Sitting before me is a woman who thin, yet strong. She has a youthful face, yet her skin crinkles around her eyes. Her long dark blonde hair tumbles down her back. The word “courage” is tattooed on her right wrist in black ink. She looks like an average person. But Kathy Roche-Wallace is far from average.
Roche-Wallace is a 55-year-old resident of Marshall, Michigan. She is a mother of six, and a grandmother of nine. But unlike most parents, Roche-Wallace is a record-setting ultra distance athlete.
Although Roche-Wallace had always participated in different sports and athletic events throughout her childhood and into her adulthood, she admits that she didn’t know much about triathlons until a friend introduced her to them.
After her first triathlon, she “immediately fell in love with it. I fell in love with the discipline of it,” she said. “After that, I jumped right in.”
Roche-Wallace said that she was fascinated with what her body was capable of; the body and the mind fascinated her. She said she was willing to try anything.
That fascination led her to not only many more races, but led her to a new lifestyle. A lifestyle she said she would never quit; a lifestyle that her family supports her in.
Roche-Wallace says that her family keeps her going. They also her keep her grounded because to them, she’s “just mom.”
Her daughter, Melissa also started participating in ultra-distance races and even raced with Roche-Wallace.
One race that sticks out to Roche-Wallace as one of her favorites is the USA Ultra Triple “Iron distance” Triathlon World Competition in Virginia, which she first participated in in 2003. “I was the only female. The rest were all males that were from all over the world,” she said.
“My crew was my sister and my oldest daughter, Melissa. So we were an all-female team. We were one of the only U.S. teams as well. So it was like a small-scale Olympic moment for me.” She began to explain how you would carry your country’s flag during the last lap and then they “would play the National Anthem as you crossed the finish line. It was one of those patriotic, badass moments.”
She finished the race beside her sister and daughter. “It was really emotional.” But then they told her she was the first U.S. female to complete that specific race. She had no idea until that moment. “It didn’t hit me right away,” she said. But that moment is one of the highlights of her career.
Today, Roche-Wallace continues her day-job as the aquatics manager at Oaklawn Life Improvement Center, where she also teaches classes and works as a personal trainer. But she is also training to return to the Race Across America (RAAM) in June.
In 2011 Roche-Wallace participated in RAAM for the first time. She completed the race by setting the course record for solo women over the age of 50. She was also given the “Queen of the Mountains” award for recording the fastest time as she biked up three mountains. The event takes at least 12 days to complete and crosses 12 states across the country.
This summer, she hopes to reclaim her record as she aims to average about 250 miles per day.
Roche-Wallace said that racing is “too much of a lifestyle” and she never wants to quit. Comparing it to brushing your teeth, she said that you never quit brushing your teeth just because you get older. Instead, you change the way you brush your teeth. Although she might have to train differently and give her body more rest, she will never leave this lifestyle.