Because Being Ordinary Is Boring

Week in Review (September 1 - September 7)

2026-09-09T09:51:35.296-06:00

Tuesday (11,024 steps) - Slow Peloton ride before Ben and I took Olive for a walk and going to work. Traffic was the worst it's been in a VERY long time - it took me almost 90 minutes to go about 13 miles. SO ANNOYING. Took an early lunch to do a quick interview and get the rest of my workout in. StairMaster and some strength training.

I had a lingering stomach ache that held on for the better part of the day, so I didn't eat a thing until about 3:00. I was really tired when I got home so skipped another walk with Olive. Ben ordered in Chili's for dinner and I barely ate any of my food, hoping to save for when I was hungry again.

Criminal Minds.

Wednesday (26,491 steps) - Opted to work from home since my stomach was still off. Took Olive for a walk to the lake before starting work.

I had a workout on schedule and planned on bailing if my stomachache continued. Somehow, the run was actually fine, fast repeats/tempo is SO HARD.

Managed to actually eat lunch and took Olive for a quick later lunch walk. After I got off work Ben and I both went to North Table for another night of trail work. A much bigger group this week, and we got a ton of work done.

They actually had pizza from Blue Pan for us after, and some NA beverages. We got home with enough time to relax a bit, finishing up the latest season of Criminal Minds and starting the next episode of Lioness.

Thursday (17,554 steps) - Once again I had to get up early for a run. I opted to run on the south side, thinking a tiny flashlight would be enough light. It was actually fine running on the wider trail closest to the lake, but I had to pull out my light for the less maintained stuff higher up. I was a bit surprised at how slow my pace was (yes, I was running easy) because it felt like I was moving well, but maybe that's just because it was so dark, haha.

Took Olive for a walk before heading to work in the office. The last mandatory meeting at lunch, yay!

I was busy most of the day closing files but still was able to get out for a short walk. Did a delivery on the way home and then we went to Torchy's for dinner. I was a bit surprised Ben didn't want to do anything different for his birthday!

The card is from his mom and is HILARIOUS

Ben's gift from me is the fox!

Finished the episode of Lioness and then watched an episode of Reacher.

Friday (20,946 steps) - I planned to work from home, so I took Olive for a walk to the lake before clocking in. After lunch we headed up to Loveland for our weekend of volunteering at FRUD. We set up camp and went to get a late lunch/early dinner at CJ's.

Puppy burger for Olive!

We heard the bear was still in the area occasionally, so we walked up by where he had been earlier, but we didn't see it. Sad. Spent most of the night hanging out at the camper enjoying the sunset.

Saturday (34,153 steps) - Initially I had told Ben I was going to get up at like 4 in the morning to get my run in before the heat, but that didn't happen. I had some coffee and managed to get started a little before 8 am. It was warm, but not as bad as I thought. It was actually a pretty nice run and I ran a few of the other ponds in the area - some had more shade than others.

After I finished Ben and I took Olive for a walk - still no bear. I changed clothes and we went into town to get brunch at AKA - I got French toast and it was REALLY good!

We had a little time before our volunteer shift and I spent it reading my book.

It was very hot, but we kept the runners happy with a variety of popsicles. Terri was volunteering with us and time went by pretty quick. We hung out with Larry and Jandy after finishing, as well as other runners. I was exhausted after our shift was done, but we stayed up chatting for a bit before bed.

Sunday (25,615 steps) - Groundhog day. I had a run to do again, but didn't get up and out the door as early. Once again, it was still warm, but not horrible. Random loops again for about a 10k total. Faster than yesterday and I think that was because I ran for a bit with Caolan, who is much faster than I am. Took Olive for another walk, a bit longer this time - still no bear. Drove into town to get lunch and the first place we went only allowed dogs on the patio and there was not enough shade, so we left. We found the brewery we had gone last year that allowed dogs inside, but had to walk around in town a bit to kill time before they opened. I got a huge cookie to eat later.

Lunch was chicken sandwiches at Verboten.

Volunteering was the same afternoon shift, and things had definitely slowed down a bit. More popsicles to keep runners happy. After days of horrific heat, we finally got a little rain towards the end of our shift. We got back to the camper right before the skies opened up and we had a monsoon of rain. It was bad enough that when it broke for just a few minutes Olive and I went into the camper because we were getting pelted with sideways rain - even under the canopy!

Monday (19,004 steps) - We hung out for a bit at the start early in the morning and my run got put off EVEN LATER. I only had an easy 45ish minutes and this was also a pretty fast run.

VERY humid after all the rain. We got all our things packed up and went back to the start/finish for a bit to help out and chat with runners before heading towards home. We wanted to go to 300 Suns, but they were apparently closed for Labor Day. We went to 4 Noses because we planned on getting burgers from the food truck, but that was ALSO closed, so we had pizza delivered for lunch. I took Olive for a walk, unpacked, showered - which included Olive getting cleaned, etc. Watched a pretty terrible movie, The Runner, on Amazon and the most recent Reacher episode. Where on earth did the weekend go?

Stats:

154,787 steps
29.53 miles run
18.07 miles walked
50 minutes of cardio
20 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (August 25 - August 31)

2026-09-03T10:48:50.991-06:00

Tuesday (13,772 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk before going to work. Gym at lunch for StairMaster, some strength training and a treadmill hike.

Another Olive walk after dinner and Criminal Minds?

Wednesday (29,707 steps) - Took a random work from home day since Joyce is still out. Took Olive for a walk to the lake before clocking in and another short walk at lunch. Had a workout, so went to North Table so I would have a hill for repeats. Thankfully it was a bit cooler than expected, but the repeats were REALLY tough - I should've picked a less steep hill!

Drove down the street to the bagel shop for a snack and to finish out the workday. Then headed over to Apex where I took a short walk before my volunteer shift of trail work started. I partnered with a gal named Sarah who hadn't done maintenance before, weather was cool and I was quickly reminded of how sore I get doing this!

Ben had ordered in Mod Market for dinner, and we barely had time to sit before it was time for bed already.

LONG DAY.

Thursday (20,999 steps) - Thanks to these eternally annoying meetings at work, I had to get up to run in the morning. I guess the run was fine, and I was lucky that I woke up before my alarm went off and started early because somehow it was longer than what I mapped out. Actually not bad.

Olive walk before driving to work. Waited a little longer to go to the gym in the morning for a quick workout in hopes of avoiding my boss, but NO, ran into her again in the locker room. Easy, quick full body workout. Stupid meeting at lunch.

Quick walk after around town and then took Olive for a walk when I got home. Took Robin to the vet after that for a follow-up. I wasn't sure if her abscess was healing well.

Since I had actually made an appointment we didn't have to see an ER vet, so it a). wasn't as much money, and b). we seemingly got more proactive advice. This doc seemed to think she was NOT too old for anesthesia/dental procedure and since they actually had an opening the next day for surgery, I snagged it. Unfortunately we would get a call a few hours later saying that they had messed up scheduling but could we do it Saturday instead? Usual trip to Torchy's for dinner.

Criminal Minds?

Friday (10,935 steps) - With Joyce being out and me having already told co-workers that Robin had a surgery scheduled, I decided to take another work from home day. Took Olive for a walk to the lake before logging in.

Another walk at lunch. Panda Express for dinner and another walk with Olive. Watched the livestream of UTMB!

Saturday (38,835 steps) - Up early to get Robin to the vet for her dental procedure.

Took Olive for a long walk while Ben went to Dutch Bros to get us much needed coffee.

We listened to the livestream of UTMB so we could hear/see the female winner cross. Inspirational! Up to Centennial Cone for the activity of the day.

We got the call from the vet probably 10 minutes into the run and had to stop to talk to him on speaker on Ben's phone since we had minimal service. Turns out the issue is NOT her teeth (he was going to take two out, but they were not the main issue). Apparently, she has a tumor on her jaw and he suspects it is bone cancer. With her age and other medical issues there isn't much to be done other than keep her comfortable. Did not ever think that would be the problem, poor Robin!

At some point Ben and I got separated, he had been having some cramping on/off, but we had planned for it, so I continued on.

Finished the loop and then went back to get him and finish up together. A relatively strong 15ish miles for me! We called the vet again and confirmed that by the time we got back to town that she would be ready for us to pick her up.

After we brought her home we went to Corona's for lunch. The rest of the evening was spent taking care of Robin and watching UTMB, then some Criminal Minds.

Sunday (16,765 steps) - Olive walk while getting some things done around the house before going up to Boulder for our activity of the day.

Costco and binge watched "Death of a Pastor's Wife."

Monday (21,102 steps) - Olive walk to the lake before clocking in for the day. Went for my run late morning before it got too hot. Not terrible, and they rangers are closing more trails :(

Another walk to the lake at lunch with Olive. Ben made dinner and more Criminal Minds.

Stats:

152,115 steps
33.87 miles run
20.36 miles walked
40 minutes of cardio
40 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (August 18 - August 24)

2026-08-25T15:12:25.722-06:00

Tuesday (11,203 steps) - Peloton and walk with Ben and Olive before going to work. Gym at lunch for strength training and a treadmill walk.

Took Olive for another walk while Ben made tacos for dinner. More Marshals.

Wednesday (20,524 steps) - Long walk with Olive to the lake before work. We saw an adorable raccoon!

I was supposed to run "rolling hills" - but we don't really have those, at least not near the house. Decided to run at Rocky Flats, even though it is probably more flat than running by the house, but at least it was somewhere different! ZERO people out, which is always nice.

Took Olive for another walk after I ate lunch. Hot. After work I did a delivery waiting for Ben to get home. Dinner and more Marshals.

Thursday (16,992 steps) - Since I had to go into work (dumb mandatory meetings are on Thursdays for the next three weeks), I got up early for my run. I GUESS IT WAS FINE.

Olive walk before going to work. Headed into the office since I needed to go to a lunch meeting. Sneaked down to the gym for a quick strength workout. Meeting was boring, but the food was good.

Went for a walk afterwards. Ended up having some sort of last-minute things that caused me to get out a little late. ANNOYING. Torchy's for dinner and Marshals.

Friday (16,911 steps) - Hadn't really planned on going, but since I woke up in time, Olive and I went to Wash Park. She was slow and it was a little frustrating that she didn't seem to want to be keeping up with people. To the office. The new paralegal actually BROUGHT HER CAT to work. Sebastian was a gentleman and I never heard a peep from him the whole day. How could anyone NOT love this kitty??

Olive and I went for a late morning walk before it got too much warmer. We left after lunch to finish the day remote. Had to quickly pack everything for the weekend since I neglected to do it earlier in the week. We headed out around 2 pm and I worked in the truck (thank you, Starlink) and we were at Outer Range in time to finish out the workday. We ordered Ollie's for pickup and thankfully we were at the campsite during daylight to get everything set up - just in time for a little rain!

Ben got Olive her own puppy burger!

Took Olive for a walk around our campground loop - surprised at the number of vacant spots!

The rain held off and we had a nice night sitting outside

Probably went to bed about the same time we normally would at home.

Saturday (14,243 steps) - Up with the sun. Took Olive for a walk around the loop while Ben got coffee ready. Ben had mapped a route up by Peak 10 for us to do now that the road was open. We stopped at King Soopers and I ran in to buy some donuts and a coffee. The drive up took a bit longer than expected and Ben mentioned that it was more technical and challenging than he thought it would be.

We finally got to where we were going to start around noon? The start was just on the road, so it wasn't too bad and it was easy to follow.

You can see Ben's truck way down there

Still would like to know what this building is

We stopped less than a mile up to give Olive water - there was nothing for her drink up this high with how dry our winter was.

We got to the saddle at the base of Peak 10 and there was a group of Broncos that had driven up. We talked with them for a few minutes before heading up.

On top of the world, seemingly! It didn't take too long to get to the summit.

We took a minute to sit and give Olive more water. The plan was to continue on to Peak 9 and then head back to the truck. As we looked around it seemed that there was a good chance of getting stuck in some nasty weather, so we chose to start the descent down (at least to get off the peak) before deciding what we were going to do next.

You can definitely see the weather coming in - we were not sure what direction it was going to be going.

It was hard to see the trail on the way down and I was regretting that I was wearing my H1's and not something with better tread. It was incredibly steep and there was a lot of gravel and loose rocks that made it tough to navigate. Ben was leading and course-finding and I was bringing up the rear behind Olive.

We probably got halfway down when the weather took a turn and we decided to just continue down and not risk going up Peak 9 - especially with the risk of lightning/thunder.

Olive did really well! Until there was a section when I kicked a rock loose and a small avalanche of rocks came down behind her and then she was scared to go. Thankfully she continued on fine once I got ahead of her for a bit.

Olive really blends in

I was not having fun trying to get down this AT ALL.

Once we got down to the field/valley - I took a picture of what we just came down. This sucked.

We weren't really on a trail at this point and the terrain really reminded me a lot of Wales with marshy/boggy sections. I rolled my ankle, thankfully not too far from the truck. What a bust of a day, always an adventure.

Started to rain basically right when we got back to the truck and then it was time to head back down. Thanks to the turn in the weather we only saw one vehicle on the way down. The highlight of the drive was seeing this cute guy!

On to Outer Range for lunch and meet up with Lee. Someone was very exhausted after our excursion!

Very quick trip to Safeway to pick up some food for dinner and more ice. Back to the campsite and we spent the afternoon/early evening under the canopy. We took Olive for a walk around the loop before the sun set. Another gorgeous evening!

Ben cooked the hot dogs for dinner. It was raining on and off and finally I got cold so decided it was time for bed.

Sunday (17,836 steps) - Somehow we slept until almost 8?? Took Olive for a walk around the loop while Ben got coffee ready. With checkout being at 11 we didn't think we would have enough time for a hiking adventure. Ben said he would get the loading up started while I went for a run on the perimeter trails. I had mapped out a 2.7ish mile loop, but I was feeling good once I was out there and ended up doing closer to 4 miles.

By the time I got back Ben pretty much had everything done. We dawdled for a bit since we had about a half hour until we needed to leave. Stopped at Outer Range. I got a delicious latte and we both got breakfast burritos. Missed our window to avoid traffic and it was well over two hours of suffering to get home. We moved quickly to get everything unloaded. Up to 4 Noses for happy hour. I honestly can't even remember the last time I was there - I think it has been months. Still the same meh NA. I reminded Ben to not renew my mug club since I'm at many months since I even had beer last! We stopped at Costco to pick up a pizza for dinner and it was a total cluster. Took Olive for a walk before watching the newest Reacher and starting in on season 3 of Lioness.

Monday (18,623 steps) - Went for my run early since it was supposed to be sweltering, AGAIN.

It was... fine. Clocked in and then the internet went out not too long after, so I took Olive for a walk while I was waiting for that to resolve. Ben and I took Olive out for another walk at lunch. Ben ordered in Cupbop for dinner.

Finished up all the available Lioness episodes.

Stats:

116,332 steps
19.13 miles run
16.63 miles walked
30 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (August 11 - August 17)

2026-08-20T08:30:25.508-06:00

Tuesday (13, 375 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk (with Ben) before going to work. Realized on my drive to work that I had forgotten to grab my breakfast, so shortly after getting to the office I walked to Target to pick up some oatmeal. I guess it's been a while since I've been on that end of the mall - it was almost unrecognizable! Gym at lunch for some strength training and treadmill walk.

Did a delivery on the way home and then took Olive for a walk. Ben got Panda for dinner, yum! Started our next show, Dutton Ranch.

Wednesday (18,596 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Went for a quick walk before my MANDATORY lunch meeting. I can't believe I have to give up so many of my lunch hours over the next month. Lunch meeting was blah. I planned another walk later in the afternoon, but it started to rain so I just came back to the office. Went to Runners Roost in Louisville for my run. Somehow, I got confused on the way to the bike path, missed a turn and had to cut through a parking lot to get to where I needed to be. Not sure what was going on, but that was weird.

Still walking the hills and I was pretty sore from Tuesday's cross training, so it was slow, but not bad. Went back to the store after, but didn't know anyone so I didn't stick around. Dinner and Dutton Ranch.

Thursday (10,816 steps) - Long walk with Olive to the lake before work. Peloton, Olive walk and upper body workout during lunch. Ben was delayed at work so I did a delivery before meeting him at Torchy's. Olive walk when I got back home.

Friday (11,266 steps) - Walk with Olive before we went to work. With it being a little cooler we were able to go to lunch at a normal time for our walk.

Second afternoon walk that we timed perfectly to miss rainstorm.

Little Caesars for dinner (yum) and more Dutton Ranch.

Saturday (30,189 steps) - Very early walk with Olive. Ben and I were volunteering at the Westminster Trail Race at Standley Lake, and I had picked the aid station closest to the house. We showed up at 6 am and... no one else was there.

The captain and other volunteer were both no shows. Luckily Ben and I have both volunteered a ton and we were able to get the aid station set up with ease. Weirdly, even with 50k being the longest distance we didn't do much other than give people water and coke. Most of the food was left untouched. I was also signed up to be a course sweep. Ben took the other spot since the other person that was supposed to help didn't show up. Jim dropped me off at the other aid station so I could start and try to avoid the rain. Spoiler, I didn't avoid the rain and the field area was SO muddy. Also, it is beyond me how anyone got off course in this race - I must've picked up a zillion picket signs and flags.

Got back to the aid station and Ben met me to finish the sweeping. We finished up at the middle school and then ran back home. Ariel had been volunteering at the finish line but finished up earlier and was hanging out with Olive. We decided to go to Corona's for a late lunch/early dinner. YUM!!

Maybe we finished Dutton Ranch?

Sunday (13,161 steps) - I was cleaning up the house and noticed that Robin was not looking well.

When Ben got back from picking up Dutch we took her back to the ER Vet. She has ANOTHER abscess.

This one was inside her mouth and was pretty gross also - we were there almost two hours while they treated her. Once we got home I gave her a snack and she ran away to hide for the rest of the day - kind of normal when she isn't feeling great.

This time she got half her jaw shaved :(

Ben and I took Olive to Boulder for a hike.

Then on to Runners Roost so I could pick up a pair of Mount to Coast shoes since they are finally in stock. Stopped at Rails End for a drink, the jewelry store for my semi-annual ring inspection. Mod Market for dinner.

Found out that Reacher had a few new episodes and we binged all three of them.

Monday (20,472 steps) - Walk to the lake with Olive before work. Went for my run at lunch. Still walking the hills. This felt hard, mainly because temps are back up.

Another Olive walk. After work was over Ben and I went to Costco and picked up some groceries and a pizza for dinner. Started Marshals, kinda meh about it, but at least it is only one season for now.

Stats:

117,875 steps
19.6 miles run
19.33 miles walked
45 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (August 4 - August 10)

2026-08-12T10:07:31.110-06:00

Tuesday (12,097 steps) - Slept really well thanks to a cold front coming through overnight. Took Olive for a walk and was *almost* chilly. Back to work in the office, boo. Went to the gym at lunch and did some strength training. Briefly used the elliptical (which I think it's been a decade since I used one last?) while waiting for a treadmill to open up so I could do a walk/hill session. Took Olive for a walk when I got home. Ben ordered Panda for dinner - yum!! Good Fight.

Wednesday (10,866 steps) - Walk with Olive before going to work. Went for a walk before I had some mandatory training over my lunch hour.

Another short walk before leaving for the day just to get away from my desk. Walk with Olive when I got home. Ben cooked dinner and Good Fight. What a blah day.

Thursday (10,761 steps) - Work from home!! Took Olive for a long walk to the lake before clocking in since it was really nice out. Just a short walk at lunch since it was already getting warm. Ben picked me up for Torchy's - yum, cheese! Another walk with Olive. I finally sat down and finished my race report for Summit, then Good Fight - the series finale. Now on to find something new to watch.

Friday (11,778 steps) - Walk with Olive before going to work. Yet another insane day.

I think my buckle looks just fine with dress pants

Walk at lunch and Olive bullied me into letting her go in the creek - again.

Took Olive for another walk after work. Ben ordered in food for dinner - this time from Dickey's (although it was actually listed under a ghost kitchen name). The food was good but they messed up our order - this is probably the third time this has happened - Uber Eats actually doesn't refund and the restaurant doesn't do anything either. Anyone experience this? We were sitting on the couch after dinner and discussing the weekend when I mentioned that Christina was planning on running Run the Rockies in the morning. We discovered that there might still be entries and we made an impulsive decision to head up in the morning! Did some packing to prepare.

Saturday (27,488 steps) - Got up crazy early, just after 4 am, to get ready for our spontaneous trip up to the mountains. The drive was uneventful and we got up to Frisco by probably 6:30. After using the bathroom I went over to packet pick up and I was able to register for the 10k. Well, I haven't run since Summit 200, I am sure this will be fine. Ben was planning on hanging out with Olive. We took Olive for a walk before my race started.

I used to write up full race reports for even a 10k, but I don't think I need to do that for this.

Obviously, I had no big plans to race, but I was looking forward to getting some miles in on a cooler day up in the mountains (vs the horrible hot hellscape we have been experiencing for months in the city). The half started at 7:30 and my race started at 7:45. I have run the half marathon at this event multiple times, but looking at my records, not since 2018!! According to the website, the 10k only had about 240' of gain, so my only real goal was to run as much as I could and try to enjoy myself!

The start was in a different location than I remember from previous years, and I lined up towards the back. We started on time, I think, and off we went. The course was on a different part of trails than I have run before and was wide enough for the first few minutes that we were able to get settled into our paces before hitting the single track.

I started off at an easy pace and was feeling decent as we continued on to the perimeter trails. Managed to actually pass some people on the climbs, which was surprising to me. The first aid station was supposed to be about 1.4 miles in, and I figured I would try to run at least until we got that far.

We finally moved onto trails that I recognized from running previously and most recently, from Summit.

My pace was gradually getting faster. I stopped at the first aid station to grab a drink of water since I wasn't wearing a pack. I did get passed by a few people here, but I did catch up to every single one of them within a mile or so. I was being careful to watch my feet in the trees as I have had a few nasty falls catching my toes on tree roots.

