Willis Earns Award for Ride of Her Life

Sharon Willis, a nurse at Westmont’s Health and Counseling Center, recently earned the Clif Bar Courage Award for her inspirational finish in the second annual Santa Barbara Century bicycle ride in October. Willis, 55, fell off her mountain bike two months before the start of the ride and was unable to train for several weeks.

“When she decided to try and complete this century, she had only a few weeks to prepare, and she had never ridden this distance,” says Bill Lindberg, a member of the Santa Barbara Century’s board of directors. “She rode a loaner bicycle from Giant Bicycle, using clip-on-shoes and cleats for the first time.”

Sharon started the 100-mile race at 6:30 a.m., climbing 9,600 feet on one of the most difficult rides in the U.S.

After about 40 miles, Sharon began repeatedly suffering painful leg cramps, forcing her to get off her bike to walk and stretch. “It was incredibly frustrating because I felt strong otherwise,” Sharon says. “I kept plugging away, going 10 miles then stopping to deal with cramps. I kept saying I’ll just go another 10 miles and see how I do. Once I got to the top of Painted Cave, I decided I was going to enjoy all the downhill I had earned. I started feeling extremely driven to finish it.”

And, after 12 hours, Sharon did finish in the dark.

“I was completely surprised and definitely feel undeserving of all this attention,” Willis says. “I am not a typical long-distance bike rider, so completing the ride was such a highlight for me (lots of tears of joy at the end), but it’s really all about Bill (Lindberg) and Kalon Kelly for organizing such a wonderful event and providing this ride for our community.”

In two years of the bicycle ride, Santa Barbara Century has donated more than $82,000 to non-profits such as Sports Outreach, founded 25 years ago by former Westmont soccer coach Russell Carr. “We will be able to feed and educate several hundred children in Uganda because of the ride,” Lindberg says. “In the future, I hope this ride will continue to grow so that we can help local charities with gifts more than $100,000 annually.  We have been blessed that Rabobank, Clif Bar, Whole Foods and Bryant and Sons Jewelry have been so generous in helping make this ride such a success.”