Karrie Hovey: UCI World’s Cycling Race
I wanted to interview Karrie Hovey for this blog over the summer after her gravel bike race, the Highlands Gravel Classic, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. However, she did so well in the race (see the photo of her standing on that coveted podium position, viewer right) that she then qualified to race in the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Gravel World Championships in Veneto, Italy during Fall 2023. GOOOOO Karrie!
That said, by Fall, I was back to being immersed in teaching, and someone else beat me to the punch interviewing Karrie. To spare her from repeating herself, I will link to that 2023 interview, in “Living the Fit Life”:
“Vital Stories: Karrie Hovey. Artist, Philanthropist, Badass Mountain Biker”
I went to graduate school, round 1, with Karrie in the early 2000s. We did our Master’s of Fine Arts degrees together at San Francisco State University. Karrie started out studying engineering before transferring to the School of Visual Arts in New York City. After working professionally as a designer she wound her way to sculpture and installation work. When we first started talking, standing in line at the bursar’s window at the beginning of our initial semester at SFSU, I was sure that Karrie thought I was a complete fruit bat. I was so spilling over with bubbly extroversion and California casual vibes, and she was so introverted and serious, displaying New England reserve. Quickly, though, we learned that we had so much in common as Gen X-er feminist artists, with a love of the outdoors and adventure. More than twenty years later, our friendship continues to grow; and every year I am even more in awe of her for her ethics and value system, her creativity and productivity, her continued athleticism, and her indomitable spirit.
Karrie is a prolific and dedicated gallery represented artist whose work speaks to environmental issues. Her creative expression provides maps for us to realize interconnection with, and to feel empathy for, all living things. Her artistic output is updated at: www.karriehovey.com
Karrie is also a dedicated outdoorswoman, naturalist, and conservationist certified by the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA). Though her primary home is in Northern California, she is a Field Guide, Back-up Trails Guide, and Marine Guide in Southern Africa. Motivated by her passion for wildlife, Karrie started a nonprofit called Project Thorn which is dedicated to protecting rhinoceros in South Africa against poaching. Project Thorn’s most recent initiative was to establish a canine anti-poaching unit (APU) that covers multiple wildlife reserves over a territory of 80,000 acres to safeguard 120 endangered White Rhino and 25 critically endangered Black Rhino. The APU canines have been wildly successful. Before their presence in the region, the prior year the reserves lost 20 rhinos and 11 were injured by poachers. Since the canines have been on patrol, the reserves where they are have only lost 1 rhino.
By the way, Karrie is raising funds for a new truck for this important work! Donations anyone? https://projectthorn.com/donate/
Along with her interests in art and nature, which inform one another, Karrie is, obviously given her stellar racing performance, a seriously kick-ass competitive mountain biker. What makes her athletic accomplishments all the more impressive is, she has worked her way back from an injury that would have made anyone less determined throw in the towel.
In 2016, Karrie was struck by a truck while biking. (She advocates for wearing your helmet, and investing in a good one!) It took several months in a hospital bed, four surgeries, lots of physical therapy, and a tremendous amount of emotional fortitude to recover. She was so physically broken for a while that she even had to rely on a wheelchair to attend her mother-in-law’s funeral.
Karrie, however, has always been one to push herself towards a vision, and she wasn’t going to be defeated by this years’ long setback. Working with a coach, she set racing goals for herself. By 2022, she and her life partner–and racing partner–Charles Merrill did their second “JoBerg2C.” (Their first was in 2015, prior to the accident.) This grueling mountain bike endurance race was a 9-day, 950 km stage race from Johannesburg to the Indian Ocean.
In the summer of 2023, Karrie achieved her podium place in the Highlands Gravel Classic, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as pictured above. Thus qualifying for the UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto, Italy, Karrie scored again the following autumn. But wait, there is more soon to come!
I wish my dear friend all good luck and grace in The Cape Epic, in which she will be shining when the sun comes back in March 2024. Spots in this prestigious race, touted as the Tour de France of mountain biking, are by lottery and therefore difficult to secure: only 680 teams of 2-people each compete annually. Most of those highly sought-after spots are reserved for professional riders, returning teams, corporate sponsors, and volunteers from past races.
One more time, GOOOOO KARRIE! You are an inspiration for us all to follow our wildest, most daring dreams, and to never give up on the goals we care most about. Thank you for being a Xena role model!
