Rebecca Egender From the moment I swung a bat at age 5 and hit a ball off a tee I knew I was hooked. I played softball throughout high school along with volleyball, soccer, and basketball. I ran track for one season loving the 400m relay in particular. Having 5 siblings helped stoke my competitiveness…and need to run fast.

In college I decided to try out for the club lacrosse team for the University of Missouri-Columbia and had an absolute blast playing and traveling with a great team.

I moved to LA for work after college and figured I was done playing anything competitively. Thankfully that was not correct. Friends introduced me to competitive kickball and I got the same feeling then as I did at age five, I was hooked. Co-captaining, playing, and traveling the country again with an amazing team to compete has been an absolute gift. And, a gift that keeps on giving because it’s brought me to find this new passion in life. Never did I think I would throw a javelin nor compete into my forties and beyond. I now find myself counting days until I can throw again.

Thanks to the Striders I have found the camaraderie and the love and appreciation for competing and learning new skill sets yet again.