No, she’s not a Marvel or DC Comics superhero; she’s a mom and the CEO of Encinitas-based Rancho Santa Fe Security Systems. So, “How fast did she go?” you may be asking. I’ll tell you later in the story.
I recently met Denise for the first time this past August, sipping a beer at a social gathering at Viewpoint Brewery in Del Mar, where I learned that she held a Guinness World Record and grew up in Encinitas, a San Dieguito High School Class of 1991 graduate. I knew then that we had to tell her story. Later that week, we sat down together on a bench at Glenn Park in Cardiff, where I learned about her life, asking her, when did your impulse to do extreme things start to manifest? “Well, I think it was always there,” Denise said reflectively. “It’s a matter of how I figured it out and discovered that’s what really makes me tick. Back in 1986, my grandfather bought my dad and me mountain bikes. We were supposed to ride the bikes on the beach. Well, in December 1986, storms brought in a lot of rocks on the beach, so we couldn’t. In seventh grade, at Diegueño Junior High, I was listening to the overhead announcements, and they said, ‘There’s this Bike for Breath for the Children’s Asthma League.’ So I went into the office, got one of the flyers, brought it home, and said, ‘Hey, Dad, we could do this bicycle ride.’”
“Well, they had 25-mile, 50, 75, and because KyXy 96.5 radio was their sponsor, instead of 100 miles, it was 96.5. And so, of course, I’m thinking, oh, 25 miles—I mean, I can train for that. We had a month. My dad looks at it and goes, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll do the big one.’”
This was the start of something wonderful, and also horrible, “I was miserable. I hated doing the training. We were going through Camp Pendleton. I would always drop back behind my dad. I’m crying. I was like the puppy that didn’t want to walk. But when the event came, we went down to Balboa Park where it started. We’re on these mountain bikes doing 96.5 miles, and it took us all day, and I absolutely loved it. I wanted to do more of these. I didn’t want to necessarily train, but I wanted to do more rides like that.”
After that first race, Denise quickly excelled, becoming a top fundraiser for charity events. Through a serendipitous chance encounter one day, on a lonely stretch near Camp Pendleton, while riding behind John Howard—the Olympian, Ironman champion, and world land speed-biking record holder—he became sufficiently impressed by her, and she began competitive cycling soon after, with him as her coach, along with another notable and beloved coach, Doreen Williams. Denise had raced five years when something clicked, “I was training, and I just said, ‘I’m done with this. I don’t want to do this anymore.’”
She just literally hung the bike up and didn’t touch it for 20 years. “I became a mom. I entered the family business full time, had three kids. I became very involved with Rotary, Soroptimist, and the Chamber of Commerce. I just became, you know, super mom-mom. Super CEO and mom. I mean, I was still staying fit by going to the LA Fitness in Encinitas.”
Life wasn’t slowing down for Denise, but inspiration struck, and she started her path back to endurance sports. “I had three friends that were at the gym at LA Fitness who were going to be running their first marathon at the Rock ’n’ Roll San Diego Marathon. And that was in 2009. And in 2009, a group was going on their mountain bikes, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I have to get this thing off the wall. It’s been hanging for 20 years.’ We rode around cheering on these three ladies that we watched train for their first marathon where I met Bill Walton.”
Denise, inspired by her three friends, entered her first marathon in 2010. On her 40th birthday in 2013, Denise entered a marathon in Antarctica and decided to be a part of the Seven Continents Club. She’s now done six continental marathons, with Africa last on the list to complete. Along the way, Denise partnered with the Challenged Athletes Foundation to help with fundraising, something she’s obviously really good at. “At this time, the adrenaline junkie in me had been doing car racing,” Denise says. “My coach, John Howard, took me out to lunch one day and went, ‘Denise, I know you like going fast on your bike, are you ready for a challenge?’”
Unbelievably, the idea was for Denise to set the record for fastest woman on a bicycle, by way of drafting, which is riding behind a lead vehicle in a low pressure sort of bubble created by the vehicle pushing air out of its way, a spot called a “hole.” Denise had a custom bike made that was to be towed at 110 miles per hour, then detached, leaving the rider in control, while the vehicle accelerates and drafts the rider behind it at increasing speeds. In 2016, Denise set the women’s record at 147.7 miles per hour, but she wanted more. On a Facebook Live, she said, “Screw it! I’m going to come back next year, and I’m going to take the overall record.”
In 2018, Denise returned with Fred Rompelberg’s vehicle, and along with her driver, Shea Holbrook, set the overall land-speed record on a bicycle at 183.9 mph, maintaining that speed for over one minute and entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest human in the world on a bicycle. As of today, nobody has broken that record. “There is no description of the sensation at that moment. Only before, and thinking what it will be like, and then afterwards realizing what you did. And I say that because when you’re in a moment that’s so life and death, you have to get the pinpoint tunnel vision to where the world literally has stopped.”
Today, Denise is CEO of the family’s security business and owns and manages the Park Plaza business complex, both off Village Park Way in Encinitas. She is also a motivational speaker, talking about “Getting Back Into the Game of Life,” sharing insights learned from her own journey and accomplishments of physical daring, mental discipline, and deep community engagement, inspiring others to set and achieve ambitious goals—even if the goals are not extreme.
Follow Denise
Speaking, appearances, and the story of the record — from Denise herself.
Also worth your time: the Wall Street Journal film How This Cyclist Hit 184MPH and Set the World Record.
More From the Shoot
Frames from the same August afternoon at Glenn Park that didn’t make the printed page.
From Denise’s Album
As It Appeared in Print
Encinitas Magazine, October–November 2025, pages 20–23. A few small errors introduced in the magazine’s edit have been corrected in the text above, against my original manuscript. These pages are exactly as they ran.
