Former LAPD Officer Kristine Ripatti-Pearce is gearing up Thursday to hand-crank her way across the country next month in the annual Race Across America. (CBS-2)

She has completed marathon-length races in Boston and Los Angeles on her hand cycle and now plans to race across the continent in June.

Former LAPD Officer Kristine Ripatti-Pearce, paralyzed from the chest down in a 2006 shooting, is gearing up Thursday to hand-crank her way across the country in the annual Race Across America.

The 37-year-old mother of two is training to cover about 3,000 miles from Oceanside to Annapolis, Md., as captain of a relay team in one of the world's toughest endurance races.

Ripatti-Pearce is expected to ride alongside three cyclists, and will be raising funds for Operation Progress, a nonprofit started by LAPD officers at the Southeast Station to help combat gang-related crime in South Los Angeles.

Endurance cyclist Mark Burson told the Los Angeles Daily News he asked Ripatti to join his team after hearing a speech by her and her husband, LAPD Officer Tim Pearce.

"She said she had been an athlete, and I said, 'If you're such a good athlete then join me,"' Burson said." She said, 'I'll be on a hand cycle,' and I said 'Yeah, what's your point?'"

Burson said he admires Ripatti-Pearce.

"What interests me about her is here's a woman who led a vibrant life, and in an instant, it changed," Burson said. "She decided she was not going to be a victim, despite that her life has changed. She had decided to live her life with a robust vigor more than ever before."

The cyclists' race begins June 12, in Oceanside and finishes about a week later in Annapolis, on the Chesapeake Bay. Teams travel as much as 500 miles per day, as they ride through 14 states on a route that is 30 percent longer than the Tour de France.