Second aid station was just off the road by Peak One campground - yet another Summit memory! From here I really didn't know where the course was going to go to hit our mileage. I was thinking I only had a few more miles to go and I had run this far without walking, so the plan was to run as strong as I could for the finish.

The trails were getting pretty sandy the closer we got to the beach area. We turned off on another unfamiliar trail and I figured we were getting pretty close to being done since I was already at 6 miles on my watch. Running along a fire road and a volunteer directs me to turn and says "less than a half mile to go," to which I responded "I hope since since I'm over 10k already." I was dying at this point but kept at it. Managed to run into the finish - ZERO walk breaks and the fastest I have ever run these trails!

Garmin Time - 1:18:41

Garmin Distance - 6.44 miles

Garmin Pace - 12:14

Elevation Gain - 421'

Mile 1 - 12:56

Mile 2 - 12:31

Mile 3 - 12:15

Mile 4 - 12:19

Mile 5 - 12:17

Mile 6 - 11:28

Mile 6.44 - 11:16

Found Ben and Olive and we headed over to the finisher area. Gave Ben my free beer and I grabbed a diet Coke and my free lunch. We sat around relaxing before heading into Frisco to Outer Range. Decided to get actual lunch and went to Main Street to eat at Ollie's. We got a nice seat on the patio and had a nice lunch.

We still had some time before we could check into our hotel, so we went for a walk along the rec path. Ben thought it would be ok/fun to walk on the beach and find a spot where Olive might be able to go into the water. Absolutely crazy how low the reservoir is right now (according to an article I read this morning it is at like 73% capacity, which is the lowest in over 20 years).

Everything looked really swampy and gross but we found a spot that looked "OK" and she ran in. Of course the ground nearer the water was really soggy and swampy and she got absolutely filthy.

Headed back to the truck and wiped her off the best I could. Went into town to pick up drinks before checking in for the night. Someone was feeling very tired!

I turned the TV onto Indiana Jones and throughout the course of the night we basically watched the whole trilogy. Ben ordered in JJ's Chinese food for dinner.

Sunday (12,389 steps) - Woke up earlier than I would have liked and had NOT slept well. Annoying since the bed was actually comfortable and the AC worked great. We took Olive for a walk on the rec path since it was right behind our hotel.

A guy had his dogs off leash and they kept running at Olive. Why are people so annoying?? We went back to the room and got all our things packed up. We were trying to decide what to do for the day. Went back into downtown Frisco and ate at Butterhorn. It's been a few years and their menu has become very basic and WOW the prices are really steep for what you get, not sure we will be back.

I suggested that we make a trip over to Rainbow Lake for a walking/hiking activity before heading home. The lot was nearly full, but we were able to get a spot.

Not sure where everyone was hiking because the trails were not that crowded. It was a nice morning and Olive enjoyed getting some fresh mountain spring water. We let her off leash at the lake and she actually fetched a small stick - first time she has ever done that! I suggested that we take an alternate way back to the truck and headed up the trail I came down during Summit.

This trail was even LESS crowded. We turned down a trail neither of us had been on before. It was fascinating how much we seemed to be going down (lots of switchbacks) when we hadn't even realized that we were climbing.

Overall, a really nice activity. We decided to stop at Outer Range to meet up with Lee, since we hadn't seen him all weekend. Stayed longer than we probably should have and traffic was a disaster heading back to the city. Ben picked up a pizza for dinner. Since we had time, we watched a movie - Sheep Detectives - which we both really liked. Sigh. How is the weekend over??

Monday (17,975 steps) - Woke up before my alarm, but it worked out because I had time to take Olive for a longer walk to the lake before it got too hot.

Also had time to get my run in! Greg put me on strict orders to take it SUPER easy this week (after redlining during my race on Saturday) - turns out I had forgotten how nice it is to walk hills!

Started my work day, showered, did laundry. Ariel showed up with Dutch and a breakfast burrito and spend the day at the house. I figured out her ulterior motive when she asked for a ride to the eye doctor (in GOLDEN) because she needed to have her eyes dilated. We got lunch at Cava on the way (which is delicious and I've only had it once before) and then to her appointment.

Ben texted while we were getting to leave Golden and said he was picking up dinner for us. Yay!! We got some toasted hoagies. Rest of the evening was uneventful - planned on starting a new show but Ben ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Stats:

103,354 steps
9.77 miles run
22.2 miles walked
5 minutes of cardio
20 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Summit 200 (Race Recap)

2026-08-06T19:43:17.693-06:00

Summit County, CO

Monday, July 27

200+ mile attempt #16

Weather - Rain, hail, some sun

Preface

I do not usually do races again if I DNF. In fact, I've only attempted a few races a second time - Cocodona and Summit. Even though I had heartbreaking DNFs in both 2024 and 2025, I signed up for a third and final time. I figured that with a year of using my inhaler, plus quitting drinking (have I even talked about this? I haven't had any alcohol since before Christmas 2025), I was in the best shape of my life. With finishes in Thailand and Wales under less than pristine conditions - if ANY year was going to be my year, it would be this year.

In the week leading up to the race I really studied my splits and paces from last year. I noticed a LOT of... things that didn't make sense. Prolonged stops and breaks that really shouldn't have been happening - that added up to a LOT of time. While I really planned on running more of the paved sections, the biggest goal was to not screw around so much.

Sunday at packet pickup

Race Morning

Once again, I had basically not slept. Even though lights were out by 8:30 I was tossing and turning most of the night, for sure awake until at least 11. I was not happy when my alarm went off at 3:15. Ironically, I actually WAS asleep until it went off, usually I wake up "close enough" to my alarm that I just get up early. Breakfast prep was a bit of a headache as there was just a communal microwave on the floor, not in our room, and I couldn't find a spoon. Got everything else ready to go and we were out the door just before 4:15 for the ten-minute drive to Copper. Nervous energy everywhere, and I had to cycle through the bathroom a few times before the start. The ground was very wet from overnight storms and I was honestly surprised it didn't feel colder at the start. TERRIFIED. While I had a plan in place, I'll readily admit to being scared and anxious. Has my training been enough? Will my inhaler be the magical cure to be able to breathe at 12,000+ for extended periods of time? I was about to find out.

Start to Peak One (Miles 0 to 21.7)

Suddenly, it was time to go. Initially I planned to start with Andrea, but she was up at the front of the line, which is not where I wanted to be (ever). Before the race I actually bought a Gym Boss interval timer. Part of the reason for this is my phone battery seems to be dying EXCESSIVELY fast, so especially near town I planned to keep my phone in airplane mode to save battery.

Ana was able to join me for intervals, which was GREAT! Of course it seemed like we had been running a long time and then I realized I had not hit start, only powered it on - apparently there is a learning curve on this.

The early miles honestly flew by. I don't get to see Ana a lot and we spent the time catching up on everything that has happened since we saw each other last.

Walter joined us for a few miles and we had a great time running, walking and talking.

Photo Cred: Anastasia Wilde

When we moved off the pavement onto the trails I continued talking to Walter for a bit and when I glanced back Ana was not in sight and Walter bounded off. Here we go! Time for some miles!

Thankfully it was a bit overcast - I definitely remembered running out of water and being very warm last year.

Moving my way along the course and heading up towards Gold Hill and I was reminded of the owl scaring me in this section last year.

There was a minor course change that happened after the course was marked because of a closure. We only found out about it at packet pick up so I hadn't updated the map and just hoped that I would see it. Thankfully, it WAS really obvious and I was not at all sad about losing a little bit of mileage on the course.

I vaguely remember that I was with someone else in this section but I cannot remember at all who that might have been. Maybe it was a female? Based on how we finished could it have been Tia? Who knows.

Dropped down off the Gold Hill trails and then under the highway and back on the bike patch around the lake heading towards the first aid station. Now that I was off the trails (which I hadn't been running much of anything) I kept looking back to see if Ana was near me, but I didn't see her.

As I got closer to the perimeter trails I noticed that Mary Deane was ahead of me. I was still doing some intervals when the terrain dictated. Whoever I was running on/off with pulled off to use the bathroom (now that I am thinking about it, I think it was a guy) and I caught up to Mary Deane.

Photo Cred: Jason Peters

We stayed in a bit of a conga line, and I was not in any rush to pass anyone at this point. Selfie at our favorite spot by the lake:

We ran into the campground to the first aid station - seemingly on par with the same pace(ish) as last year. That was part of the goal - to maybe take it a bit easier if possible the first section so that I would save my legs a bit for running more in the easier/early miles.

Peak One to N. Shuttle Lot/Keystone (Miles 21.7 to 38.9)

This was pre-planned to be the fastest stop of all the aid stations. Although we had already done nearly 22 miles, I knew we had another big section coming up. I told Mary Deane that I was setting an alarm for 12 minutes and I wanted to be in and out. First I filled up my bottles and then looked around for things to snack on - opting for watermelon and pineapple and taking a bag of chips to go. I had packed a TON of snacks for each section, so really only needed to supplement if something sounded good.

We were out as soon as my alarm went off. Once we were leaving the aid station and got back onto the bike path I told Mary Deane that I was going to set up my intervals since we were on pavement. She ended up not continuing on with me, so I put in my earbuds and got to work.

I stopped to use the bathroom in the marina area, but otherwise I did pretty well at keeping consistent with intervals. It was still cloudy, but I was warm anyway and was drinking more than expected.

I was following a group of guys and managed to pass them near the Heaton Bay campground, even hearing the comment "I knew number 13 was going to catch us." haha

The pants sign has been vandalized!!!

Keep. Going. While these are the "easiest" and "fastest" miles on the course, they are also the most boring. Intervals continued but I know I shortened the run times a bit. Last year I ran out of water in Dillon and had to stop and buy more. This year I carried an extra liter and pulled it out while I was still on the road so that I wouldn't have to stop again. I got into a conversation with a cyclist while waiting for the light to cross the highway - he knew all about the race and was asking exactly where the course went - and I actually remembered!

I am 100% sure that I didn't do any running on the road to the Tenderfoot trailhead last year since I had bought so many random drinks, so this year I figured even a little jog here and there would help to bank even more time. I looked back a few times to see if anyone was behind me and I definitely saw someone - not sure who it would have been at this point. Jake? When I was actually running I probably stayed ahead of him even with him being a fast walker.

Moved onto the trails about Dillon heading to Keystone. I did a little running in this section.

The skies were definitely getting darker, but I preferred this over the scorching heat that we can definitely get on these trails.

Photo: Anastasia Wilde

I don't remember a ton of this section other than going in and out of the trees. There was a climb when I expected to see the people/person catch up to me that I had seen heading to Tenderfoot, but there was nothing. I get up closer to the top (near the dump?) and there were a zillion crows! Thankfully I am not afraid of birds. Got closer to the shooting range and didn't hear any gunshots this year. Once I got off the single track I saw signs that the range was closed. Ben thinks maybe because of the fire risk?

From here I knew I wasn't that far from the trailhead and I was looking forward to saying hi to Ben who planned on meeting me there and getting some real food, as the first aid station was just snack type stuff.

On the single-track heading into Keystone it started to rain enough that I pulled out one of my disposable ponchos and put it on. I saw someone in front of me that was moving pretty slow and when I came up behind him asked if he was ok and if he needed anything. He said that he was having issues with a herniated disc and he said he was going to have to drop at the aid station.

By the time I got to the aid station it had pretty much stopped raining.

N. Shuttle Lot/Keystone to Tiger Road (Miles 38.9 to 62.4)

Ben had a great setup with everything under the canopy he just picked up. I was excited to sit for a minute. I told Ben to set a timer for 20 minutes - which would be exponentially faster than the hourish I spent at this aid station last year.

First surprise food of the race - Cheba Hut! Yum! I wasn't able to eat a ton of it, I think I got about a third of it down. The wind picked up and it started to rain again. I noticed that Lisamarie and Rene were just heading out of the aid station - surprising since I never even SAW them last year.

Ben was definitely trying to rush me out of the aid station - I just had to be sure I remembered to grab the Kogalla and my lights since I would definitely be in the dark in the next, LONG, section. I got everything packed up, used the bathroom and then headed out. I can't remember if actually started with my poncho, but here is a selfie with it on - either right after I left or shortly after.

Again, I think there was very little running in this section last year, so the goal was to at least do SOME running to bank more time. I took a picture by the golf course, which is apparently the same picture I took last year, which showed me that I was already hours ahead of where I was in this same section.

I definitely did more intervals this year and felt like I was moving really well - which was a relief. Still early, but a relief nonetheless. I took my poncho off and figured I would take my poles out when I finally got out of the neighborhoods. I saw someone ahead of me but they were moving pretty fast - or close to my pace and I couldn't tell who it was. Got out of town to the Whispering Pines trailhead and off we go into pretty much all trails the rest of the race.

Photo Cred: Jason Peters

I caught up to Steve, who now that I remember, I was with on and off in roughly this same section last year AND he DNFd last year at Montezuma. We were hiking together and all of a sudden we both were getting off course alerts. Pulled up Gaia and it looked like we were sort of parallel to where we needed to be, but we were still not really on course. We wandered around to see if we missed a turn somewhere but didn't see anything. I called Ben to see if he could tell where we were and if we were on course or not. As we continued on a just a bit further it appeared that the trail we had been on last year was completely closed off and the gpx was not updated in the manual. Steve and I joked that Tek was definitely going to get lost in this section.

We were somewhere on the Colorado Trail (Hippo trail?) when it lightly started to rain. We were in the midst of a discussion about whether or not we wanted to pull out our rain gear or if things were going to blow over when we found a huge tree on the side of the trail and opted to just put the ponchos on. We continued on and within minutes the skies opened up and it started POURING. We were joking about how it was a good thing we had just stopped and done it so all our stuff didn't get wet. I happened to look over and saw a moose running down the field next to us - it was really cool!

And then the scary storms started. The thunder and subsequent lightning was SO CLOSE. Like less than a mile away. The first few strikes were so close that I actually screamed out loud. At this point we were probably ten miles into the section with another 10 to go. No real place that we could bail off the course to get out of the weather. Seemingly every time the lightning would be dangerously close was when we were exposed out in the open with nothing to shield us. I am not exaggerating when I say that this storm lasted well over an hour. It was NOT fun!! Finally the rain and super close lightning stopped and we were treated to a little bit of sun and a gorgeous double rainbow.

Steve mentioned that he was carrying his jet boil and wanted to briefly stop so he could boil some water to make a backpacking meal. A whole conversation was had just discussing the weight and amount of space that had to be taking up in his pack - he insisted it was worth it! We found some logs to set up a quick seating area and got passed by Jake, who once again didn't say hi to us when he went by.

The sunset was absolutely gorgeous after the storms. I think I was still in my shorts although maybe I put on my R1 at this point?

After he had boiled water we continued on while his food cooked and then we found a nice place on the side of the trail where we sat (on our ponchos since the ground was wet) by a small stream. We were able to filter some water and had a snack. I've actually never had a backpacking meal and he shared his lasagna (that he was REALLY excited about) - it was pretty good, but I will never carry a jet boil with me to cook one. Maybe on another 200 I'll place one in a drop bag - I know Ana does this and she is very happy with them.

On we trudged, this section just seemingly NEVER ENDING. We talked about how tired we were in this section last year and I mentioned that I had at least 2-3 miles that were in the 45 minute range, which led me to believe that I had tried (and failed) to take trail naps.

Steve said he was going to stop and rest and I said I was going to keep going since I knew it would be a waste of time for me. I did send Ben a text when I got high enough on the route to give him an ETA of when I would be at the aid station and to let him know that I wasn't going to NAP, but that I did want to lie down and get dry before heading out on the loop. He let me know that Christina was already at the aid station and that Tanessa would be enroute soon.

Finally, I dropped down to the road to get to the aid station. I happened to see Andrea heading out for the loop - unfortunately even if I went to the aid station and turned right back around she would be too far ahead to run with.

Arrived at the aid station with Ben and Christina cheering me in.

Tiger Road Loop (Miles 62.4 to 80.9)

I can't remember if I ate anything when I first got to the aid station, but the initial plan was to get out of the wet clothes and lie down to see if I could raise my core temperature a bit. I think that I asked for 20 minutes, maybe 30. I agreed that if I didn't sleep or if I felt like I was wasting time that I would just get up.

I didn't stay in the truck long and started out wearing my pants (and maybe jacket too?) I remember getting coffee but can't recall what food I may have had in this section.

Christina and I headed out on the trails before 2 am - a huge boost for me since I hadn't even GOTTEN to the aid station until almost 4 am the year before. More time banked had me in a great mood!

We headed out to the trail and I think I got too warm in what I was wearing before we turned off onto the single track. Once we were on the trail things continued uneventfully. I had remembered to warn her about the husky sled dogs, but we really didn't hear much from them this year.

Christina had some issues with one of her headlamps dying - but not to worry - she had a second one - that actually stopped working also! She had extra batteries and neither one of us could figure out how to open the battery case. I knew Steve and his pacer were ahead of us and I leant her my clip on light until we caught up to them. Sure enough - it was a problem for a dude to fix! David (the pacer) got the case open, we were able to change the battery without any further problems.

No real recollection of what we talked about in here. We got closer to Geneva Pass and sadly there were no mountain goats at the top, although that didn't stop us from thinking every large rock was actually a goat in disguise.

Kept heading down the road and then moved onto the cool flat section. No running, but we had some pretty speedy miles in here - especially considering I was still on no sleep!

We got to the weird road intersection, and I warned Christina about the water crossing and that one of the photographers would likely be there. Anastasia was there and I asked how many people crossed on the log and she said everyone so far had. Uh oh, the pressure was on. As an aside, I have no idea how I did gymnastics for over a decade and yet struggle to walk across a log. Either way - neither of us fell in - success!! The last section to the aid station went on forever and ever and ever.

Photo Cred: Anastasia Wilde

Happy to be back into the aid station before 10 am!! There was a lot of commotion with Tanessa and her daughter, Madisyn, being there, plus a random visit from Andrew. I told Ben I really needed to sleep. I mentioned 45 minutes and he said "that seems like a long time." I think I said I wanted 45 but I would get up if I felt like I wasn't sleeping.

Tiger Road to Montezuma (Miles 80.9 to 93.7)

I usually seem to sleep better if it is warmer, but I had put on my face mask and Pink Floyd and got up before the alarm went off because it didn't seem like I was sleeping. I realized I was trapped in the back of the truck, but luckily Ben came to rescue me.

I changed clothes and then probably had more Cheba Hut and... something else from the aid station but I can't remember what I might have had. Burger? Who knows.

Tanessa was going to be pacing for the next few sections - I was really excited because not only have we never spent time together on the trails, but she jumped in VERY last minute to help out.

We had barely gotten out of the parking lot when I realized my phone was still on the charger so she ran back to get it for me. And then off we went for the next two tough sections to Duck Creek - which would be more than halfway for me! Tanessa had also leant me her ice bandana - I had decided to leave mine at home after I had looked at the forecast for the week, and I'll admit that I regretted it!

I warned Tanessa that it would feel totally manageable and then it would suddenly get really steep and awful. Although there were a few times in this section where I thought I was struggling a bit with my breathing, it NEVER got as bad as it has the last few years. Not sure if this is because the rain has kept some of the dust away or the magic of the inhaler, but I was just going to roll with it!

We had the water crossing at some point and I think we still managed to keep our feet dry - a success over last year because I remember just going right through it.

I think this was when she was taking pictures and saying "maybe THIS looks steep"

We actually saw off road vehicles for the first time in this section and I remember telling Tanessa that I had to tell Ben because had NO idea how anyone would ever try to drive on these "roads."

I kept pointing out the ridgeline that we were heading towards. I also had noticed that the warm and stifling temperatures seem to have gone away and it was getting mildly chilly again. We came upon Lisamarie, Rene and their pacer, Scott, while they stopped to take a break on the side of the trail. We kept heading up, but now we were worried about getting caught in a storm. Shortly before the switchback to get to the ridgeline we saw a couple runners huddled in rain gear under the tree. Since we were hearing thunder and lightning, we opted to join them and try to wait out the weather and not risk getting caught above tree line in a storm. I put on some layers and my poncho and we sat there talking for probably at least 45 minutes. I got a little annoyed here after banking so much time only to have it "taken back" by having to wait out the weather.

In the time that we sat there Darren and another runner just kept heading up to the ridge. Tanessa and I finally decided we would go, as the storm seemed to be dissipating a bit.

False summit after false summit, but there now seemed to be a big group of us all together, which is not something I have experienced at this race, usually after the first day I am completely alone!

Sadly, we got to the stop where there are normally mountain goats and they were not there. I assume they also hunkered down to avoid the storm. Still sad, I look forward to the reward of seeing them when I get to the top.

We concentrated on moving quickly through here. Not much, if any jogging, but just trying to move efficiently. I noted that I was putting on my headlamp in this section last year - proving I was WAY ahead, even WITH the long stop.

This section seemed just as long during the day and I definitely gaslit myself into thinking the later climbs weren't that bad. But at least it was short and then it was just the terrible road into Montezuma.

Tia and me

We did not have any problems finding the aid station this year, arriving before 6 pm.

Montezuma to Duck Creek (Miles 93.7 to 110.9)

Arrived in the day!! I didn't even have a drop bag here, so the plan was to refuel and get going as soon as possible.

Terry was volunteering and he also commented on how much faster I was this year. Are things really falling into place??

There were a lot of us at the aid station, but I was able to get a pizza, had an apple and then some glazed donut holes. Then of course, it started to rain again. I was able to move my chair under the tarp while I continued fueling and debating what layers I wanted to start with before heading out. Everyone else seemed to be hanging out for a while so I was impressed that Tanessa and I got out of there pretty quickly.

Out onto the dirt road that seemed longer than I remembered and it was still raining, but not the scary storms we had already been through.

