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I’m lucky to have met a lot of people in the chronic illness community who inspires me. One of these is Mariah Leach and she’s just done something extra inspiring (and a little bit crazy).

“Mariah Zebrowski Leach has rheumatoid arthritis (RA). She is also the busy mom of two sons, a blogger, and the creator of the Mamas Facing Forward, a Facebook group about parenting with a chronic illness. And she recently rode in the California Coast Classic, an eight-day, 525-mile bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to benefit The Arthritis Foundation. We talked about her life and the ride.

Health Central (HC): Please tell us about yourself.
Mariah: I live near Boulder, Colorado with my husband and two little boys, who are 2 and 4 years old. I was diagnosed with RA when I was 25 years old and in the middle of working on a law degree and a masters in environmental policy. When my husband and I got married, we wanted to start a family. I didn’t think I could handle RA, starting a family, and starting a career all at the same time. For the past three years, I’ve been primarily focused on starting a family.

There were no resources to help me make the challenging decisions on starting a family. I started putting together resources for other moms who might be going through this so they don’t have to feel less alone as I did. I also started the Facebook group Mamas Facing Forward.

HC: A month ago you rode in the California Coast Classic, an intense bike ride from San Francisco to LA to benefit The Arthritis Foundation. One word: why?

Read my profile of Mariah’s profile and the story of her ride on RAHealthCentral.