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World champion triathlete from metro Detroit, Karen McKeachie, dies in bicycle crash

Posted at 5:21 PM, Aug 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-29 20:52:53-04

She paved the way for generations of female athletes, until Friday, when she took her last breath.

"It's going to be hard for awhile buddy," Lew Kidder said.

With his cat on his shoulders, Kidder, 74, talked to 7 Action News reporter Jennifer Bisram Monday from the Ann Arbor-area home he shared with his wife Karen McKeachie.

"She was a pioneer in women athletics, she pushed hard for woman to compete on the same level and get the same prizes and recognition as men," he said.

With a heavy-heart, Kidder said his wife of 30 years was full of life. She was 63.

"In high school, she knew she could run faster than most of the boys but they didn't have girls sports, she asked, 'could I run on the track and cross country team?'"

She ran, did well and never stopped.

The Michigan triathlete champ went on to win six World Age-Group championships, 15 national championships, completed the Ironman World Championship several times and was inducted into the U.S.A Triathlon Hall of Fame in 2014.

"She had a huge heart and a huge engine," remembered Kidder.

On Friday morning her life ended doing what she loved to do, cycling.

According to police, she was riding with two friends along Dexter-Chelsea Road near North Fletcher in Lima Township, when she was struck by a truck. She later died. 

"You think this can't be true, someone so alive and so strong, it can't be true, but of course it was," said a choked-up Kidder, who now has to live without the love of his life.

"I'll remember her as the most important person in my life."

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.