The Journey Begins
I was so excited about the Leadville Trail 100 lottery in 2020 that I slipped on some trail ice days before, straining the peroneal tendon in my left foot. After a couple weeks of recovery and physical therapy, I started running again and promptly picked up what I thought was a bad cold at the end of a trip to Palm Springs. That was early February 2020, only 2-3 weeks after the first reported case of COVID in the U.S. Looking back on it, we’re pretty sure I had COVID. I was lung-deep in a coughing endurance race, wheezing to breathe at night and not sleeping well until they “respirated” (or nebulized?) me at urgent care and gave me some strong meds. A couple more weeks of that and it was time to go run the Little Rock Marathon! Luckily, I had mostly recovered by then and was able to finish without too much trouble. Sincere apologies to family, friends, and other marathon folk if it was indeed COVID and I passed it along…
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| The famous (and heavy) Little Rock bling! |
It’s hard to say when the journey really began. You could say I was born to do this. You could say it was when I started running in middle school. Those early days of running, the 30+ marathons, and 2012 Ironman since are certainly all part of the journey, but after to moving to Denver, a friend from Baltimore suggested I meet a runner friend of hers who just moved out from Baltimore as well. Three months later, I was pacing Drew through the night on his first 100-miler attempt at Run Rabbit Run in Steamboat Springs. I wore my winter jacket and a backpack. The night was quiet. The darkness was beautiful. The ultramarathon atmosphere was awe-inspiring. I was immediately hooked.
It was decided well before then, whether I knew it or not, that someday I would be attempting a 100. I don’t think I consciously made that decision until our first Leadville experience in 2017. Drew introduced me to the course on a camping trip in June, and we were back for the race in August. I was to pace new friend Jodi from May Queen to the finish line. The sun rose over Turquoise Lake and illuminated the Sawatch Range. It was the rugged beauty, the heart and determination, and the positivity, love, and support I saw that morning that made me fall in love with Leadville. Really, we (Courtney and I) had fallen in love with Leadville. That Fall, I made a full transition to doing most of my longer runs on the trails.
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| Jodi with her support team at the Leadville finish line, 2017 |
Just after the calendar turned to 2018, I signed up for my first ultra, the Endurance Santa Fe 50-mile mountain race. Who doesn’t start their ultra career with a 50-miler that gains over 13,000’ and goes up over 12,000 feet? Looking back, it was probably a great choice to prepare me for Leadville someday. Only 2 weeks after pacing Jodi from Winfield to Outward Bound (at Leadville), I got really good at fast hiking (IT troubles…) on my way to a 16+ hour finish. I enjoyed the torture so much I signed up for the Never Summer 100k after missing out on the 2019 Leadville lottery. I battled a steady downpour, demoralizing mud, and more IT issues to cover 65 miles with 14,000’ of gain (1200’ of which is the mile up Diamond Peak) in 21+ hours. A month later I was pacing again at Leadville, this time accompanying Drew’s cousin Neal on the Powerline section.
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| Santa Fe finisher medal and leather wristband (special gift from the race director) | |
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| Heading down from Lake Agnes in the Never Summer 100k |
But back to 2020... After returning from Little Rock, I started officially training for Leadville! Neal graciously agreed to coach me. A tight hamstring was slowing me a little early in training, which is about as far as training technically got. Because, you know, COVID. The race was cancelled in mid-May. There was obviously a part of me that was bummed, but I understood (and got to defer my entry to 2021). Besides, that meant I had another year to get into even better shape!
Up Next: Leadville 2021 - Preparations
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