A Life of Play and Purpose
Deanna smiling at 9,000ft during the Xterra Indian Peaks race.
Having Deanna McCurdy as a neighbor reminds me of the days of youth when you picked up the phone to call a friend and say “Hey, wanna come out and play?”. Always ready for an adventure,, always with a smile and always willing to work and play hard, Deanna has become a key part of my play life. While we both love to ride bikes and the pandemic has afforded us many play outings together, Deanna ranks among the world’s top Xterra athletes and has earned herself a #1 finish at the Xterra World Championships as the top amateur in the world. With this, it seems fitting that we actually met at the one triathlon I competed in since my participation at the Ironman World Championship. Always willing to try something, I competed at the Xterra Lory event in 2015. Deanna and I came out of the water together...only to realize later that we were also neighbors. Since then, I've been fortunate to be able to share time with her through our shared love of athletic adventures with many hours logged through riding and climbing adventures!
In addition to Deanna’s big smile and success in her athletic endeavors, I should mention that she’s also extremely dedicated to using her platform to raise funds and awareness for Angelman’s Syndrome. (AS), and the advancement in treatment and a cure for those impacted by this genetic order. This is close to Deanna’s heart as she has a daughter who has AS and Deanna incorporates awareness and fundraising for the AS mission in all of her racing. And, with this in mind, there is hardly anything better than a life of play and purpose and, for this, Deanna receives a well earned A+ in Advanced Recess.
Here’s more with Deanna:
Describe a little about yourself:
I like to think of myself as a passionate ball of energy in a pint-sized body. When I come up with an idea, whether it is a race goal, a new adventure, family or work related, I throw all of myself into it. My philosophy is that we only get this one life, so why not squeeze every morsel out of each day. So many people merely exist. I chose to fully live!
What do you do for play?
The mountains are my playground. I feel invigorated and fully alive when I arrive at the top of a climb, fully breathless, lungs and legs tingling, and look back at where I came from to get to where I am. I love playing in the dirt: mountain biking, trail running, hiking, and even taking my road/gravel bike off the pavement to explore the roads less traveled is where you will find me with a perma-grin plastered to my face. For sport, I race triathlons, specifically off-road tris, trail runs, and have dappled in mountain bike and gravel bike racing.
When you think of your ideal day spent playing, what is it?
Pre-pandemic, I would have said my ideal play day would be getting to race in the mountains with some of my favorite friends. I love playing a game of cat and mouse, going back and forth on the trails as we pass back and forth and push each other to the finish line. Out on the course I worked hard, but never too hard to where I couldn’t say encouraging words or a joke to a friend as we passed each other… and I always tried to smile big for the race photographers out there no matter how I was feeling internally! Some athletes take racing so seriously they forget we don’t have to do this, we get to do this. Do you know how many people wish they had the opportunity to do what we get to do for fun?
The pandemic changed a lot this past year - no racing, no big finish line celebrations with friends… but it did allow me some incredibly amazing and memorable big play days on my bike, climbing mountains, exploring roads I have never been on even in a car, camping remotely, taking hiking adventures in my home state of Colorado, and connecting deeper with my family and friends in my little bubble than I ever had before. Ideal play days were days where I would get up early, be outside using my body to explore new places and limits, then return home late in the day completely tired, dirty, sweaty, but soaking in happiness, sharing stories of the day’s adventures with my husband or friends as we sipped on a well-earned cold, refreshing beer.
A day of solid exploring on our bikes. On this particular day, it was a 104 mile loop!
Our motto is Pursue a Life of Play. In your own words, what does this mean to you? How do you live it?