Made the turn to head up to Webster Pass and this also seemed longer than I remembered, but the grade was not bad and we were moving well. Once we turned onto the road we were treated to more rainbows!!

We came up on Kayla and Brian and they were frustrated about the lack of course markings. I had noticed that things were sparse, but since I have done this section multiple times I knew that there was nowhere to go other than the main road. We passed them and continued on. WAS IT POSSIBLE??? Was I actually going to get to the saddle of Webster Pass in the daylight??

YES, I WAS GOING TO GET TO THE SADDLE BEFORE DARK. I could see Jason on the first boop up the hill, but of course I had to have Tanessa look around before the sun set and get some pictures.

We had planned on eating something at this point but I think since it was still light we decided to push until we got over Red Cone. We did put on our night layers at this point though.

Photo Cred: Jason Peters

The boops were just as tough as I remembered, but I couldn't help but think I was feeling REALLY STRONG for almost 100 miles in. Obviously there was still a long way to go, but I was not wheezing yet.

Tanessa was thinking the altitude might be getting to her and she was unfortunately sick a few times, but she was a trooper getting things done! The back section of Red Cone was "easy" but longer than I remembered. We sat on a rock and shared the brownie Ben had gotten me from Cheba Hut. Tanessa agreed the "faint" South Park trail was tough to see.

Nothing super memorable in this section - other than seeing the brothers and Walter and probably the first-place female since it is an out and back.

Of note - this section goes on forever and ever and ever and when you think you are "almost there" look at your watch - you are NOT almost there. This was probably the lowest section of the race for me - I hate this part and just wanted it to be over with. Then we finally get to the road and it's easily another three miles to the aid station. Just no. Got to the aid station at like 3 am?

Duck Creek to Hall Valley (Miles 110.9 to 123.1)

I had big plans to sleep here - knowing that I was going to have a big push that I didn't want to be tired for. Maybe I had a snack (?) but I got in the truck and I think I told Ben 75 minutes but reserved the right to snooze if I think I was actually sleeping.

I think I got a small amount of sleep, but it was nothing to write home about. When I got up I was getting everything ready and eating and checking pack, etc. I was asking Ben all about who was at the aid station and who was gone - the reality was going to be that I was heading out alone. And I think that is exactly what I needed!

I headed out when it was still dark, but getting closer to sunrise. I wasn't exactly chipper, but I was about as awake as I could be and I was going to get this shit done!!

I had no idea where I was in relation to all the other people on course, so now that I was in a long out and back section it was fun to see people! I saw Steve, Lisamarie (who looked SO SAD), Rene and Scott, Mary Deane, Tek, Charity and Ana, etc. The way back up to head towards Hall Valley somehow seemed even LONGER. I can't remember anything about how I felt, if it was warm or cold. But I got there. I even remembered to take a picture of the best tree ever - but I didn't stop to sit on it.

Turned left to head to Hall Valley, which would be a pivotal aid station for me. I had some phone service on the road so I quickly got my texting done while I had service, did my Wordle and Duolingo before dropping into the aid station.

Hall Valley to Lodgepole (Miles 123.1 to 145.45)

Arriving here late morning was a HUGE boost. Last year we had been here shortly before sunset. So I basically had a whole day to get things done and finally get that monkey off my back.

I arrived as the only runner and the volunteers as always were awesome. I got a chair in the shade and they made me a big loaded mashed potato (with instant potatoes) and I think I had seconds. I had a lot of soda and one of the volunteers filled my extra liter bottle with a celsius packet - who knew what that was going to do to me, but I was excited.

I don't think I spent a ton of time here, but Jake did show up shortly before I left.

HERE.WE.GO. The last two years I have dropped IN THIS SECTION. I was probably 8 hours ahead of where I was last year, so as long as my stupid lungs cooperated and I just kept going, I should be fine, right?

The climbing starts right out of the aid station and mellows out right after the first few rocky switchbacks. It seemed warm and sunny, but at least I was in the shade. I felt like I was making great time and I remembered having severe breathing issues last year, but this year I was feeling fine! Up, up, up.

It was starting to look like it was going to storm. Again. Kept at it and there were actually some ATVs and bikes in this section, but nothing crazy. The runoff wasn't that bad and I was able to keep my feet dry.

I was really happy to get to the road up the side of the pass. I briefly stopped to sit on the side to apply lube under my bra strap, and had a quick conversation with a gal that said she was a sweeper "but for a different section" and she was "just making a loop" - that was confusing to me because they only loop that would make sense would be absolutely huge and wouldn't get everything off the Duck Creek section. Anyway, didn't matter.

I DID IT! I got to the saddle and was still feeling good. I started the single track climb up the other side of the pass knowing that Jason was up there doing pictures. I asked him if he thought the storm was going to amount to anything since I was getting ready to be above tree line for quite a while. He said something like "who knows, but I haven't heard thunder in a while" and I kept going. I started the descent down and was getting ready to pull out my poncho to have handy when I turned to look behind me and saw Jake again. He is really a strong hiker!!

Photo Cred: Jason Peters
About 6 minutes after this picture was taken all hell broke loose

The top of the climb on this plateau is literally the section that has broken me the last few years. Jake passed me in this section while I was having a quick break. All of sudden the skies opened up. I tried to put on my disposable poncho but first problem was I put the poncho on backwards and the hood kept flapping in my face. With the high winds I was having a hard time putting it on the right way. It got caught on something and tore and then I basically had to have it half on and flapping in my face. It was raining and thundering and lighting and visibility was about ten feet. I knew this was a long section, but again, I've thankfully done it a few times. There were not a lot of markings here and regardless it was hard to see where I was going even IF they were plentiful. I kept hoping I wouldn't get struck by lightning and that the wind would die down. Jake was pretty far ahead of me, but at least I could see him every once in a while, which made me feel better.

Seemingly, as soon as the trail started to trend downhill, the visibility improved and then the storm was gone just as quick has it had arrived.

By the time things finally calmed down, I just looked like this:

Now, time for one of the worst descents of the race. But looking at this picture I can't even be mad about it. I think this picture is exactly where we sat with Christine in year one trying to figure out how to evacuate off the course.

It's not a fast downhill with a very steep grade and lots of loose rocks, but I made it down without falling and my lungs were still cooperating!! I was going to be turning left and continuing past where I had dropped two years in a row!

Almost immediately, I was like, well I haven't missed anything. First up was this very long muddy water pit that I didn't see an immediate way around so I just walked through it.

Survive that and then it was a bunch of shitty rocks and a steep climb. Oh, I guess this is the rest of the vert that was missing from earlier...

With all the rain that we had been getting the trail was basically now a river. The sun was out but thankfully it hadn't warmed up things too terribly, and I was still in the trees anyway.

The trail become more of a wider dirt road, but as I continued to climb I was noticing that the sky was looking scary. AGAIN.

I was heading towards what I hoped was the end of the climbing and looked behind me to see someone - again.

And the sky was definitely getting scary.

I pulled out my Gain in this section because the directions were sort of confusing. I stepped over a gate into the field and the electricity from a lighting strike went through me. I hightailed it back to the trail/road I had just been on and ducked next to a bush and called Ben. He looked to see where the storm was going but I was so freaked out. I did not want to be caught alone on another ridge line - he thought we would be along the ridge for a bit but then we would definitely be heading down and he warned me to pay attention to the trail because it paralleled the loop we had down earlier and it was seemingly easy to get off course.

Jake came up while I was on the phone and flashed "thumbs up" to me, to which I immediately responded with a very aggressive thumbs down. He indicated that he was going to keep going, and I told him where the turn was, which he thanked me for as he assumed we kept going on the road.

Well, we did continue along the ridge line and got a good 4-5 minutes from the gate when the storm picked up and started pelting Sonic ice-sized hail at us. It did not feel good and was coming down pretty hard. Did a little bit of jogging/fast walking here just to try and get lower - which we finally did, thankfully.

I was able to keep up with Jake for about a mile before I just had to let him go because he was just going too fast for me.

I had made the decision to just use my headlamp until the next aid station and not bother with the waist light. Problem with that is that the rain continued on for hours. Visibility sucked, and this section of trail was very slick, lots of steeper descent and roots and rocks. I guess that helped to keep me awake, but by the time I got close to the aid station (which I missed the turn on the road bc there was not a sign telling me to turn) I was mentally OVER it. I wanted to sleep.

Arrived just before 11 (?) - fuck what a hard section, but at this point I am finishing this damn thing.

Lodgepole to French Pass (Miles 145.45 to 159.55)

Come into Lodgepole feeling like a ghost. It is a "sleep station" but there is nothing heated and everything is wet from days of on again and off again rain.

The very kind volunteer puts me in the "sitting" tent to hopefully warm up. I have a delicious BBQ taco and they make me potatoes with broth and had some cider. I get my drop bag but I am drenched and even the things in my waterproof drop bag are damp from being out in the rain for days.

The volunteer (was it Dustin?) gave me a very nice North Face sleeping bag to get in and try to warm up. Because I am stupid, I didn't get out of my wet clothes first. I think I tried to sleep for a half hour. I set an alarm twice doing this, but kept waking up because I was so cold and chilled. I was talking with a guy from Salida (or was it Buena Vista) who got up and left at some point when I was bitching and moaning about the horrible conditions of this aid station.

Finally I decided there was nothing to do other than get the heck out of there. I changed clothes and then was getting ready to use the bathroom when I heard Jillian outside the tent! I was telling her about my poncho disaster and she said she had a spare I could take for the next section.

Ironically once I was out of the wet clothes it didn't feel nearly as bad and I was ready to get the heck out of there. I apologized profusely to the volunteers for being mad/sad and they were super nice and understanding. Just over 50 miles to go!!

So supposedly this was only a 14ish mile section, which was sad mainly because I had in my head the whole time that it was only 12 miles. Anyway, it was supposed to be a very "easy" non-technical section.

I think the first few miles were in the trees on single track, but nothing crazy and I was just sort of wandering in the dark. Then we moved onto the road - which we would stay on for the rest of the section.

I got SO INCREDIBLY TIRED in this section. At some point it started to drizzle again, and of course Jake appeared out of nowhere again and passed me. We would later find out that we were both just taking random trail naps in the middle of the road.

I had my headphones in and tried to stay awake by singing to myself and trying to figure out why there were so many vehicles just driving around in the pre-dawn hours.

I hated dropping down for the 6-8 minute rests, but more than once I found myself sleepwalking and falling in the ditch, so it was necessary. Picture of the full moon from my position in the middle of the road.

I think I had enough phone service to text Ben with an ETA and that I was DEFINITELY going to have to have a quick nap before heading out.

Arrived at French Pass aid station just after 7 am - roughly the time I was evacuated halfway through the Hall Valley section the year previously - so ZERO worries about time at this point.

French Pass to CMC Breck (Miles 159.55 to 182.2)

Arrived to see Ben and Larry with quite the setup. I think I had a snack of some kind - who knows what, then I am pretty sure I asked for 45 minutes. I think Ben let me have a bit more than that, and I may have snoozed.

Hilariously, I had come into the aid station saying that hot dogs sounded really good and then after my nap I got up and there were two hot dogs waiting for me to eat before heading out. Miracles do happen!!!

Larry and me

Larry was a last minute helper after Terri realized she would not be back from her trip in time to pace this section.

It was actually a really nice and gradual climb out of the aid station. Nothing to take my breath away, which was great! I told Larry that the biggest goal was to keep moving and that I was not allowed to stop and sit unless I was having a snack. I was pretty good about stopping every 45 minutes or so and having something to eat. I was finally starting to get really hungry during the race - both good and bad because it means I am not going to get behind on calories, but maybe bad because that means I'm already a bit deficient.

We could see the saddle from pretty far away, but unlike some other sections on the course, we weren't having to work crazy hard to get there. Not to say there wasn't work to do, but it was totally manageable. And boy was I glad to do it during the day!

I could see someone on the saddle from seemingly a zillion miles away and I told Larry it was probably the photographer. And it was! Anastasia was up there just being amazing and taking epic shots. There were also quite a few hikers out that were so impressed with what we were doing.

Photo Cred Anastasia Wilde

Photo Cred: Anastasia Wilde

We took some pictures on the saddle before we started the trek down the hill.

We were on single track for some time, with lots of water crossings. It was not very technical and we moved quickly through here. We were coming up on random cabins in the woods and we were trying to figure out which (if any) of these were the cabin that had been an aid station the first year. I never made it that far so I'll never know! We were on a dirt road and found a spot in the shade - I told Larry I wanted to lie down for a few minutes to take a quick nap. I set my alarm for 8 minutes but awoke when someone walked by. I was rested enough that I was fine to keep going.

Suddenly - I knew where I was! A year or two ago Ben and I had come here with Olive - we liked this route because in normal years when we went up the road there was a stream that ran along the road/trail pretty much the whole time. I did filter water when we crossed the stream and then was bamboozled when we didn't continue on the road and took a hard right into what appeared to be an old quarry. It was REALLY warm in this area and stuff feeling. There were some chipmunks running around and we had an in depth conversation about the chipmunk housing situation.

We finally moved out of the rocks and onto more traditional dirt trails. We also were finally beginning to encounter some mountain bikes - which we hadn't seen much of at all the entire race.

Popped out at a summit/junction and I swear it was the old mining area I had been to before. I'll admit none of the trails looked that familiar so I might be making up this memory.

Apparently, Larry had studied the route better than I had and I was informed that we were currently on the trails above Breckenridge and it wouldn't be long before we would actually be dropping down INTO TOWN. It was still feeling pretty hot so we found a log in the shade and had a snack. At this point I was starting to notice that Larry was a little... off. He was moving a little slower than earlier and I asked him if he was doing ok and he said that it was just something he was going to have walk out. Not really sure what that meant, but we continued on. We came across all sorts of weird trees and displays on these trails - I especially liked this one:

I had to have my map out at this point because there were zero course markings when we got off the trail and into town. Not one!! I expected to be moving quickly here and I wasn't really sure where we were, but I hoped we would get close enough to a restaurant to get ice cream or something. At this point Larry had really slowed down and he was probably a block behind me on the street. I crossed the main street in town and while I was waiting for Larry I hear my name! Heather and Lora happened to be in town and saw where I was on the tracker and said hi! Such a fun surprise! They headed off and Larry and I continued trying to navigate through town. Larry decided that his pack had too much water and he wanted to try dumping some of it out, so we found a bench off the bike path. He still was moving pretty slow and at this point I sent Ben a text and mentioned that Larry was slowing me down. I asked what my options were - I knew I couldn't leave him on the trail, but wondered if in TOWN I could leave him and he could get picked up. In the meantime we are still trying to figure out where to go.

There was a little market/convenience store before we started to head up the road to the Ten Mile lot. While I was waiting to hear back from Ben we went in and got some drinks and pizza to snack on. Ben said he would come pick Larry up and that we just couldn't talk or have any contact with each other.

I had to then tell Larry that I was going to separate from him. I felt really bad for hurting his feelings and if this wouldn't have been a race I am sure everything would have been fine, but I was trying to get this done and I was really getting concerned about how much we had slowed down - especially since I really couldn't figure out what was wrong. I saw Ben's truck from across the lot and headed up the road.

I got off course in here a few times - again, because there were NO markings. The sky was starting to look stormy yet again.

Thankfully, I had another poncho and when it started to rain again, I put it on. It wasn't one of my good ones and it tore immediately when I tried to put it on. So annoying. Got lost going through a construction zone. One of the workers - you have the big pack and poles, you must be part of the race, how's it going? Oh, wish it was marked somewhere. That's what everyone has been saying... sigh

More bikes in this section. I am somewhere behind town at this point and lots of people out and about. Ready to get this section over with! Finally we make a turn off the trail and there are quite a few flags directing me to the CMC Breck aid station!! The last mile or so was on the road and people were FLYING down it. I was definitely concerned about getting hit and was glad Ben would be with me when I had to go back up.

CMC Breck to Finish! (Miles 182.2 to 200ish)

Got into the aid station right before dark and Kristin was there with Ben! She was in town for work and saw where I was on the tracker and came by the aid station to say hi.

I knew I needed a nap before I would be able to head out. Ben had everything set up outside the truck and the volunteers made me a delicious quesadilla with ground beef before I got in the truck. I think I asked for 45 minutes, maybe an hour. When Ben came back to wake me up I think I asked for a few minutes of snooze, but got up anyway. Since Ben was pacing from here we had a few things that needed to get done before we could head out - like get him ready and the truck loaded up since we would be leaving it there.

Kristin was still there when I woke up - partially because she had accidentally locked her keys in the car and also because she was planning with Ben on driving to the finish line with Tic Tac and then offered to drive us back to the truck after I finished.

I had a really delicious burger before Ben and I headed out. I could starve the rest of the race and that would be enough calories to keep going.

As we were heading out of the aid station we saw Kyle and Tia. Tia screams across the street "is that Rebecca? Ben gave me one of your walking tacos. It was delicious but I've been shitting all day." And Ben and I laughed, but he felt pretty bad about that.

Ben and I both overdressed on the walk out of town and by the time we started climbing we were both getting pretty warm. I am sure that I stopped pretty early on and took off my R2. Up, up, up. Supposedly this last section was just over 14 miles, and more than half of it was what we had just done a few weeks earlier with Christina. I had never gone up to the Miner's Creek connection a). in the dark or b). from the Breck side.

There were ZERO flags. NONE. We literally went miles and hours without seeing a single marker. Luckily we were both sort of familiar with where we were going, but this was annoying.

We were both getting really annoyed at the climbing and all the rocks. I was sure that we had hit the "parking lot" at the junction and seen the little water crossing where we had been a month earlier with Olive and yet seemingly the climb up was absolutely never-ending. When were we going to get out of the trees? Were we lost? Were we just not moving? What on earth was happening?

Then suddenly we were above tree line and we both stopped and said something like "well we are further than I thought." We had made it to the boulder field and we were getting much closer. There were no headlamps anywhere near me, but I knew anyone in front of me was probably hours away.

In the dark it was false summit after false summit after false summit. We were both OVER IT. Finally, we got to the saddle. Only to continue being mad at zero flags and all the scree at the top. Oh well, at this point I was almost done, but also NONE of this seemed familiar. I knew the top part was rocky but in my head it was a very short trek across the top and almost an immediate right turn down. We seemingly just kept going forever - did we miss this turn? Are we going to end up doing the Ten Mile Range? Where are we?

Then we finally start the turn but wow, it is sooo much steeper and more slick than I remember. Is this really the same trail we just did without poles and just walked down? I think our entire last two hours of the race was talking about how zero fo this was familiar and even though there was nowhere else to go that we were lost.

We could see the lights of Copper Mountain and what we thought was the finish line, although especially in the dark - where were we? Looking at my watch over the last section I definitely had a goal to see if I could get under 96 hours. And then suddenly there was the bike path and bridge!

I told Ben we didn't even need to run across the finish line. It was the middle of the night and no one but the photographer and Chase and Casey would be there anyway.

But we did it. We crossed the finish line. Years in the making, I finally fucking did it.

Photo Cred: Jason Peters

Official Time - 95:54:48

Overall Place - 17/27

Division Place - 4/10

Garmin Time - 95:54:50

Garmin Distance -

Garmin Pace - 28:34

Elevation Gain - 33,798'

Thoughts:

I think I would rank this as one of the hardest 200s I have done - and I have now completed nearly a dozen different courses. The weather and high elevation is just something you really complicated to problem-solve.
I don't think I would have been successful without Ben's help. I think one of the biggest challenges of this race is the lack of indoor spaces where you can dry off and get warm. Every year at this race there has been serious weather and I am one of those people that struggle when I get cold/wet, etc. Having a vehicle at the crew stations was SO helpful.
I really think the combination of not drinking and having the inhaler has made all the difference in my running over the last year. The inhaler, whether or not I notice in day-to-day life, definitely saved me. While there were times I was struggling to breathe, I never got wheezy like I have every other year.
The lack of markings this year was really challenging. I had the benefit of having done about 3/4 of the course so I knew where to go, but for people who didn't it was going to be a lot of looking at your map.

Gear:

UltrAspire Traverse. I love/hate this pack. I like that it is big enough to hold all my things, but when it is full I don't think it sits comfortably on me. Becomes a bigger issue the first day when we have all the mountain/cold weather gear yet we are all running and don't "need" it because we are lower elevation and in town. Used two 800 ml flasks and also carried a 1L that I barely used with a water filter.
Garmin Enduro 2, only charged at Duck when I was sleeping, Leki poles - didn't use until maybe 45 miles in and then on/off the rest of the race, Goodr sunglasses.
Two pairs of shoes. Brand new pair of Topo Ultraventure 4 that I used for the first 80, then my Mount to Coast T1 that I wore until French Pass (160ish) and then then the last 14 miles back to my Ultraventures. So 100 or so miles on each pair. The T1 was quite the experiment since I think the longest I had previously worn was about 18 miles - but I thought the soles would be the best for the more technical/rocky sections.
Clothing - Three rabbit sun hoodies and one Patagonia sun hoodie, 1 pair rabbit stash-hers, 3 pairs of CVG 5" shorts, REI rain pants, Patagonia Storm Racer jacket, Socks (mostly rabbit, but I think I had a pair of Balega and one pair of Stance), Topo gaiters and dirty girl gaiters, Three different hats, Bula fleece lined hat, stretchy cheap gloves since my good Smartwool stuff got too wet to use, Patagonia R1 (I used two different ones), Patagonia R2 and I think I used my Mountain Hardwear puffy for one partial segment (Lodgepole to French?) as well as the random rabbit hoodie and Patagonia R2 pants that I put in my Lodgepole drop bag to sleep in and then ended up having to wear since it was the only dry stuff I had.
Kogalla and Skullcandy batteries with my UltrAspire waistbelt, Petzel headlmap
Nutrition - LMNT Raspberry, pistachios, trail mix, lots of Hi Chew, nerd clusters, apple sauce, Snickers and whatever else I could get my hands on. I had a 1-quart plastic bag of food that I carried in every segment.
Salty Britches for lube, one reapplication about 2/3 of the way through. Initially foot lube was Squirrels Nut Butter and then just cleaned my feet when changing socks. Zero blisters, again!

