Dr. Marie Walsh doesn’t keep a playlist in her phone; it lives in her head. A family medicine physician with Kaiser Permanente in Fort Collins, she takes a holistic, preventive approach to care with special interests in sports medicine, musculoskeletal injuries, and women’s health.
Off the bike, she helps families thrive. On the bike, she’s known for big adventures: 24 hours of Towers (17 laps, 30,000 feet), a 200-mile day to the Wyoming-Colorado-Nebraska corner, a moonlit ride to RMNP’s Alpine Visitor Center and back, and multiple runs at the Colorado Trail Race. Most recently, she set an FKT on the 445-mile Kitchen Sink Loop.
Marie says she doesn’t really listen to music while riding—she listens to whatever plays in her head.
“I don’t have favorite songs or even a favorite genre,” she says. “Certain songs just pop up when I’m riding and I end up singing them without even realizing it. Sometimes it’s just one line looping endlessly. I make up the rest or hum along. It’s like a rotating playlist that insists on being heard.”
A video by Seth Pickett captures her mid-ride singalong perfectly: watch here.
Favorite bike: Specialized Epic 8
Favorite ride: Gooseberry Mesa (UT) or El Alto at Curt Gowdy (WY)
Preferred style: Mountain biking and bikepacking
Years in NoCo: 15 (Fort Collins)
Employer: Kaiser Permanente – Family Medicine Physician, 10 years
Hometown: Branson, Missouri
Coffee: Four-shot red eye with heavy cream
Musical influence: Life—it’s whatever comes along
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