Fairfax's Lloyd Tackles Dipsea as Mother, Not Bike Pro

Rachel Lloyd of Fairfax has done a lot of amazing things in her life.

Running the Dipsea Race isn’t one of them.

But that’s about to change.

The 36-year-old native of Bellingham, Wash., captivated by her husband’s work on a documentary on Marin’s most famous running race last June, will make her Dipsea debut in Sunday’s 101st edition.

“I’ve definitely caught Dipsea mania,” Lloyd admitted on the eve of the race.

Truth be told, the 15-year Fairfax resident appears not to be picking the ideal time for the test.

First off, she’s just 15 months removed from having her first child, Henry. And not coincidentally, Lloyd couldn’t train much in March and April while battling an illness she labeled “standard for being a mom.”

But for 12 months, she’s relived the 100th Dipsea on almost a daily basis. That’s because her husband, Sam Lueck, began production on a documentary on race day a year ago, and Lloyd has been very much involved.

“He usually runs in the invitational race, but he decided he wanted to film the race,” Lloyd explained of the documentary. “There were 16 cameras. Some were with the runners. Others were attached to trees. It was really cool.”

What Lloyd has observed during the production of the documentary, which isn’t finished yet, has inspired her to be on the other side of the cameras this weekend.

“I was always turned off by the sheer number of people,” she explained of never having run the Dipsea before. “But hearing all the cheering, watching the interviews, watching Sam wading through the footage, seeing all the characters … I got sucked into it.”

Actually, saying Lloyd has never entered the Dipsea is only true because of a technicality. She recalls running the Double Dipsea (15 miles) at least twice, and in fact won the women’s division of the Quad Dipsea (30 miles) in 2004.

This explains why Lloyd, while not intending to be boastful, said of Sunday’s race: “This shouldn’t be too hard,” and, “I don’t consider this (7.5 miles) long distance.”

What is long distance?

Well, as an 18-year-old, Lloyd celebrated high school graduation by riding her bike across the country. “I needed something adventurous to do,” she explained.

“I learned I could do anything I wanted. I just had to set my mind to it,” she declared. “It was a self-empowering moment.”

Lloyd liked bike riding so much, she dropped out of school to take it more seriously. At age 20, she started mountain biking and within a year she was racing professionally.

Two things brought her to Fairfax in 1996: the competition and the mountain.

“Everyone said I would get my butt kicked in California,” she recalled. “But I didn’t.”

Lloyd eventually got involved in downhill bike racing, then road racing and most recently cyclocross. The latter took her to Europe, where she once placed fifth in a World Cup race in Italy and ranked as high as ninth in the world.

Along the way, she also became the single-speed world champion.

But then came Henry and, never having lost view of Mt. Tamalpais from her home near Camp Tamarancho, Lloyd has transitioned to racing on her own two feet.

“I’ve always loved the trails around Mt. Tam. All of my trail running comes from the pure love of running,” she admitted. “This is what keeps me in Marin – Mt. Tam and the trails.”

As Lloyd, now a part-time student at College of Marin, thinks about her first Dipsea, the bike racer in her comes out.

“I’ve seen the footage of the rows of people. It looks brutal,” she noted. “I don’t have any experience running this trail with this many people.

“The only thing I have going for me is I have experience in bike racing passing people. That was one of my strengths -- I could get by people. It seems like it would be easier running, but this trail is just so tough.”

That said, Lloyd expects to finish in close to one hour, which would place her among the elite runners. She doesn’t, however, expect to beat training partner and fellow former pro bike racer, Mill Valley native Sarah Bamberger, who Lloyd considers “probably four minutes faster than me.”

And let’s not forget the baby factor.

“Having a baby and going a really long distance wouldn’t be a problem because you could go slow,” she explained. “But I consider this really short. You have to go fast and I think I’ve lost a lot of power. I know I’ve lost a lot of muscle.

“Am I slower after having a child? I don’t know. I think so. I guess we’ll find out.”