Week in Review (July 28 - August 3)

2026-08-04T10:51:10.617-06:00

Tuesday (93,581 steps) - Summit 200

Wednesday (78,699 steps) - Summit 200

Thursday (94,423 steps) - Summit 200

Friday (16,235 steps) - Summit 200. Thankfully with Kristin being at the finish line we were able to get a ride back to Breckenridge to pick up Ben's truck. Went directly to Lee's house so we could try to nap a bit before going back to the finish line to watch the later finishers. I dozed on and off on the couch, but like usual I struggled a bit staying asleep. It got late enough that I told Ben we should get up.

Somehow I lost my sunglasses at some point :(

Took a quick shower and stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way back to Copper. We unfortunately missed Tia and Charity finishing, but we were able to see everyone else come in. It was really REALLY nice to finally be at this finish line with a buckle and finisher jacket. We sat around and chatted with Chase and Casey, Andrea until she had to leave and random other runners and volunteers.

Ana was the final finisher and after celebrating we all decided to go to Sweet Soy in Copper for another dinner before going our separate ways. The food was PHENOMENAL and we were all really excited for food that was not aid station food.

Headed back to Lee's house and ended up dozing on the couch again before finally just giving up and going to bed.

Saturday (11,002 steps) - Plans with everyone for an early breakfast at Sunshine Cafe. We had the same server as last time, who was just as slow and inattentive, but the food and company were both great. Had to pack up everything at Lee's to head home and rescue Olive, but I went for a walk around the block first so that I could soak up the last of the cooler mountain air before getting to back down to triple digits. Ariel had left Olive at the house for us, so it made everything easier for us. Took Olive for a quick walk around the block before unloading, putting things away and doing laundry.

It was really hot in the house and we were tired and hungry by late afternoon, so we went to Torchy's for a late lunch/early dinner. Back home for another walk with Olive, a very quick Peloton ride so I didn't lose my streak, and relaxing on the couch with Good Fight.

Sunday (10,938 steps) - Had trouble sleeping and woke up pretty early. Took Olive for a long walk to the lake since it was supposed to be over 100 degrees later in the day.

Olive still doesn't understand cows

Met up with Heather and Lora for brunch up the street - and it was DELICIOUS, not to mention great to catch up with her.

Dozed on the couch for a bit before going to Rails End to meet up with Tyler and Larry for a small post-race celebration in the air conditioning. I made a quick run to Costco to pick up a pizza for dinner and something to cook Monday since we have no food currently. Took Olive for another walk. We actually had time to watch a movie, so I picked "Project Hail Mary" - which we both REALLY enjoyed.

Monday (10,260 steps) - Woke up early and again took Olive for a walk to the lake since the weather was so nice. Back to work, which was a total nightmare. At least I didn't really have to squeeze a workout in. Ben and I took Olive for an uncomfortably hot walk at lunch. After work I took Olive for one more walk (mostly it was for me because I still needed my steps). We made dinner and then time on the couch for reading and Good Fight.

Stats:

315,138 steps
141ish miles run
8.69 miles walked
5 minutes of cardio
0 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (July 21 - July 27)

2026-08-04T10:24:19.553-06:00

Tuesday (14,466 steps) - Walk with Olive and Ben before going to work. Got a surprise text from Paula asking if I wanted to go for a walk since it was "only" in the 80s. Did a strength workout and quick hike on the treadmill.

Did a delivery on the way home and then took Olive for a walk. Ben picked up pizza for dinner, yum! Good Fight.

Wednesday (18,020 steps) - Took Olive on a long walk to the lake since I had time.

Went for my "easy" run at lunch. It didn't feel all that easy since it was around 90 degrees.

Traffic was a complete disaster when I got off work. I was so annoyed when I got home that I just let Olive out because I didn't want to go for a walk in the heat/humidity. Ben made dinner and we worked on my drop bags. Good Fight.

Thursday (14,600 steps) - Ben and I took Olive on a walk to the lake before work. So humid!! At lunch I went to Target to pick up my grocery order and then took Olive for a short walk around the neighborhood. After work Olive and I headed down to Belmar for Colfax's last run club. Glad we all got one more walk in :(

Ben had ordered in Cupbop for dinner, we picked out the rest of my clothes for the race. Good Fight.

Friday (11,181 steps) - Walk with Ben and Olive before going to work. Busy morning so I had to walk Olive a little later than I normally like when it is so hot out. She bullied me into letting her go into the creek even though I wanted to keep her clean a little while longer.

Torchy's for dinner since we had missed going on Thursday. Did more packing and organizing, Good Fight.

Saturday (15,713 steps) - Ben and I took Olive for a walk to the lake. I went for my run when we got back - thankfully just "short and easy" - although with the heat hard to keep the heartrate down.

He had some errands to run, plus I had to finish packing and get the truck loaded up. We stopped in Golden at Katie's house to pick up my team sun shirt, then to Ariel's house to drop off Olive for the week. Finally, we were headed up to the mountains. Thankfully we didn't really hit any traffic, and we were at Outer Range in no time. Then to Lee's to unload stuff. We all went to Ollie's for dinner - I got a delicious burger. Back at Lee's to finalize drop bags and do more organizing.

Sunday (10,527 steps) - Ben and I decided to go for a hike so I could get my steps in. Nice day!

We went to Mountain Lyon for breakfast and it was SO GOOD.

Then it was back to Lee's house to get everything loaded in the truck before going to packet pickup and dropping off bags. We were also going to be staying at a hotel in Frisco so anything I needed for the race had to get packed up. Most everyone I knew was at pick up right when it opened, which meant a lot of standing around chatting with people.

Finally, we decided to duck out and headed to Outer Range. Then we met up with people for dinner at Peppino's. It was nice to sit around and talk with everyone! Then it was time to check into our hotel. We had found a great deal on the hotel right by Whole Foods. Got everything ready for morning, took a shower and braided my hair. Tried to relax by watching Friends reruns and lights out early, although sleep once again eluded me.

Monday (124,983 steps) - Summit 200

Stats:

65.4ish miles run
17.26 miles walked
0 minutes of cardio
32 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (July 14 - July 20)

2026-07-21T15:14:29.369-06:00

Tuesday (13,261 steps) - Quick Peloton ride and Olive walk before going to work. Of note, it's interesting that the mileage for our detour route is the exact same as our normal "neighborhood" walk. Gym at lunch. Did a half hour on the StairMaster and it felt a lot harder for some reason, plus a bodyweight strength class. I always seem to forget that usually makes me MORE sore.

Took Olive for a walk when I got home - HOT.

While we were waiting for Ben to get home we were sitting on the patio since it's cooler outside right now - and the fox is back!!

Ben brought home pizza for dinner and some groceries. Good Fight.

Wednesday (19,806 steps) - Up ridiculously early. Took Olive for a walk and then drove to North Table because I was planning on some repeats to get my vert in for the day. Still hard, but it was made more awesome because I saw a deer AND a lady told me "YOU'RE AMAZING!"

Drove to the office and had just enough time to shower at the gym in our building and still get to work on time. Went for a walk at lunch, but shorter than planned because the only thing I forgot to pack was a spare pair of socks and the shoes I was wearing felt like they were giving me a blister. Did a delivery on the way home and then took Olive for a walk. By the time Ben got home it was really too late to cook anything so I just had leftovers. Good Fight.

Thursday (18,434 steps) - Since I woke up early (unintentionally), we took Olive for a walk and then I went for my run.

Will never be a super fan of running in the morning but it was nice to not roast to death and get it out of the way early. Walked Olive at lunch and did a strength video.

Randomly went to get a haircut and did a little bit of yard work before meeting Ben at Torchy's for dinner. Took Olive for a walk before settling down for more Good Fight.

Friday (11,999 steps) - Didn't wake up in time for the Wash Park group, so I just took Olive for a walk around the neighborhood before we went to work. Took Olive for a walk at lunch.

Did another walk later in the afternoon since we were both getting restless. Ben picked me up after he got done with work and we got sushi for dinner! What a fun surprise.

Good Fight.

Saturday (34,468 steps) - Stupidly early walk with Olive before Joni stopped by the house so we could carpool up to Herman Gulch. We arrived at the lot just after 6:30 and it was already pretty full. I had planned for about ten miles round trip, hoping to top out close to 13,000'. It was a beautiful day and trails weren't crowded at all once we turned off for Jones Pass.

Thankfully we didn't hit any traffic on the way home either. Ben and I went to Tap and Burger for lunch - which was delicious.

Took Olive fora walk when it finally cooled down. Gyros for dinner and Good Fight.

Sunday (19,874 steps) - Olive walk while Ben went to get us Dutch Bros. Jones to Vasquez Pass for our adventure day! Thankfully there were very few people on the trails and we didn't get caught in any storms.

Too hot to take Olive anywhere for a snack/happy hour, so we just went home. Good Fight.

Monday (16,465 steps) - Took Olive for a long walk to the lake before the heat.

I also got in my run before I needed to start work.

Olive had her grooming appointment late morning - her first time getting groomed by someone else since I started taking her in 2023!

Very happy with the results and even though it was a little more money, I think they did a good job. Tried to start getting things ready for Summit but it was just hellacious in the house. This heat has to stop!! After work I took Olive for another walk. Ben ordered in Panda for dinner. Good Wife.

Stats:

134,307 steps
25.51 miles run
15.16 miles walked
40 minutes of cardio
40 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (July 7 - July 13)

2026-07-15T13:39:30.070-06:00

Tuesday (14,192 steps) - Quick Peloton ride and Ben and I walked Olive before I went to work. Gym at lunch for stair climber and some bodyweight strength, plus a quick cooldown walk on the treadmill.

Did a quick delivery on my way home and took Olive for a walk.

Someone gave Al googly eyes??!

Dinner and Good Fight.

Wednesday (23,426 steps) - Ben and I walked Olive before I went to work. We had a fire drill in the morning - I can't remember the last time had one, I think they have ended up being on my remote days the last few years. Even though it was in the mid 90's, I went for a walk at lunch. After work I hurried up to Boulder for my hill workout of the night - Sanitas. I had invited both Andrew and Larry to join me. I had plans to do approximately 1.5 reps for about 2000' of gain. Larry and I lost Andrew early on in the climb and when we got to the summit we went back down to get him and summit a second time.

This was actually a great idea to get more of the vert in before heading down. It's been over a year since I was on this trail last and it was NOT in great shape - lots of loose rocks and gravel, so it was slow going. Andrew crushed us both on the descent on the fire road, however.

He had to head out and Larry joined me for another partial climb up to hit my vert goal. Home and Ben surprised me with Cheba Hut - yum!

Thursday (15,121 steps) - Walk with Ben and Olive. Easy run with strides before it got too horrifically hot out.

Shorter walk with Olive at lunch BECAUSE it was too hot and a strength workout. Torchy's for dinner and then took Olive for a walk. Good Fight.

Friday (15,135 steps) - Since I woke up in time, Olive and I went down to Wash Park. It was good to see everyone and I was glad we made it this week since Pete was spreading the rest of Rocket's ashes. Had to walk Olive early because 1). she was bored and 2). it was horrifically hot again.

Sneaked out of work a few minutes early so we could rush home and finish packing for another trip up the hill. We made good time, no traffic, and of course our first stop was Outer Range.

We picked up full pizzas from Whole Foods for dinner. Stayed up too late.

Saturday (40,081 steps) - Took Olive for a walk early before Lee gave us a ride to the Far East lot to pick up Christina for our mountain activity. We were planning on a modified route from the one we had done a few years ago - starting at the trailhead for Rainbow Lake, going up Miner's Creek and going over the peaks to Wheeler Junction. I was glad to have the time with Christina since she is going to be pacing a section at Summit. The weather was perfect, although almost too warm.

The chubbiest marmot

We had a great day, and other than it being almost a mile longer than we thought - a good time. Lee kept us entertained with sending us "proof of life" pictures of Olive.

Christina dropped us off at Lee's so we could change and grab Olive, and then the four of us went to a new (to all of us) restaurant - Tacos and Tequila. The food was SO GOOD!

A very delicious virgin Piña Colada

Christina headed home and we went to Outer Range. Picked up Cheba Hut on the way back to Lee's. Another Olive walk and up late again.

Sunday (15,415 steps) - We slept later than normal, so by the time we headed out for our activity the trailhead we wanted to park at was full, so we went somewhere new. With no idea of where we were going, we let Olive pick the route. We somehow ended up on a bunch of trails that had access to water and Olive managed to direct us in a lollipop. Not as much vert or mileage as I wanted, but it was a good day and new to us trails!

Stopped for breakfast at the Sunshine Cafe (DELICIOUS). Not pictured is the slice of German Chocolate cheesecake I got to go.

Our visit wasn't great because some yokel/regular showed up right when we started eating. He talked absolutely NONSTOP and had an offleash dog that just wandered around the patio. Annoying. Packed up all our things and headed out midafternoon. A few slowdowns in the usual places, but not terrible. Unpacked and did laundry. Ben made dinner while I walked Olive.

Monday (21,330 steps) - With yet another day forecasted to be hot and miserable, I got up early to do my run. It wasn't awful, but I still don't like running early.

Had time to also walk Olive before clocking in for the day - although we had to do a different route because they are pouring new cement on the bike path.

With it being horribly hot, we decided to go to an early movie - Toy Story 5 (which we both really liked and were probably the only people there that weren't kids or parents of small children). We had an early dinner during the movie (hello, royale with cheese). Walked Olive when we got home and spent some time on the phone with Jillian.

Finally got around to watching a bit of Good Fight.

Stats:

144,700 steps
30.85 miles run
15.97 miles walked
45 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (June 30 - July 6)

2026-07-07T14:29:59.498-06:00

Tuesday (11,680 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Went to the gym at lunch and did a hike on the treadmill. Dinner? Good Fight?

Wednesday (13,016 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Gym at lunch for some strength training and another treadmill walk. Went out in the afternoon for another walk around the block. Olive walk when I got home. Dinner? Good Fight?

Thursday (17,855 steps) - Up early so I took Olive for a long walk to the lake. Went for a short run later in the morning. Not bad for first run back after a 100 miler.

Walked Olive at lunch. Had my annual mammogram midafternoon - which thankfully is right down the street, so it's about a half hour of my day. Ben and I headed to Torchy's for dinner. Another Olive walk when we got home. Good Fight.

Friday (15,646 steps) - Had the day off for the 4th of July holiday, so took Olive for a quick walk before packing up our things to head up to the mountains for the weekend. We unfortunately hit a lot of traffic on the drive up. Quick trip to Outer Range and then stopped at Petco because I realized Olive was not wearing a patriotic bandana!

Ben and I took Olive for a walk on the trails near Tenderfoot and Straight Creek.

Lee picked up pizza for dinner and I took Olive for a walk around the block before it got too dark. Stayed up much later than normal.

Saturday (22,519 steps) - Up at 5:30 to get dressed and stop for coffee and a donut on the way to the annual Herman Gulch hike! Thankfully, there were plenty of parking spaces. Definitely was a concern with the 4th actually falling on a Saturday. We had a pretty good-sized group and headed up the hill in perfect weather.

The biggest excitement was seeing a young moose about halfway up the climb.

Olive was sad to not have any snow and the lake at the top was definitely much lower than I've ever seen.

Most of us headed down the hill to Cabin Creek for more socializing. Really warm and still no cover on the patio. Also, their customer service still sucks. We headed back up the hill to Outer Range for a drink and lunch. On the way to Lee's we stopped at the grocery store to pick up burgers and hot dogs to grill.

Very tired dog

Delicious food and Lee had a few other friends stop by.

Sunday (16,699 steps) - Woke up early and decided it was better to pack up and head home before all the holiday traffic started. We stopped at Dutch on the way home.

Ariel came by for a few minutes and went with me on walk with Olive. Got everything unpacked and started on laundry. Parry's for lunch because for some reason Ben felt like having a salad.

Also, them having air conditioning was an incentive also. Went for a long walk in the afternoon heat to get my steps in. Had to run to Costco to pick up some groceries since we haven't been to the store in so long. Pizza for dinner, Olive walk and Good Fight.

Monday (19,908 steps) - Actually set my alarm to get up and do a run since the forecast was not favorable for a lunch run. Also, with all the fires happening right now I figured it was better to get the run out of the way early. It wasn't bad, although it was definitely humid and hazy.

Ben and I took Olive for a short walk and then started work. Short walk with Olive at lunch. Did a few deliveries after I was off work and then made dinner. Good Fight.

Stats:

117,323 steps
16.23 miles run
20.94 miles walked
0 minutes of cardio
20 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Copper Kings 100M (Race Recap)

2026-07-03T08:28:10.228-06:00

Butte, MT

Friday, June 26

100 Mile Attempt #25

Weather - Cloudy, mostly perfect, some rain

When I didn't get into Western States I started looking for a 100 miler to run as a training run for Summit. This race came up as a good one, so I signed up - looking forward to a "new to me" unique 100 mile loop in Montana. It also was unique in the fact that I "know" the race director, Wes, from running 200 milers.

Race Day

I had my alarm set for just after 2 am, but Ben's alarm went off at like 1:45, so I just got up when he did. Even though we had done almost everything the night before, it took over an hour for us both to get ready, caffeinated, force down a breakfast sandwich and get out the door.

We still had to figure out what to do with the car key and Airbnb key since we were not planning on running the whole race together. First, we went to pick up our trackers and then I found Thor to ask if she had any ideas. She directed us to Leah, who was incredibly helpful and offered to hold onto it for us.

Multiple trips to the bathroom line and a couple pre-race selfies!

Me & Andrea

Start/Belmont Mine to Basin Creek (Miles 0-12.1)

Lined up with about 5 minutes to go - still not 100% where we were going. I'm somewhat directionally challenged when I don't have the Rockies for a reference.

Decided I needed ONE more bathroom stop and jumped back in with less than a minute to go, towards the back.

The first miles were going to all be on road, which was fine by me. I honestly didn't have any goals for this race, other than to finish, and "faster" road miles give me a lot of confidence when I'm able to bank some time. Ben and I ran the whole first mile before I set up 3/1 intervals.

The morning was actually perfect for running - for 4 am and impending winter weather, the temperatures were very pleasant. We ran through some neighborhoods before ending up on a major road heading towards the chain restaurants, Walmart and the airport. The big excitement in this section was my watch hitting five miles directly across the street from the Five Mile Bar - still not sure how Wes made that happen!

The sun was starting to come up, but it was overcast so I didn't need to pull out my sunglasses. We moved out of town to a more rural area.

There were a few rolling hills as we got closer to the trails, but nothing crazy and our intervals were still working perfectly. We saw Scott before getting to the aid station.

Photo: Scott Rokis

Basin Creek to Highland (Miles 12.1-25.0)

We were very efficient at this aid station. Ben used the bathroom, I filled my bottles, grabbed a couple of snacks and pulled out my poles - knowing this section had nearly 3,000' of vertical gain. We moved quickly and efficiently through the first few miles.

I started to pull away from Ben when he stopped to adjust his laces and saw Jason right around the corner. I could hear Ben yelling that I had left him to die (or maybe just that I had abandoned him?) and thought that I would wait for him to catch up this time.

Photo: Jason Peters

We hiked along, enjoying the trees and pretty trails. A few miles in I noticed that Ben was dropping behind and I pushed ahead. I came upon friends Helgi and Mary Deane and passed a few more people in this section on the climbs. There was some nice downhill that was relatively runnable, which I enjoyed.

I heard Andrea before I actually saw her! I was able to run and catch up with her, which was surprising to me. We enjoyed catching up, the last time we ran together was Across Florida in November.

We did some jogging on the downhills to the aid station at Highland, "already" 25% done! We both planned for this to be a quicker stop.

Highland to Pipestone (Miles 25-36.8)

All we needed to do was fill bottles and get something to eat. I think we were in and out in just a few minutes. Back into the woods we went! This section of woods really reminded me of west coast trails like Tahoe and Bigfoot. VERY green and not super technical.

Emerged from the woods and found ourselves in a beautiful meadow with expansive views of town. We were running with Carolyn at this point as well and when we got to the top of the climb, we saw Jason - now how did he get up there, we wondered?

Photo: Jason Peters

Another relatively quick aid station stop, which I barely remember. Was this the aid station where I randomly saw Eliot? Our friend that used to live in Colorado? He was volunteering (plus, I think I saw him on the trail in the woods).

Photo: Scott Rokis

Pipestone to Homestake (Miles 36.8-46.3)

Back to the climbing. There were some really cool rock formations in here and a lot of our conversation was focused on that.

There was some light rain in this section, but temperatures were quite nice. We were planning on a little bit of a longer stop at Homestake.

Homestake to Our Lady of the Rockies (Miles 46.3 to 58.6)

I had my first drop bag here. I was debating what gear I wanted to have on me for the next two, long, sections. I had to grab my lights and warmer night gear. Also, while we were sitting at the aid station getting everything ready and eating, the rain started. When we headed out it was raining pretty hard, so I did have my rain jacket on. It wasn't QUITE a downpour, but I bet it rained for at least an hour?

We had spent a long time trying to figure out where "she" (the statue) was. We had caught back up to Carolyn at some point and she ran last year, so she was able to give us some great insight into how far we still had to go. She did indicate that we were on a great pace, hours faster than when she had finished the previous year.

And there she is, across the valley. Well over an hour away still.

Butte is down there, what looks like a lake is the Berkeley Pit!

More cool rock formations

Finally, a couple miles out from the next aid station, we had to turn our lights on. We had an out and back to go up to the aid station. According to Andrea, it took us SEVENTEEN MINUTES to do this third of a mile. It was steep, technical, and not a lot of fun.

