After many years of organizing the Arkansas High Country Race, Chuck Campbell noticed something he couldn’t get out of his mind: far fewer women were competing in the AHCR than men. As a father of daughters and a former teacher, Campbell couldn’t ignore the disparity. He knew that women could accomplish anything men could.
“We can do this better!” he thought, and he began organizing.
Campbell knew exactly whom to ask to lead Women to the Finish Line: accomplished endurance cyclists Christie Tracy, Katherine Anderson, and Jennifer Swartout. Each brings hard-earned experience and a firsthand understanding of the preparation, perseverance, and problem-solving that long-distance bikepacking demands. Katherine became the first woman to finish the full loop of the ARHC in 2025. Christie has taken on numerous endurance races of more than 300 miles, while Jennifer chose the notoriously difficult DOOM Despair course for her first bikepacking race. Together, their experience makes them uniquely qualified to teach and mentor the next generation of women endurance cyclists.
The program worked like this: Women registered at no cost through the Arkansas High Country website to participate in a series of free virtual clinics over eight weeks. The clinics covered essential topics surrounding route planning, safety, and the mental demands of long-distance riding. Participants also had the opportunity to connect with a riding buddy, giving them added support as they prepared for the race.
"If you get women to the start line, they are going to finish,” Katherine Anderson said.
Campbell took that message to heart. Feedback from the initiative even prompted him to make changes to the race’s structure, like permitting racers’ location-tracking dots to be hidden in response to safety concerns. Campbell acknowledged he might never have considered these issues without the conversations sparked by Women to the Finish Line.
