As a child with polio, she wore leg braces in grammar school and corrective shoes in high school, enduring the taunts of her peers. All she wanted was a pair of tennis shoes.
At the age of 21 she contracted rheumatic fever. She was told she would never have children.
In 1991, the mortgage banker mother of two (daughter Julie and son Mac), with two Western States 100's and a 150 miler out of Bad Water (from which she held the women's record for nine years) under her belt, was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She had actually had it since 1985, when she noticed fatigue and muscle aches. But it was attributed to other things, e.g. running too much, and by the time it was detected had run so rampant through her system she was unable to continue working. With an IV shooting antibiotics through her for three years, she started over. At Sierra College she attended the Learning Disabilities program. In Santa Rosa she had speech therapy. She's come a tremendous way, but still has cognitive challenges. There are times when she needs help filling out a check, she reads at a third grade level, and has sketchy memories of her life. She does not remember the birth of her children, or much after that. She has to concentrate to speak (although she will fool you). The medical consensus is that she probably suffered some irreparable brain damage. Is she bummed out? No, it's just another challenge that she accepts. Picture her rubbing her hands with joyful anticipation of the contest and you'll understand Jeannie.
This is the 10 year anniversary of her diagnosis, so what to do? Her partner Michael decided to buy a house trailer. "Let's go across the country!" So they did, Michael driving the truck w/trailer and Jeannie riding her bike. She made it, 4275 miles, 13 flat tires, and two rear tires later. There was also a problematic shifter which required her to ride in the third chain ring for three days until she could at last get a new part shipped to her. (Newfangled bike parts are hard to come by on the back roads of the Midwest.) "It was the adventure of a lifetime. I was like a kid in a candy store, taking in everything. Some people ask me how I could do it by myself, but I loved the solitude of it. I could go at my own pace, see what I wanted to see. Maybe it's because I'm at peace with myself; I don't need a lot of commotion. It was so stress-free, a great trip."
One of her favorite things about the experience was having a new ride every day. She used Adventure Cycling maps, which got her on back roads for most of the journey. She saw how folks really live and how many wonderful people there are in this country. "I didn't meet a mean person." There was one exception to that: she hit the roads of upper Michigan and became the prey of the logging trucks. "They would come barreling down the road, horns blasting, veering onto the bike lanes and laughing as I'd jump off the bike to keep from getting hit." It was all part of the adventure.
She loved the sight and sound of the waterfalls in Washington, and was amazed that Michael had not heard them while driving. While riding through the Cascades she couldn't help but think it would make a great Zodiac.
Glacier National Park was mesmerizing. She rode the Highway to the Sun, leaving early in the morning to finish before the bike cut-off time of 11:00 AM. In Montana she rode alongside the honking trains, trading waves with their occupants. In Wisconsin she spied an eagle way overhead. It circled, dropped down and flew alongside her for miles. In Minnesota she stopped to put turtles back in their ponds. There was a lot of rain, and some tornado warnings. One night their trailer was shaking so violently they sought refuge in the campground's concrete restroom. She saw moose and bears in Canada and enjoyed the hospitality of a prominent resident of Torch Lake (a beautiful, often photographed lake) who, upon meeting Jeannie and Michael, gave them use of his guesthouse. They took in the fall colors on the East Coast and she enjoyed the hills of that area, which were pleasant surprises. In Maine the roads posed a challenge because of their disrepair, but after 56 days of riding they couldn't keep her front wheel from the Atlantic in Bar Harbor.
Interestingly, the trip got off to a bumpy start when the truck broke down two days into the journey. It took four days to get it repaired. And in Washington she and Michael got separated in an area where the cell phones wouldn't work and they were too far apart for the walkie talkies . She was at the bottom of a pass and had visions of spending a cold, hungry and lonely night there. Fortunately he found her.
She had an interesting craving on the trip: cinnamon rolls. "I've never had it before, and I haven't had it since I've been home, but I had Michael going all over to hunt down cinnamon rolls." She also enjoyed cooking at night (more than she does at home), and her only dissatisfaction is that she wanted to lose 10 pounds but only lost four. "I wanted to see how may states it would take to lose ten." Her highest mileage day was 124, and she rode several 100+ mile days, but her average was 76.
She joined the Wheelmen about three years ago after damaged knee cartilage, one of the ravages of lyme disease, sidelined her from long-distance running. One afternoon she was mowing her lawn, and noticed many cars with bike racks parked on her street. When people started filing out of Ray McAfee's home to reclaim their autos, she asked questions, summoned up her nerve and joined. She was very intimidated, but that isn't something that gets in her way. It was another adventure.
She tries to do a couple Thursday and weekend rides each month. She did five passes of the Death Ride in 2000. In her spare time she races mountain bikes with her son, and they enjoy the surprised gasps they hear when he calls her "Mom". She also enjoys doing photography, mostly of children. She has a black and white lab in her home and does hand tinting of the pictures. Her two granddaughters are well documented.
Jeannie is adamant about the importance of having fun and not having to be the fastest or best. "All you need is the will and the desire to do it." She enjoys meeting new people and hopes to get to know more of the club members. Jeannie admires Sandy Yarrow and everything Sandy does for and with the club.
She's always been a fighter but what really changed her were the rheumatic fever and her father's death in his fifties. "I was determined to live each day to the fullest." And this vow was strengthened when she witnessed her only brother's death from brain cancer at the age of 52, two years after his retirement. When she started running she couldn't make it around the block, but by the end of the first year she had run a 10K, a half-marathon, a marathon and a 50 miler. The second year she did the Western States 100 and the 150 miler that started at 286 feet below sea level and ended at 14,000 feet on Mt. Whitney. She has experienced the ups and downs of life and her philosophy embraces that continuum:
1) Believe in yourself
2) Live each day to the fullest
3) Never give up
"I think if everyone did those things the world would be a much better place," she says.
I think because of her it is.