We did get to see a few runners coming back down, which was neat as it was the only section of the course that was two-way traffic. We saw the aid station but had to keep going around the bend to visit the statue before we could get aid.

Attempt at a selfie. She is 90 feet tall, and this is not proportionate haha

We stopped at the bathroom so that we could reapply lube and actually wash our hands. I think this is when I put my pants and other layers on. We spent a bit longer than I wanted to at the aid station. I am pretty sure I had more mashed potatoes with broth, but otherwise I can't recall what else I ate. I had to move some of my snacks around, but soon we were off on the longest section of the course, nearly 18 miles without aid.

Our Lady of the Rockies to Nez Perce (Miles 58.6 to 76.3)

According to the runner guide, people were not permitted to drop at the Our Lady aid station because of accessibility issues, so once you left Homestake before mile 50, you were committing to get to at least mile 76.

On paper it seemed like we were going to have about 7 flattish miles (some rollers) to a water crossing , then a 2 mile climb which would take us to the high point of the course at 8500' and then a 9 mile downhill. Well, the 7 miles WENT ON FOREVER. Nothing felt overly hard, but it certainly felt long. We had been cruising at a pretty decent pace and we slowed to much slower mid 20 miles. I think things did shift a bit when we got to the water crossing - we both filtered, then we started the climb up. It wasn't that bad, but there were a lot of switchbacks.

I put my poles away at the top of the climb since I don't really use them when I do downhills. It was interesting that when we got to the top that we seemingly went down very gradually for a mile or two without really getting lower (not sure if that makes sense).

Finally we got to more switchbacks where we did a little bit of running. It was rockier in here and I rolled my ankle, which didn't feel great.

We finally popped out onto a wide, dirt road. Maybe it was another mile to the aid station?

Nez Perce to Konda (Miles 76.3 to 80.8)

I had spent the previous few miles thinking that I had my second drop bag at this one, only to realize upon arrival it was at the next one. I still wanted to take off my shoes, clean my feet and change socks since I kind of felt like I had a lot of silt in my socks. When I started the switch to Mount to Coast shoes, I realized that my Topo gaiters wouldn't work so I had picked up some ankle Kahtoola ones, and I just don't think I like them. If I tighten them enough for junk to not get in my shoes they irritate my ankles, and if I keep them too loose, well there is no point to even using them. So I ditched the gaiters.

We needed a bit of recovery eating after a zillion miles in the dark. Saw Scott, and he walked us out of the aid station. (I think? Was this here?) We left on a dirt road and had a very sort section of just 4.5 miles, the only segment under 10ish miles in the whole race!

We did a small amount of jogging here. Spent an exorbitant amount of time wondering what the black blob in the field was - never figured it out, even after getting closer.

I think we passed a few people in this section. We didn't spend a ton of time here, although I did have to drop my lights and anything I didn't think I would need for the last 20 miles. My pack felt SO much lighter.

Konda to Moulton (Miles 80.8 to 89.9)

I had planned on leaving my rain pants in my drop bag and dropping my top layer, but even just sitting for a few minutes it got cold enough that I decided to keep everything on.

Neither of us knew what the course would be doing next, but we DID know that at some point there would be a gnarly climb and a meadow. Wes had also mentioned that IF we were going to get lost, it would be the most likely segment for it. I had my phone on standby in case we ever felt like we were off course. This section was mostly dirt roads and jeep trails. Climbing was very manageable. We had heard it that it was about a three-mile-long climb, with the first 2.5 being gradual and the bulk/steepest in the last half mile.

How will we know when we are there? Well. We knew. It was chunky rock, and steep. Andrea powered right up the hill, and I definitely had to stop once or twice to take a few deep breaths. We celebrated getting to the top for Andrea to congratulate us on getting up the hill - until I realized we had only done about a quarter mile... then we turned a corner and there was part two of the climb. UGH.

But we did it, like champs. I didn't even pull out my poles, although I will admit that I wanted to think I could be faster up the hills if I had them.

We got to the meadow, and on a clear day it was probably beautiful. However, it was lightly raining and anything dirt was kinda muddy and the grass was slick.

We saw another huge climb, but thankfully we bypassed that and went back into the woods. We got passed by an older guy in this section as we were probably being a bit too cautious on some of the descents. I didn't need to be rolling my ankle again with ten miles to go. Got a little loopy in this section - definitely belted out some Alanis Morisette. JUST.WANT.TO.BE.DONE.

The sheer joy when we saw the dirt road.

Moulton to Finish/Belmont Mine (Miles 89.9 to 100.5ish)

FASTEST STOP OF THE WHOLE RACE. I didn't even top off my bottles since I hadn't really been drinking that much. Andrea grabbed me a granola bar and I think I slammed a cup of coke. We were in the home stretch!!!

Leaving the aid station was on dirt road, although we knew it would become paved eventually. It was SLICK from all the rain. Andrea and I finally separated at this point - she was running a bit faster/more than I was and I was fine to put headphones in for the first time the whole race.

I did get passed by a couple people early on, but I set up intervals on my phone and when the road finally became paved it was a bit easier to run. I started with one-minute intervals since there was a shocking amount of rollers here. When we got closer to town I increased to 90 seconds, then eventually two minutes. The sun was sort of coming out and I was a little sad I had left my sunglasses in the last drop bag. I almost took off my top layer, but every time I got ready to do that, I would feel cold again, so I just dealt with it.

We were running above the city and I could see exactly where we were going - Andrea quickly disappeared from sight, but I saw other people! Over the course of the next 4-5 miles in town, I bet I passed at least a half dozen people on the bike path. I felt really good!!

Finally recognized the main street that we were running on that was less than two miles from the finish. Passed another 4-5 people in this section?

CROSSED THE FINISH LINE!! Early in the race, Ben had asked what my goal was. I really never DID have one, other than wanting to finish. I finally said under 36 would be nice. But when I got to town I thought getting close to 34 would be cool. Gave Wes a hug and got my buckle, telling him "that was hard."

Overall Time - 34:10:00

Overall Place - 77/115

Gender Place - 19/36

Garmin Time - 34:09:42

Garmin Distance - 100.50 miles

Elevation Gain - 14,694-

Miles 1-10 - 11:57, 12:51, 13:18, 13:01, 13:12, 13:09, 14:09, 13:38, 13:55, 13:51

Miles 11-20 - 13:43, 13:53, 22:35, 16:19, 15:46, 18:45, 18:45, 16:15, 16:40, 19:13

Miles 21-30 - 17:30, 14:51, 16:32, 17:07, 25:24, 22:29, 22:06, 20:17, 21:33, 18:58

Miles 31-40 - 19:44, 21:10, 16:40, 17:41, 16:26, 14:13, 22:19, 19:17, 19:53, 20:30

Miles 41-50 - 19:53, 18:29, 18:42, 20:08, 15:57, 15:11, 40:06, 22:31, 21:09, 20:31

Miles 51-60 - 21:10, 21:11, 22:45, 25:10, 23:29, 21:48, 24:15, 23:13, 57:34, 25:08

Miles 61-70 - 22:51, 32:05, 23:53, 23:27, 22:17, 31:11, 26:13, 23:51, 21:15, 33:12

Miles 71-80 - 23:28, 24:35, 41:16, 21:44, 20:20, 17:31, 42:22, 20:06, 19:48, 20:17

Miles 81-90 - 19:24, 37:50, 21:56, 22:17, 24:57, 22:47, 21:58, 20:45, 20:47, 21:22

Miles 91-100.5 - 18:04, 15:55, 14:34, 15:29, 15:05, 13:46, 13:29, 13:07, 13:59, 13:29, 12:07 (!)

Originally, I had thought that I would go back to the bnb to shower and change, but I also wanted to watch people finish, so I didn't leave. I did find Leah so I could grab our drop bags and put them in the car. I knew we had a black Subaru, but apparently so do a lot of other people and I couldn't remember where we parked, so I had to wander up and down the lot for a good 5 minutes hitting the unlock until I found the car.

Walked back over to the finish area and sat with Andrea and Elliot. Ben was going to finish!!! I walked up the hill to bring him into the finish:

Gear:

One pair of Mount to Coast H1s, wore the whole race. Two pairs of rabbit trail socks. Kahtoola gaiters for 70ish miles. ZERO BLISTERS.
CVG shorts, Zensah high neck sports bra with a rabbit EZ tee and over that a rabbit sunshirt. I did get a little bit of chafing on the bra line, but I didn't notice until after I was done.
Patagonia rain jacket and REI rain pants. The pants somehow have some new holes that will need to be patched up before Summit
Patagonia R2 - I skipped the R1 for the first time and went right for the warmer layer.
Runners Roost hat for the first 45, Bula fleece lined hat for overnight, UltrAspire hat for the last 20. Alternated with some cheap stretchy gloves and my Smartwool mittens
UltrAspire Traverse with two 800ml flasks, Katadyn filter, Leki poles. I think I used them for maybe half the race? Not at all the first 12 or the last 30+ and also just carried a lot. Glad to have the quiver to keep them stashed.
Petzl headlamp and tried out the UltrAspire waist light for the first time. I think I need to mess around with the settings a bit as I couldn't seem to get it as bright as Kogalla (and I don't even use that on max brightness).
Of note, I carried a battery pack on me the whole time, but I didn't actually have to use one?? That's never happened in a 100.
For fuel I used my LMNT raspberry, Hi-Chew and Nerd Clusters, Trail mix.

Thoughts:

I'll start with Wes, the race director. He cares SO much about Butte, about the race, and EVERY SINGLE RUNNER. The final runner was going to come in over cutoff and he still gave her an unofficial finish and buckle BUT was so considerate that he turned the race clock around so she wouldn't have to look at it when she crossed. What a guy!
Now that I am done, I am a teeny tiny itty-bitty bit sad that I didn't finish sub-34 so I could use this as a qualifier for Crazy Mountain.
Also, this race was not a qualifier for Western States this year but looks like it will be for next year! The 40-hour cutoff makes for a great race for everyone - takes away the pressure of a tight cutoff and gives people the confidence to go for a more "mountain" 100.
The aid stations were great, but wow, it was "almost" like doing a 200 with how far apart they were, especially from Our Lady to Nez Pearce. The volunteers were absolutely incredible. There was supposedly at least one medical professional at every aid station, but since I never needed that, I don't know for 100% sure.
People were allowed to have a drop bag at all aid stations, but I opted to only have two, and it worked out just fine.
I was REALLY thirsty during this race, especially the first 50 or so miles. I was using 800ml flasks, and I ran out at LEAST the first three segments.
This might be the first 100 I've ever done where I never hit a really low point? I got a tiny bit tired right before sunrise, but not that bad, and between a five-hour energy and some caffeinated gum, I got through it. No horrible hills or surprises, the mileage lined up and the weather mostly cooperated. I had a REALLY enjoyable experience! I think other than the 100 I ran with Steph a few years ago, the 70ish miles I did with Andrea is probably the longest I have ever spent with anyone other than Ben on a race course - I really enjoyed her company!

I haven't bought the professional pictures yet, but I will, and will add when I get them. (The pictures are wonderful, but I really think I need to go to "how to take a good picture" school or something)

Week in Review (June 23 - June 29)

2026-06-30T12:26:34.281-06:00

Tuesday (13,285 steps) - Up before my alarm. Again. Did a quickie Peloton ride before Ben and I took Olive for a walk. Went early to the gym at lunch and did a strength video and then a treadmill hike - which, for the record, was a REALLY hard class. The building had their tenant appreciation party/lunch on the rooftop patio. Food was delicious like always, AND, I got to see Paula! Went for another walk later in the afternoon just to get away from my desk. Ben picked up pizza for dinner and I had to finish packing! Good Fight.

Wednesday (14,965 steps) - Up before my alarm. Took a shower and then Ben and I took Olive for a longer walk. Finished packing and then I drove Olive down to Tami's house. Thankfully traffic wasn't too bad - just a LOT of lights. The Lyft showed up shortly after I got home. We were a little nervous for security - ONLY because we were going to try taking our poles through TSA for the first time (it is only recently that the verbiage has changed and that poles are now allowed - per TSA discretion - so not guaranteed). Both of our bags DID get flagged but the agent was nice and spent a minute talking to us about best practices for getting through with minimal hassle on our end (since these are not sharp-tipped poles). ANYWAY. There was basically zero line and we were through in a few minutes. We found a place for Ben to get a pre-flight beer and I got a coffee. The only "bad" thing about this trip is that we were going to have a connection both ways. If it was just me traveling I probably would have paid more for the direct flight, but with two plane tickets it was a substantial savings.

First flight to Salt Lake City was about an hour and very turbulent. We actually did a "touch and go" and had to circle the airport to try landing again. Coupled with the fact that we were in the very back of the plane, we had to speed walk across the whole terminal and arrived at our next gate as boarding was already starting. The agent said that they were taking volunteers to gate check, and since this was the last leg of our journey, we opted to do that so we didn't have to carry them on. Also, this was probably one of the smallest commercial flights I have ever been on - teeny tiny plane! The flight to Butte was even shorter, maybe 45 minutes in the air. Also a very bouncy ride and we were happy to be on the ground.

I can't believe that neither of us actually got a picture of the airport. When we deplaned I looked over at Ben and said "I think this is it? Isn't that security over there?" It was about 30 steps to baggage claim so I walked over to the Hertz desk to get the rental car. That was also the quickest experience of my life. Gave my name and he handed over the keys and the contract "there are only ten parking spaces out there, you will see it." Got our bags and sure enough, found the car with no problems. We did have trouble again connecting to the Carplay - not sure why in 2026 we can't seem to figure out the true wireless Bluetooth, but I digress.

I had booked us a really cute Airbnb in uptown and it was only about ten minutes from the airport. We checked in and then it was time to walk around and find something to eat. If you haven't been to Butte, it is a very cute town, and VERY hilly.

There didn't seem to be a ton of options where we were, but eventually landed on the M&M cafe - and it was a great choice! We both got burgers and it was delicious.

We walked down the street to check out Quarry Brewing. It was a cute place! We chatted with a guy who teaches at the college in town - interesting stuff! They closed at 8, which was perfect for us to head back to our bnb. We watched a rerun of Criminal Minds while getting ready for bed.

Thursday (16,214 steps) - Woke up early. Again. I guess this is just my life now? I can't seem to sleep late at all, rarely even make it to 7:00 anymore. We walked up the street to a really cute coffee shop - and the coffee was AMAZING. If you are in Butte you should check it out - Orofino!

Even though it looked like it was going to rain, we decided to walk over to where the pre-race meeting was going to be later. Of course we got to where we were going to turn around and it started to rain.

Well, welcome to our forecast for the weekend! At least it was mostly a light drizzle and not a complete downpour.

We had most of the morning to get pre-race things done. Showered first and then got my drop bags and pack items all figured out. We still needed to get a few groceries, so we drove to Walmart. Probably got way too much stuff, but we needed breakfast items, coffee, water and a handful of other things. Went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch (and apparently the restaurant had only been open a few weeks and the employees were very obviously still in training).

Last minute adjustments to our stuff before we loaded our bags in the car to head to the shake out run. The email had said it was at the start/finish - but it didn't give an address. I looked at the directions on ultrasignup and the coordinates took us up the hill - but we didn't see anyone and realized that we probably needed to go to where packet pick up was. Sure enough, everyone was at the Maroon Activity Center.

The run was going to be an out and back on the last section of the course - we got a tiny bit of a late start because we got distracted talking to Thor and Jason. The route seemed uphill, but that only meant the finish would be downhill! Did the back half of the run with Andrea - and ran much faster than I should have - got carried away!

We dropped off our bags and then we still had some time to kill so we went back into town and visited Slainte for Ben to get a beer. We decided we maybe didn't want to walk over to the mandatory meeting since we were planning on going to Butte Brewing/Pizza for dinner that was right by the meeting.

So the pre-race meeting was held outside and it was probably the only warm part of the whole weekend. We were in full sun. It was only supposed to last an hour and it was closer to 90 minutes. While I did appreciate learning some of the history of the race, we really just wanted to get dinner and get ready for bed since we had such an early start.

Went across the street to the pizza place - the food was DELICIOUS and thankfully didn't take too long. Headed back to the bnb. Braided my hair and got as much ready before bed that I could. With a 4 am start, we were supposed to be there around 3 to get our trackers, so we were in bed by about 8:30.

Friday (133,888 steps) - Copper Kings 100

Saturday (94,282 steps) - Copper Kings 100. We stuck around for the last finisher, who unfortunately crossed after the official cutoff time. It was pretty cold and windy so I wanted to get out of there and finally get something to eat and drink! Went to the bnb and had hoped to get food from Dairy Queen, but they were closed. I took a shower and Ben ended up ordering in food - I think I had a burger and fries. I think it was one of those situations where I was really hungry but then by the time the food came I wasn't as hungry as I thought. We initially had plans to sit up and unwind by watching tv but we fell asleep almost immediately.

Sunday (11,024 steps) - Up early and we didn't have a ton of time to get everything organized and packed up since the check-out time was EARLY - 10 am!! Had to sort through all the stuff, and with the accumulation of yet another hoodie, I seemingly was having a tough time fitting everything in my bag. Took a shower and got everything ready to go and out the door at 9:59. It had rained all night and was still raining when we drove up the street to the M&M for brunch. They were packed! We saw multiple other people wearing the race hoodie, so it was fun to talk about the race with others. Food was AMAZING.

We asked the waitress what "must do" things were open in Butte on a Sunday. She suggested we go to the Berkeley Pit viewing center. It ended up being just down the street from where the race was. It literally was just a gift shop with a tunnel leading to an overlook above the pit.

Ben facetimed Ariel since this type of thing is right up her alley.

We didn't spend too long here - mainly because we were cold. We did talk to the guy in the gift shop for a bit though - lots of interesting things to learn about mining and the colonization of Butte! We still had many, many hours to kill until our flight, so we went to a few of the shops in town so I could get my magnet.

With it being Sunday, unfortunately a lot of places were closed. Finally we headed to the airport around 5, even though our flight didn't leave until 6:45 - just because we didn't have anything else to do and it was too cold to just walk around. Flight left on time, a little bumpy, but otherwise uneventful. We knew our connecting flight was a bit delayed, so we went to a restaurant across from the gate and got some dinner.

This flight was short, also somewhat turbulent, but not awful. I realized I still had like 3,000 steps to hit my step goal so I was basically sprinting around the airport to get my steps in. We were not able to schedule our Lyft in advance and the app kept telling us it was only 6 minutes until our driver arrived. It wasn't the best drive home, but at least we didn't have to drive ourselves. After midnight when we got home and all the animals were insane. Basically let Olive out and then to bed.

Monday (11,528 steps) - Day started around 4:30 with a power outage. There was another one around 6:30, so hooray for work from home day! Combined with being woken up a bunch and not sleeping great after racing, it was nice to not have to leave the house. Took Olive for a walk before clocking in for the day. I was all caught up on emails by 9:00. Another power outage when I was trying to do laundry. UGH. Took a shower and walked Olive at lunch.

Robin spent most of the day in the office with me

Went out for a delivery after work. Ariel was over for dinner, Ben ordered in Little Caesars. Ariel and I took Olive for a walk and then we just sat around until going to bed a little earlier than normal.

Stats:

295,186 steps
2.82, 100.49 miles run
12.22 miles walked
10 minutes of cardio
20 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (June 16 - June 22)

2026-06-23T14:21:17.984-06:00

Tuesday (14,189 steps) - Woke up insanely early, which seems to just be how this summer is going to go. Is it the heat? Peloton and Olive walk before going to work. Went for a short walk late morning before going to the gym at lunch. I liked my outfit today!

Full body strength and treadmill hike/walk - really working on picking up the pace for all my upcoming adventures. Olive walk after work. Dinner? Good Fight?

Wednesday (19,351 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. I had an easy run with strides to do at lunch and decided to go the other way on the bike path since Josephine mentioned some new (?) art. It was pretty darn warm, but not the worst run, thankfully.

And a handful of pictures of the art I haven't seen before!

This one might be my favorite!

Normally I just get dressed and go back to work, but for the second time in the recent past I had to take a quick shower first. Another quick walk in the afternoon before heading home. Ben had to work late, so I stopped at home to pick Olive up and we went to Runners Roost in Louisville for "run" club. Since it was hot AND I had already run, we just went for a walk.

Larry and Lisa joined us. It was the summer VIP night, and probably for the first time ever, I didn't get anything. Ben stopped on his way home and picked up a pizza for dinner. Good Fight.

Thursday (13,793 steps) - Up early again. Even though it was a work from home day, Ben went with me and Olive for a pre-work walk around the block. I did a quick row session and had an uneventful morning. Took Olive for a little bit of a longer walk at lunch.

Got my strength training done before finishing work. Took Olive for a walk and did a delivery on the way to meet Ben at Torchy's for dinner. Good Fight.

Friday (17,181 steps) - Actually got up early even though I didn't have to work. Olive and I had plans to go to Square Top for a hike and last year I got stuck in traffic for the Floyd Hill construction - not gonna get me this time!! Took Olive for a walk with Ben before we got everything ready to go.

The drive was actually quite pleasant - virtually no traffic! I stopped in Georgetown to use the bathroom and then it was up Guanella Pass. I was worried that we had left too late since people were parked on both sides of the road starting at the last turn, but there were still probably a dozen spots in the lot. It was the perfect morning for a hike!

Thanks to warm temperatures and a low snowpack, there was really nothing for Olive to play in - outside of a small patch of snow near the upper lake - which she definitely enjoyed!

We stopped briefly at the lake for a snack, but it was the only part of the trail that was windy, so didn't stay long.

LOTS of dogs on this one, so she stayed leashed the entire time.

Headed down almost immediately and then stopped again in Georgetown to use the bathroom and to let Mo that we were heading to see her. I had found a new-to-us coffee shop in Lakewood that had a wonderful covered patio. We stuck around for a couple hours drinking coffee, snacking and catching up. Always great to see her and Colfax!

