Blog

From Skydives to Summits: Keith Lake Is Always Reaching New Heights

Keith Lake is a former skydiver who has leapt out of perfectly good aircraft more than 4,300 times. But his spirit of adventure didn’t stop when he hung up his parachute rig. Instead, it shifted to conquering the road and the mountains on his ElliptiGO bikes. These days, Keith doesn’t need a parachute. His sky-high goals keep him climbing. Get to know ElliptiGO’s March 2025 Rider of the Month!

Keith was born at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, where his father was stationed. From there, the family lived in Phoenix, Arizona, before moving to California. Keith spent his last year of high school in Bakersfield, then enlisted in the Army at age 17, after graduation. 

Knowing that Keith became an avid skydiver, you might guess that he was in the airborne division — but he was not. Instead, he shares, “I was a mechanic in the Army, working on anything from jeeps to tanks.” His military service took him to Germany, and it was there that he started racing. 

Keith had always enjoyed competition, but now he wanted to push his limits. Looking back at his training logs, he noted that at one point, he raced 22 times in a 24-week period. Most were 5Ks and 10Ks, but he also competed in mountain bike and road bike races. He sometimes even doubled up his races, running a 10K followed by a 25-mile bike race.

And skydiving? Well, that was just for fun. The military base where he was stationed had a parachute club, so he decided to try it. His first jumps were out of a helicopter using old military gear.

Keith rose through the ranks, ultimately working in logistics operations. He was stationed in Germany twice, as well as at various bases in the U.S. In 2001, after 22 years in the Army, he retired as a First Sergeant at Fort Irwin, California. He settled in the small town of Elizabeth Lake, California, went to work for UPS, and kept up his active lifestyle of competitive running and cycling. 

He also resumed his skydiving hobby. Soon Keith was practically living at the nearby drop zone on the weekends. He became a skydiving instructor and videographer on top of his UPS job. 

One day, Keith was supposed to shoot video of a woman’s birthday skydive. When he saw her, he decided to take her on that tandem jump himself, rather than film it. “We just hit it off from there,” he says. And that’s how Keith met his wife, Reba, on his 3,704th skydive. 

Meanwhile, Keith was increasing his running and cycling distances, preparing to race half marathons and triathlons. But then, in 2018, he got injured — not while running, but at work. His injury required a partial meniscus removal, and it was too painful to run.

Keith was determined to stay active. He was dimly aware of the existence of ElliptiGO bikes and thought they might be the right solution to help him recover. He saw an ElliptiGO 8C advertised for sale at a pawn shop in San Diego and went for it — literally. He drove right down to pick it up. “And barely a week after getting it, I did a metric century,” he says. He even rode his ElliptiGO bike to his physical therapy appointments.

Initially, Keith’s goal for ElliptiGO riding was to get back to running. But then he started tinkering with his bike. He explains, “I changed the gearing on the 8C to make it better for the hills that surround the area I live in.” 

One bike wasn’t enough. He picked up a used 11R, which became his primary ride for a while. Then came the RSUB, which he rides the most often thanks to its ease of transport. An MSUB followed. Each new model brought different advantages, but one thing was clear: Keith was no longer just using ElliptiGO bikes for recovery. He was all in.

Keith joined the Global ElliptiGO Riders Club (GERC) and began participating in the annual Get Out and GO (GOGO) challenge. That, and seeing people’s posts in the ElliptiGO Facebook group and other riders’ stats on Strava, lit his ever-present competitive spark. “I’d look at Strava and go, okay, look at that ride. Let me try it. Maybe I can do that,” he says. “Or go a little farther. So that motivated me.” 

He’s logged some very steep and very speedy rides. Keith has cracked the top 10 on the GERC leaderboard with a 6,079.4-foot elevation gain in a 40-kilometer ride as well as an average speed of 19.52 miles per hour in a 5K ride. When asked how to safely train to increase speed, Keith advises, “Let your heart rate be your speedometer. If you build your aerobic base, the speed will come.”

As for hill training, Keith notes that he lives in the foothills, so he does hill work every time he leaves his house. But he doesn’t rely on complex training plans or fancy metrics. He says, “It’s just ride, ride, ride. Just go out there and get it done.” It’s a strategy rooted in patience, consistency, and the kind of quiet grit that’s carried him up some of the steepest climbs in the state.

One climb Keith won’t forget anytime soon is Horseshoe Meadows Road, a grueling 19-mile ascent with over 6,600 feet of elevation gain, topping out just shy of 10,000 feet. “That’s a monster,” he says. “There’s no downhill — just straight up.” 

Another unforgettable ride? A 115-mile round trip from Santa Clarita to Ventura Beach and back. The distance alone was extreme, but Keith powered through. “I didn’t have much left after that one, that’s for sure,” he says with a laugh.

Mt. Palomar holds a special place in Keith’s ElliptiGO journey. It’s the notoriously tough site of the annual ElliptiGO World Championships. Keith rode it the first time on his own (he wanted to preview the course so he’d know what it was like the day of the competition). Doing it solo, he says, “I didn’t know what I was getting into.” But riding with the other competitors is a much different experience, and Keith’s done that four times now. He says, “It’s fun to be around your own kind, you know?” 

As you know by now, Keith is a competitive guy. So it’s no surprise that he’s set big goals for 2025. He’d like to participate in the ElliptiGO World Championships again, he says, “And I’d like to get my finish time back under two hours. I’m 64. I know a couple of the other guys my age have done it under two hours, so I think I can too.” For Keith, Palomar isn’t just a mountain. It’s a personal challenge he’s determined to conquer.

Keith’s biggest and most ambitious goal is to ride White Mountain Peak on his ElliptiGO MSUB. He believes he’d be the first to conquer the 14,000-foot climb on an ElliptiGO bike. “I haven’t told a whole lot of people about that,” he says. “But I guess I just did.” The route is remote, high altitude and grueling, but Keith believes it’s doable. Keith even has a short list of riders he thinks might want to join the challenge. So, Benton Runquist and Jim Pringle, if you want to take a long ride up a steep hill, give Keith a call!

While big climbs and bold adventures fuel Keith’s riding, he’s just as committed to consistency. Throughout GERC’s GOGO 2025 challenge, which kicked off this month and continues through October, he aims to ride at least 100 miles every month. “That keeps me going,” he says, “having that streak.” It’s not just about chasing summits. It’s about showing up, month after month, mile after mile, and staying connected to the community he loves.

Today, Keith and Reba have been together nearly 20 years. They both were married previously, and they have a total of seven adult children between them. 

Keith no longer runs nor rides traditional bikes. He says, “It’s all ElliptiGO.” He kayaks and paddleboards on the lake and goes backpacking. He goes to work and comes home during his lunch break. He and Reba enjoy the quiet beauty of lake life with their dogs. They dote on their many grandchildren. 

He doesn’t skydive anymore, because the drop zone near him closed down. But Keith Lake continues to soar — only now, it’s with two wheels instead of a parachute.

 

---

 

You can contact ElliptiGO with nominations to Rider of the Month or share your own story. It may just be the next feature!