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Cat Jaffee didn\u2019t necessarily think of herself as someone who loved being alone. But then, the pandemic hit. And she got diagnosed with cancer. Actually, those two things happened on the exact same day, at the exact same hour. In the shadow of that nightmarish timing, Cat found her way to a sport that celebrated the solitude that was forced on her, and taught her how to not only embrace self-reliance, but to love it.\xa0\nThis sport is called competitive bikepacking. And in these competitions, riders have to bring everything they need to complete epic bike rides totally by themselves. They pack all the supplies they think they\u2019ll need to survive, and have to refuse some of the simplest, subtlest, most intangible boosts that exist in our world.\nBut a leader has emerged in this sport. Her name is Lael Wilcox, and she\u2019s a total rockstar in the world of competitive bikepacking. She\u2019s broken all kinds of records. And also, some rules. Most recently, on this one ride she did across the entire state of Arizona.\nWe set out to find out what it means \u2014 for Cat, for Lael, and for any of us \u2014 to endure incredibly hard things, totally alone. The answer is on the course, in our bodies, and hidden in that mysterious place between us and the people we care about.\nSpecial thanks to Anna Haslock, Nico Sandi, Michael Fryar, Moab Public Radio, Nichole Baker and Payson McElveen for sharing their studio with us, and The Radavist, for letting us use the audio of Lael\u2019s ride across Arizona. You can watch the original video here\xa0(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HOk0MmgFwE).\nEPISODE CREDITS\nThis episode was reported by - Cat Jaffee and Rachael CusickProduced by -\xa0 Rachael Cusick with help from - Pat WaltersOriginal music and sound design by - Jeremy Bloom with mixing help from - Arianne WackFact-checking by - Emily KriegerEdited by - Pat Walters\nCITATIONS:\nVideos:\nYou can watch Lael\u2019s you can watch Lael\u2019s ride across Arizona here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HOk0MmgFwE). \nAnd see the next season of racing by following along on TrackLeaders.com (http://trackleaders.com/)Articles:You can find Jim Coan\u2019s study on emotional support\xa0here\xa0(https://zpr.io/Y2yMXZMgnMKv).Audio:For more on Lael Wilcox, you can check out her interviews with the podcasts\xa0Adventure Stache\xa0(https://zpr.io/EtkFsW8b6VdS)\xa0and\xa0Bikes or Death\xa0(https://zpr.io/ZSTAECjAifn5).\nOur newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!\nRadiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.\nRadiolab is on YouTube! Catch up with new episodes and hear classics from our archive. Plus, find other cool things we did in the past \u2014 like miniseries, music videos, short films and animations, behind-the-scenes features, Radiolab live shows, and more. Take a look, explore and subscribe!\nFollow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.\n\nLeadership support for Radiolab\u2019s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.