Olive and I left and went straight to 4 Noses to meet up with Ben for happy hour. We didn't stay too long and ordered in Mod Market for dinner.

Good Fight.

Saturday (23,400 steps) - Took Olive for a walk before heading to South Table for our run. There was a new trail recently added and I had mapped a route that would actually make it a full loop - so I was very excited! It was supposed to be freakishly hot again, but it wasn't too bad thanks to some cloud cover for at least part of the time.

The new T. Rex Tooth Trail was FANTASTIC!

"They" did a great job with it - fairly non-technical single track (but wide enough for two-way traffic and some views that we hadn't seen before. We both really liked the addition.

We stopped at Dutch Bros on the way home - our (new) Keurig broke last week and we have been going through withdrawals. Took Olive for a long walk to the lake. We ran a few errands to pick some things up for our upcoming trip, then went to Rails End for indoor treat town with Olive. We must have done dinner, but I don't remember what it was. Took Olive for a walk and got eaten alive by mosquitos again. Good Fight.

Sunday (14,841 steps) - Olive walk around the block while Ben picked up coffee for us. Then, up to Boulder for a hike. HOT HOT HOT.

We stopped in at Runners Roost so I could drop off the NINE pairs of shoes I was recycling. Yes. Nine. I didn't get anything, but Ben got a few pairs of socks. Then, it was on to Resolute for indoor treat town and a snack.

We were all pretty blah after that, so we just sat around and then Ben ordered in Panda for dinner. Good Fight.

Monday (16,585 steps) UP EARLY AGAIN. Curse this. Since I had a lot of things to get done, I went for my run early and stopped by the library to drop off my ballot.

Took Olive for a walk around the block while Ben went to get coffee at Dunkin. Worked for a few hours and then had to take Robin back to the vet for another follow-up. She has thankfully gained some weight back and her numbers are holding steady - which is about all we can hope for. So, continued kidney meds, but she is doing good.

Took Olive for a walk at lunch - HOT.

Worked in the afternoon while getting some cleaning done, laundry and got quite a bit of my packing done. Did a quick delivery after work and then Ben ordered in Chili's for dinner. Yes, I realize we have gotten into a pretty bad habit of ordering food in - we just both hate cooking so much - especially when it is hot outside. Good Fight.

Stats:

119,340 steps
19.14 miles run
18.92 miles walked
25 minutes of cardio
51 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (June 9 - June 15)

2026-06-16T11:59:15.634-06:00

Tuesday (14,593 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk (with Ben!) before going to work.

Gym at lunch for StairMaster, weights and a treadmill walk.

Went for another quick walk in the afternoon just to get out of the office. Olive walk when I got home from work. Ariel came over for dinner and to spend the night! Good Fight.

Wednesday (21,861 steps) - Olive walk before work. Ariel was taking Olive to HER work for the day, fun!

Olive the intern!

Long walk at lunch. After work I went home to change and Ben and I went to the lake for my hill workout. Even though it was 90 degrees it wasn't horrible.

After dinner I took Olive for another walk. Good Fight.

Thursday (18,433 steps) - Ugh, I woke up hours before I needed to be up - annoying!! Finished the book I was reading and went for my run. It was quite a nice morning and the run went well, but a heart rate glitch early in the run had Garmin giving me a horrible performance score - good thing it doesn't actually matter.

Got my strength training in and Ben and I took Olive for a long walk to the lake at lunch. Did a delivery before meeting Ben at Torchy's for our normal Thursday dinner date. Got another good offer on my way home and unfortunately closed my thumb in my car door (??) - hurt so bad and my thumb immediately turned purple and began to swell. Olive walk and packed for our weekend camping trip before more Good Fight.

Friday (16,091 steps) - Once again, up early. That meant we had time to go to Wash Park for the group walk before going to work.

Olive and I went for our lunch walk early to beat the heat.

I left work a little bit early so I could do last minute packing and we could head up to Summit County to hopefully avoid traffic. I still had to bring my laptop to work in the car for about a half hour, but it was better than nothing. Thankfully there was basically no traffic and we were on the road in no time. Of course our first stop was Outer Range, but we didn't stay too long and we were at our campsite by 7 with plenty of time for Ben to make dinner - hot dogs!

Long day and we didn't stay up late.

Saturday (28,602 steps) - Quick lap around the campground with Olive and coffee before I headed out for an hour(ish) run on the rec path.

We had hoped to do a fun loop up near Ten Mile, but the road we needed to go up was closed. Instead, we drove up Miner's Creek and did a figure 8 loop that I created off Gaia. It was pretty great! Seemed to be relatively primitive single track and we only saw one bike the whole time!

First columbine of the year!!

Outer Range, and I had an ahi tuna bowl. Lee came by the campsite to hang out for a bit to hang out, burgers for dinner.

We had a little bit of rain on and off and we were in bed even EARLIER.

Sunday (14,951 steps) - Quick Olive walk around the campsite and coffee. We had been on the fence about heading home and I decided I'd rather go home. We opted to go into Frisco and do a "quick" trip up to Mt. Royal. While I've been on the lower trails plenty of times, I've only been to the summit of Royal once.

This is the tallest sign I've ever seen

We hurried back to load up the camper since check out was 11 am. Stopped by Outer Range for a quick lunch before going home.

Surprisingly little traffic for leaving around 12:30 on a Sunday! Got everything unpacked and spent the afternoon unwinding from the weekend. Ben ordered in pizza for dinner and Good Fight.

Monday (22,195 steps) - Olive walk in the morning with Ben before I logged in for the day. Ben and I went for an easy late morning run.

We also took Olive for a long walk. All the cacti are blooming AND we saw our first owls of the year - much later than usual and we have been worried about them!

I have been talking about it for ages, but I finally went through and decided to retire a bunch of running shoes. I seem to be collecting them and these are ones that I just haven't been wearing. I have been hesitant to get rid of them because they still "seem fine" - but it just doesn't really make sense to hold on to them.

After work I did a few deliveries and then Ben and I walked down the street for an impromptu sushi dinner!

Took Olive for another walk when we got back. Relaxing and Good Fight.

Stats:

136,726 steps
26.09 miles run
20.4 miles walked
40 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (June 2 - June 8)

2026-06-09T11:48:24.651-06:00

Tuesday (10,800 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Only had 30 minutes of cross training on schedule so I did a full body strength video and a treadmill hike/walk. Took Olive for a walk when I got home. Ben made dinner (chicken in the air fryer) and Good Fight.

Wednesday (16,750 steps) - Olive walk before work. Had an easy 45-minute run on schedule so I grabbed a pair of shorts I needed to return at REI and did my run during lunch. It was supposed to be in the mid 80s, but thankfully there was cloud cover, so it wasn't terrible.

Perfect hat for Global Running Day?

Olive walk after work. Ben picked up pizza, yay! Good Fight.

Thursday (19,500 steps) - Another morning I woke up WELL before my alarm. Ben had gone to pick us up Dutch Bros. and since the forecast was a million degrees I took Olive for an early walk before I clocked in. Supposed to be a scorcher, so I went for my run early, it was thankfully not terrible.

Also got in a Peloton ride, a longer walk with Olive and my strength training. After work I met Ben at Torchy's for our weekly dinner date. Took Olive for a walk when I got home. Good Fight.

Friday (15,118 steps) - Woke up crazy early but decided I didn't want to drive down to Wash Park. Ben and I took Olive for a walk before going to work. Took Olive for an early lunch walk since it was supposed to be crazy hot again.

Brought Olive back out for a short walk around the block since she had taken her long walk so early. Very hot. Headed home and Ben ordered in food for dinner. Took Olive for another walk. Good Fight.

Saturday (28,872 steps) - Woke up before my alarm so I had time to take Olive for a walk. Drove down to Runners Roost Central Park for Runners Edge! I had a long run to do and figured I might as well suffer with friends in a group setting. A gal before the run came up to me and said she reads my blog. Hi! (I'm so sorry, I was frazzled and I can't remember your name. Laura?) Ran for the first half hour with Sheila, which was nice! Had planned to do a few hours and turned around with a goal of just over 10 miles.

I ran about 15 minutes with a random guy from the group that asked me if I was training for anything and then we got into a conversation about ultras and I think I convinced him he should sign up for Dead Horse in November. I realized I was running much faster than I wanted, so I told him I was going to slow it down for the last few miles. Of course everyone was gone by the time I got back to the store and there was nothing I was interested in shopping for so I headed home to pack for our impromptu weekend "camping" trip. Ben had most of the hard stuff done, I just had to pack up stuff for me and Olive. Left around 11 or 12 and headed straight for Outer Range.

We thought about picking up groceries but decided to just set up at Lee's house. Olive walk around the block and Ben had Cheba Hut delivered.

We did an impromptu "bike ride" - Lee wanted us to demo a few of his bikes and he had one that was sized for me. Pretty terrifying, I think the last time I was on a bike other than the Peloton was when we went to Australia!

Headed to bed relatively early.

Sunday (19,506 steps) - Lee left pretty early for a group ride and we had plans to do a hike with Olive. Stopped at Dunkin on the way to Blue River for more coffee and a donut. We drove all the way to the upper trailhead for lower and upper Mohawk lakes. Overall, it was a really great hike and perfect weather.

We did have a few encounters with very rude and entitled people on the trails, but we had fun. Olive especially loved finding a few snowbanks and shallow river/lakes to play in. Stopped at Outer Range and then Safeway to pick up stuff to make burgers for dinner. Another walk around the block with Olive.

Monday (21,289 steps) - Up early so I could do my run before clocking in for the day. I had mapped out a run on Tenderfoot, which is only about a half mile from Lee's house. I had it on both my watch and phone but got confused pretty early on with navigation and ended up having to do the route in reverse since I wasn't going to have time to backtrack. It was a gorgeous, albeit a little chilly, morning. I saw exactly zero people on the trails - which was perfect. I really enjoyed this route.

Got back just in time to start work for the day, only I had to deal with a completely dead laptop battery. Boo. Another walk with Olive and Ben around the block before we headed down to Denver. Thanks to Ben getting Starlink I was able to work the whole drive without having to waste my cell battery. Unpacked the truck and showered before going to the dentist on my lunch break. We had some crazy storms in the afternoon - including hail!! After work we went to Costco for our weekly grocery shopping. Dinner and another Olive walk before Good Fight.

Stats:

131,835 steps
28.84 miles run
17.12 miles walked
31 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

North Fork 50k (Race Recap)

2026-06-03T14:15:52.945-06:00

Buffalo Creek, CO

Saturday, May 30

Weather - sunny, hot for the exposed first miles and then quite pleasant

Last fall when I randomly decided to run in Thailand, I had already been signed up to run Coldwater Rumble - a race in Arizona also put on by Aravaipa. When I withdrew from Coldwater I had credits to use and figured that North Fork would be a good, long training run for the summer.

The 50k started at 8:00 and the pre-race email led me to believe that it could be tough to find parking since the 50-miler started an hour earlier and it looked like a few hundred people total would be running. Initially, Ben wanted to go down with me. With Ariel being out of town I thought that would be too long to leave Olive home alone, so I headed out just after 5 am, thinking it was an hour drive. There was no traffic and I wasn't too surprised when I lost phone service shortly after getting off 285 outside Aspen Grove.

The race had put a pin/coordinates for where the parking lot would be, so imagine my fear/annoyance when the pin dropped in the middle of nowhere. I hadn't had any phone service for at least 15 minutes, and I had no idea where I was. I saw a small parking lot on the side of the road with a bathroom that I stopped at. Another car pulled in just after me and thankfully they assured me the lot was another 5 or so minutes up the road. Phew.

Parking was pretty easy and I got my gear ready and headed out for the 10-minute walk to the start. The email had also said that parking at the start was limited and would be "closed" at 6 am. That was a lie, they were still letting people park there when I was walking up at like 6:20. I saw Jim directing traffic and said a quick hello. There was still no service at the start line so I just put my phone in airplane mode and figured I would just go through the day without even trying to use it.

Went in the building where the race day packet pick up was and got my bib and race shirt (which I shoved in my pack since I wasn't going to walk another 20 minutes round trip to put in the car). I cycled through the bathroom line a few times and talked to Alexa and Julie before lining up at the start.

Start to Colorado Trail - 4.8 miles

I was mostly excited for this race and absolutely THRILLED to run something that had aid stations so close together! I lined up pretty close to the back. Alexa had mentioned that the first mile or so was on a dirt road and that would give the field time to spread out.

The road was definitely wide enough for the few hundred racers, which I appreciated. I planned to take it easy and was doing an easy jog. Passing some people and getting passed by others. It didn't seem like too much time had passed before we moved onto the trail.

The first conga line of the trail began! I had always heard that these were really runner-friendly trails, and they definitely were. Relatively smooth with no huge hills, at least in the start. People were definitely getting antsy already and I had to quickly decide if I wanted to get stuck at what the conga line wanted to do.

Initially I felt like I was in a good position and the people in front of me seemed to be pacing pretty well. However, it seemed like there were sections where there could at least be a little bit of running, so I decided I would gradually make some movements when I felt like I'd be able to run for more than a few steps. We quickly moved out of the trees and into the burn area - the sun felt like it was beating down, even though it was probably in the upper 40s/low 50s.

I started gradually passing people in this section.

Overall, this was a nice section and we seemingly got the first third of the climbing out of the way.

Colorado Trail to Shinglemill 4.8 to 7.9

I was glad that I hadn't needed any snacks at the first aid station since it was just a table with a single jug of water. I was very glad that I had worked to pass people because there ended up being a line of us.

We had a short segment of dirt road leading out of the aid station. I was run/walking in this section and I think I did get passed by at least a guy/gal that were running together and another gal that I would leapfrog with for at least the next hour.

I did not have the foresight to make note of where the aid stations were, so I had no idea each section how long it would be between aid.

Once we moved off the dirt road we had a nice section of flowy single track with just a few gradual climbs. I thought I finally saw Alexa ahead of me.

I caught up to her and we chatted briefly. She said that her knee was really bothering her and that she was probably going to be dropping as it wasn't worth making things worse with her goal race coming up soon.

This was probably the first section where I realized that bikes were going to be on the trails. I mean, I understand that they aren't going to completely close to the public, but if it were me, I would probably have gone to ride somewhere else...

We had a nice downhill into the aid station.

Shinglemill to Tramway 7.9 to 13.2 miles

I filled up my flask and added another packet of LMNT. I grabbed one ginger cookie and a bag of pretzels and moved out very quickly. Initially I was planning on eating the bag of pretzels upon leaving, but I always forget how dry they are when I am actually trying to move quickly. I think I only ate one or two before giving up on them and having some Nerd Clusters instead. There were some rollers leaving the aid station and we moved out of the shade onto another plateau.

I can't remember too much about this section. It was getting warmer and we were working on the second bigger climb of the race.

There was a split in the trail and I got passed by another gal that I would see on and off multiple times throughout the rest of the race (I think she eventually finished 10-15 minutes behind me).

I passed another few women in this section and just was grinding out this climb. The elevation profile showed a pretty gnarly hill right before the descent, but I honestly never could figure out what that might have been. In this section we met up with the 50 milers, and it was kinda crazy being passed by people that were moving so much faster!

Tramway to Buffalo 13.2 to 19.2 miles

I stopped at the aid station just long enough to fill my flask and get some soda. There were a lot of people just sort of hanging out at the aid station but I as in and out. More climbing? I think we were in the trees most of this section, which was nice. I saw a conga line of people coming up behind me and my goal was to try and not get passed by anyone.

I caught up to the gal that had passed me earlier and made some comment like "are you even stopping at the aid stations" and she was nice but not at all chatty. At one point she did ask if I wanted to pass and I apologized for nipping at her heels but she was pacing well.

The course had been advertised as being 30.2 miles on the gpx on the website and I started to get really excited thinking that there was a possibility that I could go under 7 hours. I even told the gal that unless the wheels fell off that I should be finishing well under my A goal (7:24 which was my ultrasignup predicted finish).

This section seemed pretty long and I came into a clearing where there was a bathroom and was disappointed that it was locked up. Thankfully the aid station (the only one with drop bags, but I didn't have one) was only a few minutes down the road.

Buffalo to Homestead 19.2 to 24.6 miles (aka, "the lie")

I filled up my flask and grabbed some Mountain Dew. Had to wait in line for the bathroom for a few minutes. Most annoying was the spectator that wasn't polite enough to let me go ahead. (Not that anyone HAS to do that, but I personally think that is common courtesy during a RACE).

Headed out and there were more rollers and we also had to do our last longer grind/climb of the race. Thankfully the weather was cooperating, and it didn't feel too unbelievably hot. I don't remember much of this section, but I think I passed some people in here. Came to a fork in the road that said the aid station was at mile 24.6 and I looked at my watch and it should have been close. Unfortunately, this was the segment of lies!! I think I was closer to 25.5 or 26 miles when I finally saw the aid station.

Homestead to Finish

I asked the volunteer how far to the finish, "5 or so?" He said more like 6, so I actually had a few cups of coke, two watermelon slices and an orange slice. I knew I had not been eating as much as I probably needed to, but I was still feeling pretty good and was running a lot (for me). I didn't want to get totally burned out. This was probably my second longest aid station stop.

Headed out just as Lesli and some of the people I had passed were coming in. We had a little bit of a climb out of the aid station, and I was thinking that after I got through 1-2 miles it was supposed to be almost all downhill to the finish.

I think I only got passed by two people here, and pretty sure they were both in the 50 mile. I waited until I got to about mile 28 before I changed my watch to see what Garmin thought my finish time would be. I was a little sad to see it was supposed to be around 7:33. Still not bad!

The course was not as downhill as I expected, and I tried to run just about everything since I knew I was almost done. Finally got back to the road and knew I didn't have too far left to go.

I did finish a few minutes faster than Garmin predicted, so I was happy about that. I had a random person take my picture at the finish - he apparently thought I didn't need my feet in the picture - ohhh weellllll.

After I finished I went back in the building to see if there were any cold drinks. I got a La Croix and then went to the finish for a few minutes before deciding just to head out and go home.

Official Time - 7:31:45

Overall Place - 94/168

Gender Place - 27/67

Garmin Time - 7:31:19

Garmin Distance - 31.89 miles

Garmin Pace - 14:09

Elevation Gain - 3,979'

Run Time - 4:46:39

Walk Time - 2:38:22

Idle Time - 6:18 ---> Really pleased with this, probably would have only been 5ish minutes if I wouldn't have needed to wait for the bathroom. Not bad for 5 aid stations that I at least had to fill up my bottles.

Miles 1-5 - 12:29, 16:39, 13:26, 14:44, 13:49

Miles 6-10 - 14:00, 12:44, 12:27, 12:54, 12:20

Miles 11-15 - 11:53, 13:02, 14:42, 17:06, 15:00

Miles 16-20 - 16:08, 16:36, 14:29, 12:20, 15:29

Miles 21-25 - 15:22, 16:40, 17:25, 13:30, 12:37

Miles 26-30 - 15:24, 14:49, 13:43, 14:16, 11:51

Miles 31-32 - 12:55, 11:44

Thoughts:

Outside of thinking I was lost going to the race, everything was very organized and smooth. Packet pick up morning of was a breeze. No junk to worry about in the pack, just bib and a shirt.
Course was very well marked. Red flags/signs for the 50 mile and neon green for the 50k
Aid stations were good, manned well. Only the first aid station was fluid only. All others had plenty of normal aid station fare. (They are cupless but have plastic cups people can use if they forget one and the volunteers clean them).
I saw a photographer three times on course, no idea if pictures will be free or not, will update.
Gear used - Sparkle Skirts party cats skirt (I haven't been wearing skirts much and got lots of compliments on this one), Patagonia sun shirt with my rabbit EZ tee Runners Roost race team shirt. Ultrapsire hat and Zygos 5.0 pack with one 800 ml flask. I only ran out of water between Buffalo and Homestead, otherwise 800 was plenty of fluids - and I am a heavy drinker. LMNT - three packets total, Nerd Clusters and a few Hi Chews. Did not use my poles and did not feel like I needed them but probably 25% of people had them.
I would recommend this race - and with a 13-hour cutoff for the 50k I think it's probably a good ultra for beginners.

Week in Review (May 26 - June 1)

2026-06-02T10:41:12.644-06:00

Tuesday (10,246 steps) - My main attorney is still on vacation so I took a bonus work from home day so I could keep an eye on Robin - who is doing MUCH better, thankfully.

Did a Peloton ride before logging in for the day. Took Olive for a longer walk at lunch and got in some strength training.

Took Olive for another walk after I got off work. The chickens were out at the house by the park.

Dinner and Good Wife.

Wednesday (16,475 steps) - Olive walk before going to work in the office. Even though I should be tapering for a race, Greg had me scheduled for a workout. Once again, the first 4 (of 5) reps went really well, then I was just hanging on to get through it. It's days like this that I cannot even IMAGINE ever running "fast" again.

Olive walk when I got home. Dinner and Good Wife.

Thursday (12,973 steps) - Unfortunately woke up well before my normal WFH alarm, so I took Olive for a walk and did a short Peloton ride before working. Olive had her grooming appointment, so I walked her over for that and got some strength training done. Picked her up from her appointment - she is so soft and fluffy after getting trimmed. Met Ben at Torchy's for our normal Thursday night dinner. Thought about walking Olive again but it started raining. Good Wife.

Friday (16,330 steps) - Woke up with enough time to meet the group at Wash Park for a walk. Unfortunately, Kristin's dog bit a puppy on the walk, which was stressful/scary for everyone.

Went to work and met up with Erica for a longer walk at lunch with Olive. After work we met Ben at 4 Noses for happy hour. Home and Ben ordered in food for dinner.

Good Wife.

Saturday (74,434 steps) - Woke up well before my alarm and ended up having time to walk Olive before I headed out for North Fork 50k (separate recap).

