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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Endurance athlete Rebecca Rusch has some advice, her &lt;em&gt;12 Rules for Success:&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 1: Stack up your moments.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a competitive career that extends back to high school, Rusch has amassed an array of trophies\u2014for winning the U.S. Whitewater Rafting National Championships in 2001 and 2002; for leading Team Montrail to first place in the 2003 Raid Gauloises Adventure Racing World Championships in Kyrgyzstan; for four straight Leadville 100 mountain bike victories between 2009 and 2012. And in her free time she\u2019s a volunteer firefighter in Ketchum, Idaho.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last Tuesday, visiting New York City on a book tour for her recently published autobiography, &lt;em&gt;Rusch to Glory&lt;/em&gt;, the 46-year-old Rusch talked to a small group of aspiring athletes at T2 Multisport, a cycling and triathlon gym on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side. Before introducing them to her &lt;em&gt;12 Rules for Success&lt;/em&gt;, though, Rusch put her listeners through their paces on the bikes. There are no short cuts.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rusch is a survivor of what came before &lt;em&gt;Survivor&lt;/em&gt;. From 1997 to 2002 she took part in the annual Eco-Challenge adventure race run by Mark Burnett, who brought &lt;em&gt;Survivor&lt;/em&gt; to U.S. television screens in 2000. On foot, bike, horse, and by canoe, teams of men and women would race non-stop over a 300-mile course in such countries as Australia, Argentina, and Fiji.\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 2: Pay attention to the space in-between.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When everyone is cruising on the flat, race ahead.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 3: No matter how you're feeling, it won\u2019t last.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It didn\u2019t. When Burnett turned his primary focus to &lt;em&gt;Survivor &lt;/em&gt;in 2002, the Eco-Challenge was replaced by John Barrett\u2019s $100,000-prize Primal Quest. Despite the demise of the Eco-Challenge, the high-stakes Quest was a sign adventure racing was still taking off\u2014the 2003 Primal Quest became the first adventure race to be broadcast on national TV\u2014and Rusch was one of the sport\u2019s biggest stars.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But then, while he was leading the 2004 Primal Quest on San Juan Island, off the coast of Washington, Nigel Aylott was killed. As Aylott guided both Team AROC and Team Montrail, his and Rusch\u2019s groups, respectively, down a ravine, John Jacoby from Team Montrail accidently dislodged a boulder. The rock crashed down the gorge and hit Aylott in the head. The seven survivors were airlifted to safety. Aylott\u2019s body was recovered the next day. The race was stopped.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200BBarrett and the 56-team field held a memorial service for Aylott. This wasn\u2019t the first time tragedy had struck adventure racing. At the 2003 Raid Gauloises, on a whitewater canoe stage, French competitor Dominique Robert drowned. And two years before that, at the inaugural Discovery Channel World Championship, British racer Carolyn Jones had almost been killed after being trapped face down in freezing water for more than 20 minutes. Robert\u2019s death was put down to a freak accident, but the incidents in 2001 and 2004 were attributed to taking too much risk\u2014race organizers were skirting the edge of safety to ensure that their events stood out.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over the next 24 hours, the remaining racers discussed what had happened. Some blamed Barrett\u2019s course design, others blamed AROC and Montrail. A few wanted to restart the race in solidarity, and to donate the prize money to Aylott\u2019s family. The majority, though, still wanted the $100,000. The race continued, but without AROC and Montrail, and without the section on which Aylott had died.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the season, Rusch\u2019s sponsor Montrail was bought out by Columbia. Her funding vanished, and she walked away from the sport. In addition to the money, she\u2019d lost her enthusiasm. The adventure racing community\u2019s reaction in the aftermath of Aylott\u2019s death had soured her on the sport. Rusch, then 38, was resigned to finding a real job, probably tethered to a desk.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She had one last sponsor remaining, though: Red Bull. &lt;em&gt;You still have another year on your contract&lt;/em&gt;, said the company, &lt;em&gt;find something amazing to do&lt;/em&gt;. A friend suggested mountain biking. But there was one problem: \u201CI hated mountain biking,\u201D says Rusch. Out of every event in an adventure race, the bike stage had been her worst, and her least favorite. She signed up for a race anyway, a 100-miler in Idaho.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 4: Don\u2019t sweat the small stuff.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Be nice. Karma counts.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 5: Remember why you ride.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you don\u2019t enjoy something, don\u2019t do it.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 6: Start slow, finish fast.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe Rusch wasn\u2019t great in the saddle, but she had one key advantage over everyone else: Eight years of seven-day-plus adventure races had taught her real endurance, not just how to stay up for days at a time, but how to race and keep racing. Her next event was a 24-hour team event in Moab. Rusch couldn\u2019t ride the most difficult sections of the course, so she picked up her bike and ran. She set the fastest lap time of any woman there. Her team won the expert women\u2019s race.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Rusch kept winning. In her first solo race, the 24 Hours Round the Clock in Spokane, she beat even the men\u2019s solo winner. The first time she showed up at Leadville\u2014perhaps the most famous endurance mountain bike race in the world\u2014in 2009, she shared the podium with Lance Armstrong. Even then, she still couldn\u2019t stay on her bike the whole way around. Not until her fourth-straight Leadville victory could Rusch ride all the way up the Powerline hill.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 7: Reach for non-performance goals.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are different ways to be a winner.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 8: Write your own script.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Don\u2019t follow the crowd.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 9: If you fall, get back up.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Never give up.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 10: Forget limits.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite her age, Rusch is still not slowing down. In 2013 she won the six-day, 350-mile Brasil Ride across the Chapada Diamantina National Park in Brazil with her teammate Selene Yeager\u2014coauthor of Rusch\u2019s autobiography. In October,&amp;nbsp;Rusch returned to Brazil with professional road cyclist Ally Stacher as her teammate. They didn\u2019t win, but, then again, it was Stacher\u2019s first mountain bike race.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Dubbed the Queen of Pain by one adventure sports publication, Rusch would rather think of herself as the Queen of Perseverance. She\u2019s not the strongest, the tallest or the fastest athlete out there, but she prides herself on never giving up. \u201CI really am just a regular person. Physically\u2014for example my VO2 max\u2014I\u2019m completely average,\u201D says Rusch. \u201CJust ask my trainer.\u201D She wants to inspire other regular people, too. In 2011, Rusch started the SRAM Gold Rusch Tour as a way to encourage more women and girls to get into cycling.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now she is hungry for more adventure. Last year she decided to take a shot at breaking the women\u2019s record for the fastest time on the Kokopelli Trail, a 138-mile track that runs from Moab, Utah, to Fruita, Colorado. Not because of the prize money\u2014there was none\u2014or the fame, but simply for the challenge. She set a new mark of 13 hours, 32 minutes, 46 seconds. Next she\u2019s planning a mountain biking expedition of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. After a lifetime racing around the world, Rusch wants to find the site her father\u2019s plane was shot down during Vietnam.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 11: No short cuts.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hard work pays.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Rule 12: Most of all...Enjoy the ride.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The journey is what it's all about.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/edge/2014/11/17/queen-of-pain-rebecca-rusch-lays-down-the-rules>