Marianne Martin sits on her couch and watches the leaves fall outside. It’s peak season for the long-time Boulder photographer, but she has had to cancel multiple wedding, family and portrait shoots following her bicycle crash in Boulder County on Oct. 6.

However, work isn’t the only thing Martin’s missed out on while recovering. Across her living room sits a stationary bike, casting a reminder of a bigger concern on Martin’s mind: her limited ability to exercise.

In 1984, Martin won the first Tour De France Feminin. She went on to be inducted into the Boulder Sports Hall of Fame and the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

A pattern of sickness caused her to step away from racing in 1986; she later found a love for horse endurance racing and running.

However, after her horse got injured last year, Martin began biking again, not only to satisfy the hunger for exercise she says all athletes have, but to bond with friends who have known her since she made history in 1984.

‘I’m not one to live so cautiously’

On Oct. 6, Martin was riding down Sunshine Canyon Drive when her bike slipped from underneath her. The impact broke 12 of Martin’s ribs; her scapula; her clavicle in two places; caused her lung to partially collapse; and gave her a mild concussion. When she woke up, she found herself in a hospital bed.

Days later, her ribs were plated — a process where a doctor uses titanium plates and screws to stabilize broken ribs — to speed up her recovery process.

“I had the surgery, so I have two big scars, which is kind of a bummer,” Martin said. “But I have scars on all my elbows, when you’re active in sports you’re going to hurt yourself now and then. I’m not one to live so cautiously I’m never going to get hurt.”

Martin credits her new helmet for saving her from a worse injury.

“Sometimes you just go down,” Martin said. “I feel really fortunate that my spine wasn’t hurt and my skull wasn’t hurt more. I just got a new helmet and lucky for me, because my other helmet didn’t fit that well. You never think you’re going to go down.”

Over the past month, her days have been dedicated to rest and recovery.

The 66-year-old spends her mornings walking her bull terrier, Miss Maisy, before she spends the rest of the day fighting the pain of plated ribs and a healing clavicle.

“When you’re an athlete, you go nuts when you don’t work out,” Martin said. “I just feel like it’s so much a part of my being to work out almost every day, that it’s been hard not to.”

‘The stuff that’s worthwhile in life isn’t always easy’

Martin’s long-time friend Andy Pruitt, who trained Martin for the Tour De France and has coached her on and off throughout her life, has encouraged her to move as much as she can.

“(Pruitt has) really come to help me now and basically said physical therapy starts the day after your accident,” Martin said. “You gotta keep pushing yourself and just get yourself around the corner. He’s helped me see what my recovery should look like if I want to hang on to my fitness, and that is important to me.”

Pruitt said he is a two-time world champion in cycling and has been racing bikes for close to 50 years.“Physical therapy is not something you go to. Physical therapy is something that you live,” Pruitt said. “It’s every day.”

Pruitt said if an unhealthy 60-year-old were to endure the same injuries Martin did, it would be “catastrophic.” However due to Martin’s athleticism, he said the injuries shouldn’t compromise much of her function. Pruitt, who rides with Martin, joked that if anything, the riding group will likely wish she were more compromised so she would slow down.

“She’s a 60ish-year-old athletic woman, and what I encourage patients like her is to make sure their caregivers don’t treat her like her drivers license age. She needs to be treated like an elite athlete because that’s how she’s going to respond,” Pruitt said.

Martin said she’s really grateful to the cycling community who lent her a stationary bike to use while she gains back her strength and fitness.

“I think to recover we have to move our bodies,” Martin said. “It’s not always easy, but the stuff that’s worthwhile in life isn’t always easy.”

‘There’s setbacks in everything we do in life’

While this is the biggest injury Martin has endured, it’s not her first.

“When I think about it, I’ve had injuries all throughout (life),” she said. “I was supposed to ride the Coors Classic, and someone went down in front of me, and I was out for the season. There’s setbacks in everything we do in life, and if things were easy, everybody would do it.”

Martin, who is known by loved ones to rarely ask for help, has had to accept the support she’s received from family, friends and the Boulder cycling community. A GoFundMe was set up to help Martin and has since raised over $24,000.

“You can’t let it get you down. It would be really easy to get bummed out right now,” Martin said. “The outpouring of support has really helped keep my spirits up. That’s been huge for me. I would’ve never expected it.”

No matter how long her recovery takes, Martin is determined to get back to cycling, endurance horse riding and running.

“She’s a tough, tough cookie,” Pruitt said. “She’s very coachable. You give her an assignment to do, and she’ll do it, and that’s how she’ll take on this.”

Martin hopes to return to her photography business, Real Life Portraits, in the next couple of months and to get back to road riding by December.