think this has mostly positively impacted my relationships in many aspects of my life. But, I also know these are not necessarily traditional feminine traits and I know my strong emotions get the best of me at times, so I really try to remind myself to not take myself too seriously and to have fun with everything. I sometimes say that I’m the most awkward person I know because of this mix of traits, but then I throw my hands in the air and smile because it is what it is. This acceptance of who I am comes in handy with balancing marriage, parenthood, personal goals and being committed to a having a career.

I believe so much that inGamba offers extraordinary cycling tours that celebrate so many of life’s most beautiful experiences and truly appreciate the essence of what our founder, Joao Correia, has created. I also believe we have an exceptional team who make these experiences possible, so I’m humbled to have the chance to come alongside them in my new role as the bosslady. I simply want as many people as possible to know about what we do and choose to travel with us.

Photo by Jered Gruber

Footnotes

Words by Katie Bolling, Cover Photo by Jered Gruber, photos by Jered Gruber & Linda Guerrette, Editor Cody Royle, Publisher Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group

FootNotes

Words by Katie Bolling, Cover Photo by Jered Gruber, photos by Jered Gruber & Linda Guerrette, Editor Cody Royle, Publisher Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group

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