I was SO thirsty after finishing, and I had to stop in Aspen Grove to get something to drink (which ended up just being at Safeway). I took Olive for a walk when I got home and Ben had picked up pizza for a very late lunch/early dinner. Lounged around the rest of the evening, Good Wife.

Sunday (18,931 steps) - I had an alarm set because I was supposed to meet up with Joni for a hike, but she cancelled because she woke up not feeling well. I took Olive for a walk while Ben went to pick up Dutch Bros. I was pretty sore from my race so we didn't want to do anything crazy hard with Olive. We decided to go to Golden and found a new to us trail to walk on (Welch trail and the Peaks to Plains) - it was quite nice!!

Olive did not enjoy the see-through steps or bridge, so I had to carry her. We picked up Ariel since we were in the area and went into town for ice cream and a stop at the Bivy Bar for Ben to get a beer.

Home for dinner and we finally finished Good Wife - horrible finale...

Monday (10,200 steps) - Olive walk before clocking in for the day. Had to take Robin back to the vet for her checkup. Bad news - another expensive vet bill. Good news - her kidney numbers improved a LOT. She unfortunately projectile vomited on the drive home. That meant that I had to give her a bath - her first EVER and clean out my car. Boo.

She looks even skinnier when she is wet :( She did actually gain almost a half-pound since the last ER visit

Took Olive for a walk at lunch.

Wanted to walk Olive and maybe do some deliveries after work but we had a hail risk so stayed in. Ben ordered in Panda for dinner. We watched the Cocodona lottery livestream and started Good Fight - which is the spinoff for Good Wife.

Stats:

159,589 steps
41.48 miles run
19.78 miles walked
30 minutes of cardio
40 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (May 19 - May 25)

2026-05-27T11:08:58.970-06:00

Tuesday (12,940 steps) - Peloton ride and Olive walk before going to work. I had a staff meeting at lunch which took longer than I would have liked, but at least we got catered lunch. Headed to the gym for stairs, strength training and a treadmill hike.

Solid workout! Walked Olive again when I got home. Ben picked up pizza for dinner. When I was feeding the cats I noticed Robin looked a little off and when I looked closer at her jaw she had a major injury of some kind so we ended up taking her to the emergency vet. Turns out she had an abscess (not sure what caused it) that had to be lanced and drained - which was messy and smelled awful.

She spent the night in the cone but seemingly still has an appetite, which is good. Good Wife.

Wednesday (19,251 steps) - Olive early walk and a bonus work from home day since I initially wasn't sure if I would need to take Robin back to the vet. Picked up my free birthday drink from Ziggi's.

Attempted to take Olive for a longer walk at lunch but it started to rain on us and I am just over being wet so we headed back home. Robin is still in the cone but seems to be doing ok.

After I got off work I headed up to Louisville to get my workout in. Dressed for winter and for the first half hour or so it was pretty perfect. I had a very long warm up and then some faster downhill sprints. Ended up with over a 10k for distance which was more than I expected.

Stopped at the store to say hi but didn't recognize anyone so didn't stay long. Ben made dinner, Good Wife. More cleaning of Robin's jaw and giving her meds that she didn't want.

Thursday (17,350 steps) - Work from home. Went for my run early since I had a busy day planned. Run actually was really good and the trails by the lake (at least on the north side) were pretty dry. Strength training and a shower before I took Olive for a walk to the lake.

Took Robin back to the vet where they prescribed additional anti-inflammatories, a pain reliever injection and did blood work. Found out her kidneys are not doing wonderful, so she also was prescribed some special food and kidney medication. The vet said she didn't need to keep the cone on, but she still is trying to scratch at her jawline, so we are going to leave it on overnight for a few more days to hopefully aid in healing. Met Ben at Torchy's for dinner and then took Olive for a walk. Good Wife.

Friday (11,306 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Another walk late morning. We actually had an early release of noon, which is unheard of! I kept my app on in case any good offers came through (none did) and read while I waited for Ben to get off. He also got off work early, but not until 3. We met up at 4 Noses for an early happy hour. Olive walk, Panda for dinner and Good Wife.

Saturday (30,763 steps) - Took Olive for a walk and then drove down to Highlands Ranch for a run with Jandy and Christina in the backcountry! It was relatively warm, there were a lot of bikes and I seemed to be working pretty hard for lots of walk breaks. BUT, it was wonderful to run with friends, which is not something I get to do too much these days.

MATCHY MATCHY

There was a horrific accident that had I-70 closed on the way home and I got stuck in a pretty annoying detour that had tons of traffic. I stopped at Target on the way home to pick up a few things and of course ended up spending about ten times what I planned - the Target Effect!! Took Olive for a long walk to the lake. Robin hasn't been eating much her second vet visit, so after trying a few things that she had zero interest in, I took her back to the emergency vet. She had lost nearly another half-pound in the last week, and as a tiny cat that was worrisome. The vet suggested we stop the additional kidney medicines, give her a fluid injection, an anti-nausea injection and then just let her eat whatever she wants for now. Thankfully that seemed to kickstart her appetite and she ate a decent amount when we got back home. Ben ordered in pizza for dinner. We watched the new Jack Ryan Ghost War movie and part of a Good Wife episode.

Sunday (21,000 steps) - Ben opted to stay home for the run today, so I went to Rock Creek for what was supposed to be a very easy run. Most of it was, I didn't get close to Z3 until I was nearly back to the car.

Ben went to Costco while I was running and after we got everything unpacked we went for a walk with Olive to the lake.

Ariel came back to hang out for a few hours and we took Olive for a short walk before the next round of storms came though. Cheese for dinner and Good Wife.

Monday (17,136 steps) - Took Olive for a quick walk in the morning while we were figuring out our morning. Went up to Broomfield to visit with Ben's friend for a bit before going back home to prep for yet another run with friends! We went to Boulder to meet up with Kristin and Jeramiah for a 45ish minute run at Marshall Mesa. A great run, but probably not as "easy" as my coach would like.

Went to Illegal Pete's after for lunch and it was a zoo since the Bolder Boulder was earlier and there were still a ton of people in town. Picked up Olive and went to Rails End for a late afternoon happy hour before going home for the day - too many nuts out on Memorial Day! Robin thankfully is eating more so hopefully no more ER visits for her this week. Good Wife.

Stats:

129,746 steps
30.12 miles run
17.71 miles walked
40 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (May 12 - May 18)

2026-05-22T09:33:46.299-06:00

Tuesday (17,534 steps) - Peloton and Olive walk before going to work. Gym at lunch. Someone was on the StairMaster when I first go there so I had to do my strength training first, then got my stairs in and a hike on the treadmill.

Got more miles on my treadmill desk. Olive walk when I got home. Dinner and Good Wife.

Wednesday (21,948 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Took my lunch early since I had a speed workout to do and it was supposed to be almost 90 out.

This felt hard, but mostly ok. UNTIL the last rep. I just had zero pep left in my step and barely got through it.

I was so hot and grimy when I was done. Normally I just wash my face and go back to work, but this time I actually took a shower. Did a quick delivery on the way home. Ben had a work meeting after work so I took Olive for a longer walk.

He still wasn't done by the time I got home so I went out and did another delivery. Dinner and Good Wife.

Thursday (15,582 steps) - The very rare morning run!

It was supposed to be another very hot day, plus Ariel had plans to come by and take me out for an early birthday lunch. The run itself was fine! I took it very slow since I was still feeling Wednesday's speed work. Rower, upper body work and a core video to round out the morning. Ariel and I took Olive for a walk to the lake. Tokyo Joe's for lunch and we stayed there to eat since they had the air conditioning blasting.

After work we all headed down to Highland Tap & Burger to meet up with Lisa for dinner!!

It was great to see her, it's been a few years. Home, did a foot soak and Good Wife.

Friday (17,518 steps) - Wash Park with Olive and the gang. Took Olive for a short walk around lunchtime. Lisa messaged me to let me know she was ready to go for a walk, so Olive and I met her down the street for a mid-length walk. Rushed home after work to pack for my birthday weekend in the mountains. We were ready to go by probably 5:30 and thankfully we did not hit any traffic on the way up. Stopped at Outer Range and then Ben ordered pizza from Scrappy's for dinner.

NA beer and NA seltzer with a view

Clancy and Mr. Fox are always happy for a road trip also:

Olive was a little unsure about the hotel room. Also since I actually did my hair for once we had to get a few selfies!

Ben got impatient and gave me my birthday presents early - some new tops from Patagonia! I think we tried to stay up and watch some TV but we were both tired and still went to sleep at our normal time.

Saturday (35,614 steps) - Lisa was planning on coming up to the mountains to join us for a hike, but I had no idea what time that would be. Took Olive out for a quick bathroom break and then I went out for my pre-hike run. Greg had scheduled me for a long run, so I figured I would knock out 6-8 miles since the rest of the day would be hiking/jogging. I ran on the rec path and it was actually pretty decent!

Lisa met us at the trailhead and we had plans to do the Vomit/Hippo loop. Of course as soon as we parked it started pouring rain. We waited it out for about 10 minutes and it thankfully cleared up. The weather ended up being pretty good the whole time although there was some "hot then cold" moments. Barely anyone was out, which is always nice.

We went back to Outer Range and got lunch - another ahi tuna bowl for me.

Lisa had to head back home and we were pretty tired so went back to the hotel. Ordered in Cheba Hut for dinner (YUM) and Lee came by to visit for a bit. Cheba had been out of the brownies we ordered so Ben got me a slice of cheesecake from the restaurant in the hotel.

Watched part of one of the Mission Impossible movies.

TIRED DOG

Sunday (21,376 steps) - Took turns going to the lobby to pick up breakfast. Packed up and headed out for the day. Went to Miner's Creek for our hike/run of the day. The first 45 minutes or so was quite lovely.

As we got closer to the turn for Gold Hill it started to snow! Thankfully it was short-lived and most of the way back was quite nice.

Until we got about a mile from the truck and then a storm rolled in and it was windy/snowing/raining and we were getting pelted in the face. Of course it pretty much stopped by the time we got to the parking lot.

A delicious mudslide latte!

Went to Outer Range, then a quick stop at the Columbia outlet store and one more stop at Cheba Hut to pick up our free subs before heading back home. Thankfully no traffic to Denver. Took Olive for a walk, unpacked and just relaxed the rest of the night, watched a movie, "Shelter."

Monday (20,672 steps) - Work from home!

It had rained all night and was still raining when I got up in the morning. Took a Peloton class thinking I might get a shout out for my birthday, but NOPE!! Finally decided to go for my run around 11:30 because it didn't seem to be raining THAT bad. Turns out it was cold, rainy AND my Thailand jacket is only apparently waterproof for about 45 minutes. Definitely had some flashbacks from Wales.

I was DRENCHED by the time I got home. Quickly changed into a dry sweatshirt, walked Olive, then sat in the sauna.

After work I read for a bit until Ben got home to pick me up and take me out to dinner. Ariel met us for sushi!! We enjoyed hearing all about her first day at her new job as a geotechnical engineer. Back to the house for ice cream cake and then Good Wife.

Well at least they got my name SORTA right at Dairy Queen

Pretty perfect birthday for an old person!

Stats:

150,064 steps
37.49 miles run
15.58 miles walked
55 minutes of cardio
55 minutes of strength
20 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (May 5 - May 11)

2026-05-12T16:10:00.002-06:00

Tuesday (13,274 steps) - Peloton and a cold, wet Olive walk before going to work. Spent a large portion of the day watching the Cocodona livestream. Went to the gym at lunch and did the StairMaster, strength and walked on the treadmill.

Pulled out my treadmill desk for the first time in ages while. By the time I left work it was barely raining and when I got to Arvada it was a full-blown whiteout. Dinner, more Cocodona and a little bit of Good Wife.

Wednesday (14,315 steps) - Well, we did get a LOT of snow overnight.

Since it's been so warm, the roads were relatively dry, so I still planned on going to work at the usual time, but walked Olive first. She was very happy to see snow again!

It was barely snowing at the house but was a blizzard closer to Denver. I had brought clothes for both inside and outside since I had a workout to do. Since it was still snowing pretty heavily at lunch I did my workout on the treadmill. I was watching the livestream again and watching Rachel crush it - glued to the screen to see if she could maintain her lead. The workout itself wasn't that bad with three intervals of running fast. Later in the day I watched Rachel WIN COCODONA. Crazy that she beat Dan's time from last year by actual hours. OVERALL WINNER WAS A FEMALE, OMG!! By the time I got off work it had stopped snowing and most of the snow had already melted. Colorado, you so crazy. Took Olive for a walk and assessed the damage to all the trees :(

Delicious dinner!

More livestream and Good Wife.

Thursday (14,002 steps) - Work from home! Took Olive for a short walk before I went for my easy run. I had been putting it off for hours and it was actually pretty decent. I figured the trails would be a mess so I did a random paved route. Did my thirty minutes of strength training and a sauna session.

Another Olive walk and a delivery before I met up with Ben at Torchy's. More livestream and Good Wife.

Friday (16,714 steps) - Actually got up early and went to Wash Park with the gang - first time in many months. Took Olive for another longer walk at lunch - a nice day considering we had a foot of snow two days earlier.

After work I dropped Olive off at home and met Ben at 4 Noses for happy hour and dinner. More Cocodona livestream and Good Wife.

Saturday (28,006 steps) - Turned on the livestream as soon as we got up because it was nearing Golden Hour! I remembered that today was the day the tree/limb drop off was, so Ben got started on gathering everything and loading up the truck. He didn't think he could do it all in one trip, so he suggested I go for my run alone. Got dressed and headed up to Boulder for the loop I had planned. Actually had a REALLY good run overall. No walk breaks at all (!!) but I did have a side ache/cramp for probably 4-5 miles and had to use the bathroom for the last couple miles.

Met Ben and Olive at 4 Noses. We didn't stay TOO long because there weren't really spots in the shade. Took Olive for a long walk to the lake when we got home, showered and then re-watched the last hour of the Cocodona livestream (although it was not live at this time). Holy cow, was the last finisher something to see, IYKYK. Ben ordered in Indian food for dinner, yum! Good Wife.

Sunday (18,017 steps) - Mother's Day, wooo. Ben took me to the Brunch House - I was glad I had the foresight to suggest we go early (just after 8), because it was already getting pretty crowded when we got there. It was helpful that it was just the two of us and we didn't have to wait. Food was amazing!

I thought we could go somewhere different (other than our normal Boulder loop), so we headed up to the Moffat Tunnel. No clue what trail conditions would be like, but we found out pretty early we were going to get wet from runoff.

Olive was ecstatic that we found her snow to play in!

Attempted to go up to Crater Lake, but without traction it was really too slick for us to do safely, so we turned around about a half mile from the lake.

Hard to believe this was the trail!

We stopped at Howlin Wind for a beer. I had hoped to get a coffee since there is also a coffee shop inside, but they had closed about 15 minutes before we got there. We headed back down to the city and made a stop at McDonald's to get me a McFlurry, but their stupid machine was broken. Annoying!! Went home and lounged around the house. Ben ordered in Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Good Wife.

Monday (22,452 steps) - Work from home! It was supposed to be a very warm day, so I went for my run early. Another good run?? What's this?? It was warm, but not that bad and I (mostly) enjoyed myself.

Took Olive for a long walk to the lake. She was a bit mad that I wouldn't let her go in the lake.

After I got off work, Olive and I went outside to sit on the deck since it was nice outside. We had the most exciting thing happen. I heard a noise in one of our neighbor's yards and thought it must have been squirrels fighting but it was a FOX that jumped over our fence and ran through the backyard. Olive immediately started to chase it before it climbed/jumped the fence into Cameron's yard. Very exciting!! Ariel came over for late Mother's Day. Pizza for dinner and more Good Wife.

Stats:

126,780 steps
30.04 miles run
14.22 miles walked
40 minutes of cardio
50 minutes of strength
20 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (April 28 - May 4)

2026-05-05T09:20:00.006-06:00

Tuesday (10,392 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Went to the gym at lunch. Did a full body workout and my ankle was feeling pretty good overall until I did lunges - that didn't feel great! Also walked on the treadmill a bit. Olive walk when I got home. Good Wife.

Wednesday (13,115 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Had a lunch meeting and they catered in Qdoba, which is always delicious.

After work I headed up to Boulder for run club since Topo was going to be there. I did demo the Phantom 4, which was... fine. First real run since Wales and thankfully my ankle felt ok. Temps were cool with light rain, but thankfully nothing like what Wales was like!

Ben ordered in Pho for dinner, which was delicious. Good Wife.

Thursday (11,643 steps) - Work from home. Olive brought a rabbit leg to the back door after I let her out, which was... new.

Did a ride on the Peloton and used the rower. Took Olive for a long walk at lunch, sticking to the sidewalks since we have actually been having some rain. Full body strength workout. Met Ben at Torchy's for dinner and took Olive for another walk when we got home. Good Wife.

Friday (14,735 steps) - Olive walk before going to work. Erica sent me a text and said she wanted to join for our lunch walk, which was nice!

A really busy day at work that just flew by. After work I dropped Olive off at home and met Ben at 4 Noses for happy hour. Took Olive for a walk when I got home and Ben ordered in Panda for dinner. Good Wife.

Saturday (22,364 steps) - Took Olive for a walk while Ben went to Dutch Bros. to pick up coffee. We were still deciding where we should go for our run so we were getting some stuff done around the house. Finally figured we would stick close to the house and run at Rock Creek.

Longest run in a bit (versus our normal "adventure days") and it went REALLY well and was quite enjoyable.

Ben got me a smoothie at Ziggi's and we picked up Olive to join us at 4 Noses. When we got home for good, I took Olive for a walk and she bamboozled me into a longer walk to the lake.

She was absolutely filthy after getting in the water so she also had to have a bath. Poor Olive!

For a surprise, Ben got us sushi for dinner. YUM!!!

Good Wife.

Sunday (11,166 steps) - Lazy morning and another trip to Dutch Bros. Up to Boulder for a reverse loop of what we did last week - hoping to NOT have rain this time (which we didn't).

We even got some running in! Rails End for a bit and then home to rest and relax - which included a nap. Good Wife.

Monday (22,842 steps) - Yay for Monday. Woke up before my alarm so I took Olive for a long walk before logging in for the morning. Met Ariel at Ziggi's for a coffee break. Decided to head out for my run early in hopes of missing the incoming weather.

Actually another good run and I didn't get rained on. Took Olive for walk mid afternoon after a quick rain storm. Did a delivery before meeting Ben at Costco for grocery shopping. Pizza for dinner and watched the Cocodona livestream for a bit before more Good Wife.

Stats:

106,257 steps
19.75 miles run
16.14 miles walked
25 minutes of cardio
45 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna

Wild Horse South Wales 200 (Race Recap)

2026-04-28T15:22:00.022-06:00

Chepstow, Wales

Wednesday, April 15

200+ mile attempt #15

Weather - Rain, hail, sleet, freezing cold, WIND, some sun

Preface

I think I signed up for this a full year in advance. The price tag was pretty low - I think including pre-purchasing the hoodie it was under $600. I didn't start booking any of the travel until after I got back from Thailand. I found out the night before the race, at the race briefing, that the course was not marked. Say what? Well, I had the map on Gaia on my phone and set up for my watch, so hopefully this wouldn't be a problem!

Race morning

I had not slept well. Difficulties falling asleep, couldn't get comfortable. Woke up a few times throughout the night and then up for good about 10 minutes before my alarm. I had everything pretty much ready to go and was glad I had braided my hair the night before. I heated up the kettle and made my oatmeal for breakfast and had some coffee. I left the BNB at about 4:50 and had to walk with full pack and my drop bag to the start line.

Start line was just as chaotic as one would expect - with nearly 150 runners and their crews/pacers/families. They had some coffee out, so of course I had a cup of that. Then it was time to find a bathroom! It was a short walk to find one, but it was close to the start. Cycled through a few times and ran into Rachel. Didn't know then that I would not see her again after that!

Start to CP 1 (Llangattock Lingoed) - Miles 0 to 32

The first section was the one I was most worried about as there was a decent amount of climbing and (for a 200) a pretty tight cutoff of 11 hours.

I lined up in the back and figured I would just run when the terrain dictated, but to just take it easy and not stress out about it.

The course started in town near the water and I was happy to be in a group of people that seemed to know where they were going since the course was not flagged - we would just be following existing trails and be using our navigation. Well, I figured out almost immediately that my watch navigation was not working properly. I know that I had set up the turn notifications, which I have used at other races - only I was NOT getting alerts. UGH!!!!!

The course started on a nice, wide paved path. It was slightly foggy and we ran by another castle. Met up with a road and had to run/walk on the sidewalk until we dipped onto the trails. We had sections of running that seemed to just be barely trampled single track and very slight ups/downs. I did not use my poles for at least the first hour or two as it seemed unnecessary. Shout out to the quiver - which I haven't been able to use in a 200 before - it's really nice to be able to put poles away during a race!

The woods were amazing. Not crazy technical dirt and everything was so vibrant. I ended up in a fun conga line of people that made this section really enjoyable.

So far, so good on time. There were some steeper sections that took a bit more time, but I was impressed with how dry the trails were and I seemed to be making good time and I didn't think I was going to have to worry about that first cutoff. We came upon a village and the famous Tintern Abbey and had to run on some sidewalks to avoid running in the street.

Really enjoying this section. The trails are just so pretty.

We exit the forest and move more into the pastures/fields.

I'm already getting turned around a bit with navigation, which is unfortunate. I don't want to have my phone out at every junction, but just when I think I have the trails signs figured out I end up making a wrong turn.

We get closer to a town and have to go under a street and the walls were painted with animals and scenery.

I found somewhere to stop in town to buy a coke zero, but of course that meant that I now had to drink it and subsequently carry it.

Up ahead I saw Eric, which was helpful for me navigating through the town - he seemed to know where he was going.

Out of the town and back along the fields. This next one really smelled like manure.

