In Real Life with Monilee Keller, Mountain Bike Maven

Welcome back to In Real Life, a feature where I sit down with colleagues at Microsoft and talk about passion projects, personal fulfillment efforts, and incredible endeavors.

This week, I’m excited to introduce Monilee Keller, who works in our cloud and AI organization and is a competitive mountain bike racer. We recently talked about what it takes to work a full-time job, raise a family, and balance racing at an elite level.

After spending some time with Monilee, one thing is apparently clear to me: She loves to ride her bike. She’s raced her bike over, around, and through some of the toughest terrain on the planet. Monilee has completed everything from solo 24-hour races (yes, 24 hours on a bike!) to one hour events to multi-day races like her favorite accomplishment, La Ruta in Costa Rica: A three-day, coast-to-coast race along trails, gravel, dirt, pavement, thigh-deep mud, sand, volcanic ash, endless uphills and steep descents. No wonder this event is billed as the toughest mountain bike race on the planet—and why she’s proud of the accomplishment!

Monilee told me she grew up riding horses, running, skating, skiing, and generally enjoying the Eastern Canadian countryside, and it was a stint in adventure racing early in her 20s that lured her into mountain biking. It’s worth noting that La Ruta was Monilee’s first mountain bike race. The fact that she chose something that is labeled the “hardest” as her first official race tells you a lot about her character.

Needless to say, I was blown away by her dedication to her sport and asked how she manages to balance everything she does and stay present for her family.

“I love the word balance because if you think about a balance beam, it's actually very tricky. You're always kind of weebling and wobbling one way or another, and it's not easy. I try to get training done before the kids wake up. On the weekends, I'll get up at 4:30 and I'll crank out a hundred miles and they're eating breakfast by the time I'm done.”

She told me she trains year-round, often indoors during the dreary season that persists in Seattle from about October-May. Her level of dedication and commitment has reaped physical rewards in terms of medals and accomplishments, but it has also resulted in her having something for herself that is hers, and I think that is so important for each of us.

With the current COVID-19 crisis in the world, in-person racing isn’t an option, and it’s unclear when it will be. Adversity often leads to innovation, and this phenomenon is certainly true in the bike racing world. When it was clear that racing was off the table for this year, Monilee shifted her focus to virtual racing through an app called Zwift (where she is currently ranked #6 against all other women on the platform—wow!). Through these digital, real-time events, she’s able to virtually race professionals from around the world that she may never have had the opportunity to otherwise. All that indoor winter training she does will pay off this summer as she competes in new ways. She’s also very passionate about promoting female cycling and female racing, working to encourage women to join the sport. 

When I asked Monilee what she hoped her legacy would be, it wasn’t surprising that she wants her girls to grow up knowing they have no boundaries for their lives.

“I want to be a good role model for others and show you can do anything you really put your mind to. I especially hope to be a good role model for my children. I want my three girls, ages 3, 6, and 9, to grow up knowing that they can do and be anything, as long as they work hard at it.”

With an example like their mother, I’m quite sure Monilee’s girls are going to grow up to be amazing people.

Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you back here for In Real Life soon.