Rocklin girl defies illness, races dirt bikes

Crohn's disease doesn't stop 14-year-old from competing

By Marissa Lang
The Sacramento Bee

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In the blink of an eye, Katie Greer could shatter every bone in her body.

Still, the 14-year-old dirt bike racer said she's not afraid; her nerves have been steeled by years of sessions with specialists, doctors and cold hospitals.

Greer has Crohn's disease — a chronic illness that causes inflammation of the intestinal tract, resulting in pain, bleeding, diarrhea, weight loss, arthritis and fevers.

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Crohn's is incurable, but it has not kept Greer from emerging as a star among amateur dirt bike racers in the Sacramento area.

"I remember when I was younger, we'd go from hospitals to doctors to hospitals. It was just back and forth," Greer said recently, sitting surrounded by trophies lining her family's living room floor.

At first, the Rocklin teen said, no one knew what was wrong.

When she was a toddler, she began bleeding from her bowels. In third grade, she weighed less than 35 pounds.

"We were all hoping she'd grow out of it," Greer's mother, Lisa, said. "But when puberty kicked in, it became clear that all the markers were there. It was Crohn's."

To combat the effects of Crohn's disease, which can lead to a loss of red blood cells, nutritional deficiencies and ulcers, Greer has to take medicine that leaves her bones brittle and prone to breaking, her mother said.

"When she came to me at 10 years old and told me she wanted to race, I could have said, 'No, it's too dangerous,' " Lisa Greer said. "But I knew my fear couldn't interfere with what she wanted to do. ... Even now, she'll lie to me when she's feeling sick, so I don't stop her from racing."

Today, Greer is on a strict workout regimen. She's in the gym three times a week, building a physical buffer of muscle around her fragile bones — protection in the event of a dirt bike crash.

She's also practicing on the track two to three times a week with Kramer Patterson, a professional motocross rider.

"I want to keep riding," Greer said. "You have to be 18 years old to go pro, but that's what I'm going to do. I'll keep riding until I can't anymore."

Lisa Greer, who gets too nervous to watch the starts of her daughter's races, said she's learned not to doubt her when she sets her mind on something.

At 10, Greer decided she wanted to race dirt bikes, even though she had never done it before. In her first race at Sacramento Raceway, she finished fifth against boys her age. She won her second race.

"When I tell people I've only been riding for like three and a half years, they think I'm lying," Greer said.

Less than a year ago, she moved to riding a "big bike" that weighs almost 250 pounds. The change was significant, she said, adding that she likes to challenge herself. She prefers to race against older, more experienced riders.

"The boys," she said, her green eyes wide with excitement.

"It feels good to beat them," she added. "That's why I wear pink on the track. I don't really like pink, but I want them to know that I'm a girl. 'Yeah, it's a girl that's beating you.' "

That attitude has helped her both on the track and off.

"When you grow up with a disease, I think it makes it easier to push through everything in life," Lisa Greer said. "She wants to be a pro. And she'll do it, too."