Episode 9: Challenging yourself to be more with Katie Spotz
At 22 years old, Katie Spotz took on the Atlantic Ocean. She spent 70 days alone at sea to become the youngest person to row solo across the Atlantic. The former “bench warmer” and the worst rower on her college team, Katie did it with just her arms and her oars, and no spotting boat for company.
She used a bucket for a bathroom and kept time like a prisoner, drawing lines on the inside of her boat. She found beauty in the monotony and survived by not making the decision to quit, even when waves hit 20 feet high, barnacles slowed her boat down and leaking water ruined her stash of candy bars.
Katie decided she could either row the sea or forever regret not doing it. She urges people to say “Yes!” to life and to challenge themselves in new ways. And yet she confesses, “I’m not a very motivated person. Motivation sometimes happens after you show up, kind of like your late friend to the party.”
Katie grew up in Mentor, Ohio, and trained on Lake Erie. She shoved off from Dakar, Senegal in 2010 with no motor or sail, just her 19-foot-long yellow sailboat Liv and sailed all the way to Guyana. It took 70 days and 3,038 miles. She carried two sets of oars, four iPods and 3,000 chocolate bars.
Katie now lives in Portland, Maine and is in the U.S. Coast Guard. She runs a marathon every week and is training for a 130-mile run.
You can learn more about her at www.katiespotz.com
OFFICIAL BIO:
Katie Spotz is an endurance athlete, charitable ambassador, author and world-record holder. She’s competed in five Ironman triathlons, cycling across the country, a 325-mile river swim, running across deserts, cycling in the Tour of New Zealand, running 100 miles nonstop in under 20 hours, and a solo row across the Atlantic Ocean.
When she rowed the Atlantic, she arrived in Guyana, South America, after 70 days at sea, to set a world record for the youngest ever solo ocean rower.
Katie raised money for safe drinking water projects around the world, raising over $275,000 for safe water projects in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Katie visited water projects and saw the results of the funds raised through her adventures. This journey sparked a campaign to challenge ten schools in the states to help ten schools in Kenya. The schools raised more than $100,000 or enough to help 10,000 students gain access to safe drinking water. To celebrate, the students gathered and broke the world record for the most people carrying water jugs on their heads!
Katie’s story has been featured on CBS Morning Show, CBS Evening News, World News with Diane Sawyer, Anderson Cooper 360, New York Times, NPR, PBS News Hour, and the Discovery Channel. In 2010, Katie was honored by Glamour Magazine as one of their “Women of the Year”, alongside people like Julia Roberts, Cher, and Queen Rania of Jordan.
Katie continues to act as a change agent for social causes and is an acclaimed motivational speaker sought across the country. She has inspired and captivated thousands from school children to business professionals, and speaks about overcoming adversity and holding onto faith, no matter how steep the odds.