Thru Endurance We Conquer!

Six races - six different courses and events. This wasn’t a singular journey, even though I covered most of the miles alone. This was a journey that had the support of a community. At each race, I was humbled by the day and inspired by the other runners or volunteers. It’s one of the memories that I have really taken away from the year. No matter how strong I might be, there are things that can bring me to my knees. And while finishing the Transcendence Series might be inspiring to others, I saw many things that inspired me to keep moving.    Sometimes to reach the goal, you just have to keep climbing into the clouds Stories Ultra. The mud humbled me. I knew that course and took for granted how it would be. Yet each lap, when I met other runners we provided inspiration to keep going. Everyone was working through something and those other runners were a voice in the darkness. The cold we all longed for to freeze the mud became a challenge to work through. No matter ho...

Three weeks after a 100 mile race, I had no idea what I would feel like going into the final race - Indian Creek 55k. Would I have recovered enough to run happy the entire way? Or would it be a death march from the start, with my legs rebelling against the idea of running? I knew I'd be okay for a few miles and that I even had a little speed left after the prior weekend's Neilson and Fall Series events. But a 3.2 mile race is a far cry from a 35 mile race and I was honestly concerned about how I would handle the distance. So what does any good runner do when faced with a question about how recovered they are? Focus on the costume contest instead of anything else! Yes, my goal was to win the costume contest - heck with running fast. I'm not sure when I came up with the idea for my costume, but it was shortly after Last Call. John had gone over the legend of SilverHeels during the pre-race meeting and I'd done some reading of my own. Could I pull it off? Could I come up w...

When I was younger, racing marathons all over the country, I knew what mattered. The numbers on the clock when I reached the finish line. That was the point, the goal and that was what mattered for running. Sure, we did plenty of marathons where the time was of lesser importance - some of the smaller, crazy races like the Delaware Trail Dawgs Marathon. But back then, if I wasn't going for time, I still had an eye on the placement. Running under 3:10 was common, as was placing in the top three at marathons around the country. Speed and the “glory” that came with it was my primary focus and I thought that was the ultimate goal for running. But in the greater scheme of things, was that really what mattered? When people asked about the marathons and the 50 states, what was your fastest time was always glossed over. People wanted to know what my favorite race was. They really could not care about the times I ran. They wanted to know about the courses, about the towns and how we manage...

A year is a long time to be working towards a goal - espcially when there’s so many individual milestones to be met along the way. In 2018, when I first started thinking about taking on the Transcendence Series, I knew it would be huge. It’s been four years since the last person finished. Only one other women completed the challenge set forth by the Human Potential Running Series. Six races - spread out across the year, six different courses providing different challenges. One 100 mile race, one 100k race, one 50 mile race and then three 50k races. I had a solid plan - with some backups if needed - but in order to survive the year I would need everything to work perfectly. Dreams start when we sleep, but require the work of daylight to achieve.  The original plan was simple.  Stories 30 hour in February. With that being the first event and coming off my recovery from a busy late fall season, I was hoping for the 100k. I was concerned about the weather for that race. ...

Five races down. One more event remaining in the Transcendence Series. The finish is so close, I just need to run another 35 miles at the Indian Creek 55k. Nothing compared to what I've already covered! It’s still an ultra, still a distance to be respected. There are no guarantees when it comes to ultra races - even with the “shorter” distances. I have 12 hours  - and given that it took me 4 hours to hike the last 9 miles into Music Meadows on the 22nd, I am not taking anything for granted. A lot can happen over the course of 35 miles. I need to be ready to face whatever comes my way so I can reach that finish line. In some ways, I'm sorry that the journey is ending already. I know it's been a long year of balancing training, racing and recovering, but that's been half the fun. Learning what I can tolerate for training and when I start to crack. It's easy to settle into the routine of training for one particular race. Get in the long runs, get in the hills and the...

The trail looked different in the dark. I knew it would - the soft shadows from the setting sun had long vanished, leaving only the hard angles from my headlamp. The climbs faded into the night, the summit a distant dream in the darkness. Even the rocks littering the trail disappeared into the dusty ground, only to reach up and grab my toes. And the cold. I knew it would be cold, but the bone chilling frozen damp of all the creek drainages was taking a toll on me, mentally and physically. Twenty four hours ago, I could not have imagined all that was going through my mind as I slowly marched forward to the next aid station. I didn't need to be out there in the dark, suffering like I was. I could have dropped down to the 100k and been finished hours ago. How long would it take me to reach Colony Creek, let alone Music Meadows? And then I still had the climb of Music Pass to face. I'd wanted the "real" Colorado 100 mile experience and the trail had been more then happy t...