I caught up to Eric and ended up passing him in this section - he said he wasn't feeling very well. At some point, it started to lightly rain. It wasn't that cold and I didn't feel like it was raining hard enough to justify my rain gear. At one point I saw a runner ahead of me stop near a gate and put a jacket on. I decided I would put mine on as well.

This was also my first encounter with mud. This pasture was ALL mud, although it was relatively solid. It was tough to get decent footing since it was uneven and rutted.

I sent Ben a picture of my shoes at this point. Laughing looking back at this and me thinking "how bad" this mud was.

Moved back onto some single track - where on earth is this aid station??

By this point it has been raining for quite some time. I am looking forward to getting out of the Topo Vista shoes that I have been wearing. Since probably 15 miles in they were bothering me - mainly it felt like the tongue and/or the heel was just hitting me

Finally was on a street and actually saw signs for the first checkpoint!!!

Unfortunately, it seemed to be outside. I had really hoped to have somewhere dry to put my things down and regroup. There also a LOT of people there and I felt a little crowded finding somewhere to sit. My drop bag was brought to me, but I didn't really have anywhere that I could get into it without bumping into people. I noticed a canopy off to the side and moved my stuff down there because I thought I could spread out a bit more. I changed my shoes/socks. Was REALLY happy to be rid of the Topo Vistas and hoped that my Ultraventure 4s would do ok for the steepest section. Had a delicious cheese toasty - I think they are onto something with using actual real cheese instead of what we use. Also a volunteer gave me a "Freddo" - which is a small Cadbury bar.

CP 1 (Llangattock Lingoed) to CP 2 (Crickhowell) - Miles 32 to 68

The thunder and lightning had started back up when I was leaving the aid station, but thankfully it didn't last for too long. The sun even came out for a bit! This was the longest section with aid - 36 (!) miles! At least the sun was out, so I was in a great mood at this point. I think I talked to Ben during this section and was sending him pictures of the course. Based on the landscape - I figured we would be going up the hill in the below picture.

I was still alone in this section and navigating through fields - trying NOT to have my phone out if I didn't need to because I didn't want to completely drain my battery - knowing that I would also have to be powering my Kogalla when it got dark. But for now - blue skies and sunshine!

One of the many different ways we had to move between different properties - these steps got more difficult over time, thats for sure!

Completely oblivious to what is coming

I have a video where from this section where I am talking about how windy it is going up this climb. There was also a photographer at the top -will be fun to see if I have pictures from here later. The view from the top was beautiful!!

The descent was REALLY windy.

There were more technical trails in this section and relatively steep getting down - rocks that I was hoping to not slip on!

Had my first Freddo and was hooked. Yum!!

This was the most bizarre section of a race I have ever done. We went across a golf course. Like actually across where people were actively playing golf.

This section was quite a bit longer than I expected and we crossed multiple greens before ending up on a road that paralleled the golf course property. We were now in another town and I planned on getting something fun to eat/drink.

I went into a couple places before I finally stopped in a small shop and was told I could get an order of chips. They use butcher paper instead of cardboard holders and even though I asked for a small order I was given a gigantic sandwich sized parcel.

The kid that helped me asked if I was with the "group that just left about 10 minutes ago" - I didn't know WHO was in that group but I was hopeful about catching up to someone as it has been AGES since I had seen anyone. He was also completely astounded with what we were doing and couldn't believe that I had been running since 6 am "I go to college and I didn't even get up that early." lol

So I'm walking along and eating from my gigantic package of chips and I'm starting to wonder where I am going to throw away the packaging and trying to be mindful of community trash cans. I also see a running group and they probably thought we all looked like maniacs with all our layers, poles & giant packs. Especially since they were leisurely wearing tee shirts and shorts.

We started to head up a relatively steep road to get on another trail. I was feeling a hot spot on the bottom of my left foot and I was looking around for somewhere that I could sit down and take care of it before I got too much further. Miraculously, I found a bench and pulled out my medical kit. Cleaned my foot and put some KT tape on the bottom and a band aid over another hot spot on my heel. Ugh!! I was finishing up when Walter came up behind me! A real live person AND someone I actually know!! We actually hiked together for a few miles and it was nice having the company.

Walter is an incredibly strong hiker and I got dropped on the climb up the second bigger boop (pictured below in my selfie when I got down the other side).

I cannot remember a lot of this section, but it was WILD. So now, I'm in the dark and I'm navigating down this hill. I can see headlamps and I have zero idea where we are going. We seem to mostly be going down at this point, but I know we have to have more climbing in here somewhere. There is a decent amount of mud on the trails and I've been seeing a lot of slugs and snails.

At some point, we start climbing again. The wind picks up and it seems that we are on a ridgeline. It is foggy and I cannot see more than a few feet in any direction - of course it being nighttime doesn't help any of that either. Remember very little in this section other than the wind starting to pick up. Seeing lights in the darkness but seemingly going in circles and never being able to catch up to anyone.

Suddenly appear to be on a ridgeline. The rain started (continued?) and the winds were ABSOLUTEY NUTS. I don't know that I have ever been in winds that high unless I have been on top of a 14er. I was afraid to use my poles because I didn't want them to get ripped out of my hands. Where are we going and WHY is this weather so horrific??! We are getting pelted with sleet and hail and I am genuinely getting concerned - where is the trail?? I am seeing headlamps down the hill and pull out my map and thank goodness we are getting off the ridge, but now I have absolutely no idea where I am going - I am just trying to follow the light in front of me. Finally seeing a trail again but we are going down a crazy, steep slope. FINALLY get to the bottom of it and have a brief amount of protection from the wind for a small section. I am running when I can because I just need to get out of here and to the aid station.

I would find out later that we were running in an old quarry? The weather might have been terrible, but at least I was somewhat able to figure out where I needed to go without trying to navigate. Everything I had on was completely soaked.

The scary descent seems to be done and then there is another climb up a hill - where on earth is this aid station?? I don't remember where exactly it was, but finally arrive there.

I was dazed and a little traumatized. That section was so long and the weather was treacherous. This was a sleep station, but all the cots were occupied. I took this time to get something to eat - hot dogs, mashed potatoes and baked beans (?) but it was really good and warm food.

A cot finally opened up. I had some tea and decided to try to rest. I didn't figure I would actually get any real sleep, but I enjoyed getting out of my wet clothes and lying down. REALLY liking the fact that I have all my stuff every time I stop! Changed into my second outfit before heading out.

CP 2 (Crickhowell) to CP 3 (Llangynidr) - Miles 68 to 80

I don't really remember this section.

I did get off course a few times in this area, but I was near other people. We were going up a decent sized hill and then we took single track down by a road and went to the other side where we spotted more wild horses!

And even more wild horses!!

I may not have recalled much in this section, but I was still really happy to get to the aid station. We were inside, but it was not a sleep station. There were chairs arranged in a room and some people had their feet propped up and at one point I did try to close my eyes for a few minutes with no sleep coming. I ate quite a bit here, I think. There was a runner that was definitely talking about dropping and I tried to convince him to continue on since we had plenty of time, but ultimately I think he stopped. I did work on my feet again a bit here and got praised by the medic for "looking like I knew what I was doing."

CP 3 (Llangynidr) to CP 4 (Llanfrynach) - Miles 80 to 109

Yet another very long section between aid - almost 30 miles!! Don't really remember the first part of this section.

We were on some roads and a path next to a canal for a bit. Happy to get in a little bit of running here and there!

Short-lived as we then started climbing again!

I could see some people ahead of me and wondered what the chances were that I would actually be able to catch up with someone. Other than the handful of miles I had done with Walter I had been alone the whole race so far!

This climb was really pretty, and I remembered what the volunteer had said when I was leaving the aid station about there being a lot of false summits before we would finally get to the top. I didn't find the climbing horrible, but I did appreciate being warned about it.

Since there was a very obvious trail I didn't have to have my phone out in this section since I knew where I was going. Got to what I figured was the top and thought that I actually found a race course marking - nope, it's just a marking for the regular trail.

Another relatively runnable section going down the hill.

Up next was one of the coolest parts of my whole race. I could see two people in front of me at a road/trail junction. I was watching where they were going up the road when a truck pulled up and opened a gate and drove through. For a minute it seemed like the sheep were going to follow, but then they followed ME!

I'll post a video at the end where you can see them actually following!

I would turn around and they would all just stop. As soon as I would start walking again they would start following again! I bet this continued for close to a quarter mile!

At some point it started to lightly rain again, so that meant... adding back the rain jacket and pants.

At some point we dropped down to a road that thankfully didn't seem to have any traffic at all. This section seemed to go on for a relatively long period of time but it was nice to do a little running and not have big climbs or technical trails - plus, I knew where I was and didn't have to have my map out!

I came across some people with their crews - this race is pretty unique in that crews were allowed to meet up with their runners when the course was accessible. Onwards!

Just as it was starting to get dark, I was heading out when a runner in front of me stopped. When I approached she asked if I would be interested in running together overnight. YAY!!! I told her she might have to slow down for me and that I would mostly be hiking but maybe doing some easy running on the flats or if there were technical downhills.

It turns out that Sara is local to the area and was giving me a heads up about what we had coming up... until she got on the phone with her husband and we found out that we were going to be on a course diversion (probably for weather and/or poor conditions). I pulled out my Gaia thinking this was one of the sections we had previously been told about - only, no, this wasn't anything we knew about beforehand.

We arrived at a junction where her friend/crew was and we were told to just "go on this road until it ends and there will be markings in town"

I guess we were not going up some of the bigger climbs and we were skirting around on a very flat, non-technical trail/road. We did some one minute running intervals and the time passed relatively quickly.

We somehow got off course when we thought we were following signs to the canal and then we couldn't figure out where we were. We ended up calling Rhys and he was able to see where we were on the live tracking and directed us to the paved canal path.

We unfortunately did not see any markings on this section and we tried to figure out where to go and missed the "exit" to cross over the water. We ended up having a volunteer meet us to make sure we didn't get too far off course - and that's when we saw a hedgehog in the road!!

I'd estimate we did probably a mile extra in this section by not getting off at the right "exit," but at least we made it to the aid station.

This was another sleep station, but unfortunately it was packed when we got there so once again had to start doing other things while waiting for a cot to lie down. I am assuming I ate more mashed potatoes and beans here, as that was quite popular for a hot food item.

The good news is that I definitely did get a little sleep here!

CP 4 (Llanfrynach) to CP 5 (Penwyllt) - Miles 109 to 132

I was getting ready to leave and unfortunately Sara was debating about stopping altogether, or at the very least not being ready to head out for at least an hour. So off I went, alone again. For once, it was not raining and I hoped that we would have a day of possibly drying out.

I saw someone ahead of me but I couldn't seem to catch up. I don't really know what happened for the next few hours other than it started to rain AGAIN and we were on a really wide "trail" - I could see a road off to the side and looking at my navigation, we would be crossing that road at some time. I got off course again in this area and was annoyed that I blew another 7-8 minutes round trip since my watch took it's time giving me the "off course" alert. (I may not have been getting my turn notifications, but at the VERY least, I was grateful to be getting the off-course beeps, even though they seemingly took a long time.

Finally I got near the road and when I crossed I could see people ahead on the trail!! I was REALLY hoping I could catch them because I did NOT want to go through more bad weather alone.

A photographer was coming down and said I had a good chance of catching them, so I really worked to catch up to Rohit (Ro) and Rich. I explained to them both that I had been alone a good portion of the race and that my watch navigation wasn't working and that I would really appreciate it if they would let me tag along since they seemingly knew what they were doing.

There was a ton of fog and more mud. And my first REAL introduction to the BOGS. The rain was coming down harder, the wind had picked up and I was soaked as my gear was no longer waterproof/resistant.

While there were some really beautiful waterfalls in this area, this section was SO FREAKING MISERABLE. Navigating was a nightmare and once again I was seriously concerned with being hypothermic. We took turns leading the navigation, but I think I speak for all of us that we were not super happy in this section.

I almost got dropped on the last push to the summit, but thankfully they were great about waiting for me.

Once again - SUPER happy that they were in charge of navigating as when we headed down I could have sworn that was the same way we had just gone up?? But it wasn't. It was a slog to get down and I think at some point the rain did stop for a bit. Rich kept trying to keep our spirits up by telling us we were getting close to the next checkpoint. We came to a weird spot where we had to climb a wall to get around a gate and then FINALLY I could see where we had to go.

This aid station was like a refugee camp. We were all crammed into one room that had radiant heating and the volunteers had done a great job by figuring out how to hang up our gear to try and dry things out. I had some food and then was told that even though this wasn't REALLY a sleep station that there were bunks upstairs. All my clothes were so wet it was like I had fallen in a swimming pool fully clothed. I put on a dry pair of pants and a hoodie and then got in my emergency bivvy, put a blanket over myself and got in a pretty decent nap. By the time I got back up and went downstairs my rain clothes were a lot more dry. My R1 was unfortunately beyond saving at this point, so I added my R2 CrossStrata over my last remaining race outfit. Had some more tea and food before heading out. "Only" 100k left?

CP 5 (Penwyllt) to CP 6 (Llanddeusant) - Miles 132 to 143

Enter the longest 11 miles OF MY LIFE.

I hadn't had cell service at the last checkpoint, although there was WiFi. When I headed out I called Ben briefly before trying to figure out the navigation, as I was by myself again. We were being diverted again (? - I think it was this section) - and I had my phone out because I kept missing some of the subtle turns.

Once again, we were going to be seduced by some blue skies and the possibility of the weather cooperating.

Nothing could undo the hours and hours of rain, and the course was incredibly muddy. It was in this section that I was really thinking about the training that Greg had me doing. "Rocky and gnarly" - and I remember thinking at the time, is Wales really gonna be rocky and gnarly? Well, some parts, including this one, were.

We were also back to more fields, pastures, and BOGS. The never-ending BOGS.

The fog also rolled back in and I remember thinking that the course was probably super pretty - but I kept missing it between the fog and the rain and, well, nighttime.

I think during this section I was with Ro part of the time and this may have also been when I joined up with Daf for the first time. There were more bogs, more fog, MORE MUD. There were also some waterfalls, which were nice.

It had seemingly taken FOREVER to get to the next checkpoint. Came in and was offered a seat at a long table and offered a... pizza?? LIKE A REAL BRICK OVEN PIZZA. And yes, I ate the ENTIRE THING.

I saw Walter here - he was getting ready to head out after having had a long sleep. He suggested putting shoes on the shelf above the radiator to help dry them out - what a great idea!

This was technically a sleep station, so I was told where I could find a bunk. It took a bit to get everything set up for charging and I had hoped to sleep for maybe an hour, but I think I was stressed out and not sure I got any substantial sleep.

I had my first huge meltdown of the race when I awoke from my "nap." I finally came downstairs and unfortunately everyone that I had hoped to go out with were already heading out and I was not ready. I started sobbing because my watch already had me 10 miles over the distance we were supposed to be at. I was SO tired of being cold and wet and I really REALLY did not want to go out on my own.

I will forever be grateful for the volunteers there that calmed me down, gave me some more food and convinced some of the other people there to wait for us all to go out together.

CP 6 (Llanddeusant) to CP 7 (Llandybie) - Miles 143 to 162

After being a little embarrassed at my hysterics, we headed out. The team of four was going to be me, Daf, Hywel and Jamie. I had really not wanted to go out alone because we were coming up on another notorious section of the course - the boulder field, that was yet another very difficult section to navigate, and without my stupid watch working I hadn't wanted to try and figure that out myself.

I tagged along while the guys led the way - it would have been incredibly challenging to do this myself, so once again - SO APPRECIATIVE for the help. While running sometimes/often feels like a solo sport, I am always so humbled when we can come together for the "greater good."

We navigated successfully through the boulder field, only to find MORE FOG AND MORE BOGS AND MORE BOGS AND MOOOOOORE BOGS.

For the most part, the four of us stuck together. We took turns waiting for each other whenever possible. The only time that sometimes failed was if I had to stop and pee - especially with all my layers, it just took me longer and the guys would continue on and then I would have to try and catch up. When the fog finally lifted we got some BEAUTIFUL views - WALES, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??!

At some point Hywel and Jamie got a little ahead and Daf and I just stuck together until we got closer to the road.

Daf stopped to visit with his crew and I saw Jamie and Hywel already crossing the road, and I thought I also spied Ro - I really wanted to be with people familiar with the area so I told Daf I was going to go on ahead and that he could catch up - at this point I recognized that I was the weakest link, so since I didn't need anything, on I went.

There were more... you guessed it - BOGS and mud. But the sun was out, which really made a big difference.

In the distance we could see this really cool castle, and the course actually went right up to the castle grounds, which was neat.

There was a small cafe that we stopped at. The guys got some food and Daf got me a hot coffee. It was so nice to just sit outside in the sun and relax for a few minutes. Had to take a picture of how muddy my lower half was. Oof.

Off we went to the next checkpoint!

Daf and I got separated again from the guys, but as we got into town we stopped briefly at Daf's fire station for tea and to use the bathroom. We then got to the aid station. I had a foot soak that was INCREDIBLE and a really good plate of food. I remember napping for a bit in the chair before we headed out towards the last checkpoint??

CP 7 (Llandybie) to CP 8 (Penclawdd) - Miles 162 to 184

Left checkpoint 7 in great spirits. We didn't have that much further to go, and even though this was another big chunk of miles, all the really big climbs were behind us.

I was starting to feel like this

I could see exactly where we were going, and there were some minor climbs, but in general, it was quite a pleasant and uneventful day.

We were going to be going up/near this last boop.

Finally saw some cows after seeing soooo many sheep. They were moving towards us, which was a little unsettling.

Crossed the road and then we climbed up to this "peak" - my phone was taking terrible pictures from all the rain, plus it didn't help that I kept dropping my phone.

The sun was starting to go down and initially we had talked about possibly skipping the last aid station other than eating and filling up bottles. As we got closer, I told Daf that I was going to HAVE to try to sleep for at least a half hour. Just knowing how I am, if I am tired that is all I can think about. Not to mention, it was the middle of the night and it was definitely getting colder, even though for the first time, it was NOT raining overnight.

At some point we were walking, IN DAYLIGHT, and I was following Daf navigating MORE BOGS. I missed the firm footing on the other side of the bog, my pole caught and I face planted. At this point it was more funny than anything else. Because at this point what else can you do but laugh at how ridiculous this all was.

We arrived at the aid station, and I was going through my bag and when I saw that I actually had more clean socks (I thought I had used them all), I decided to go ahead and clean my feet off. One of the volunteers noticed that my left ankle looked really swollen, so he called over the medic who told me that it looked like I had an ankle sprain and he wasn't going to let me continue on??

He decided that he would let me ice it for a bit to see if the swelling would go down, so I laid down on a pad on the floor with my foot elevated on a chair and dozed on/off for a bit. When I got back up and started to get ready to head out the medic said he was not going to let me continue and that he was going to pull me from the race. I literally could NOT comprehend what he was saying. I mean, my ankle did some to have some mobility issues, but I had not had any pain when I came in and I did not ask to have my ankle looked at. Medic told me that he would not let me continue unless I went to an ED and if they cleared me to run, he would let me go on. Mind you, it is about 2 in the morning and according to Daf, the closest place would be like 25 minutes away and I have no way to get there.

I just got up and huffed to the bathroom where I sobbed for another few minutes. When I came back out the medic seemed to have a change of heart and he said he would wrap my ankle but I really needed to have it looked at.

CP 8 (Penclawdd) to Finish (Worms Head)- Miles 184-200

Once I was finally cleared to leave the aid station I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, before the medic changed his mind! I got all my stuff together pretty quickly, had some porridge and dressed for extra cold weather. This was the first section that I would actually wear my puffy coat and my thick Craft mittens. I headed outside just behind Rohit.

I wanted to wait for Daf since he sat there the whole time I was napping and fighting with the medic. He was talking to his parents and when he finally got to where I was down the street (I figured I would use this time while in town to update Ben), he was moving pretty slow although he wanted to catch up to Rohit who was also on injury watch/warning from the medic. After a short time he told me to go ahead as he wasn't moving very quickly. I did feel like an asshole about that since he had waited for me, but he said it was fine.

I don't know if it was the adrenaline or what, but I did a little running here and there and felt really good/happy that I had NOT been pulled after all and that I would be finally getting this race done. This section was supposed to have very little vertical gain, but I had been warned that there would still be some boggy areas, rocks AND I would need to watch my timing as the beach section would not be accessible if I arrived around high tide - we had been shown the detour before leaving the previous checkpoint.

The course meandered on a quiet street near the water - I saw these wild horses just chilling - a little eerie in the dark!

I have no idea how one gets a sign like this, but I had to get a picture

Finally I could see the signs of the sun coming up. The last night on the course was almost done!! We were going through more fields but the ground was not as wet as I expected it to be. I was wondering if I might actually be able to do this section without getting my feet wet!

I was getting really tired again now that the sun was coming up, plus it was getting warmer and I kind of wanted to drop some layers. Out of nowhere I found a bench! I was able to take my pack off and put it on a "dry" surface and get out of my heavy layers. I also took a 5 minute nap and then it was off to finish this thing.

By now I was well over 200 miles on my watch, which definitely was hurting my brain. I had really wanted to finish the race under 100 hours and I was distressed that after my break my ETA had me about 15 minutes over that. Oh well, there wasn't anything I could do about that now!

I can't remember a lot of this section, but moved onto some more trails.

I was getting closer to the detour I would need to take since I was there right around high tide. I had taken off my gaiters before this section since they were caked in mud. And of COURSE this was the one section that had a ton of sand! I wasn't using my poles at all in this section and saw people out walking their dogs. Ended up near some houses and then I looked up and I swear I could see the car park! Unfortunately, I did not realize that there was a different one a few miles away from the one that we had parked at. I was on the last part of the detour where I had to go down to (and along) the shoreline for a brief period of time.

Was odd being out there in full running gear while people are playing and surfing. I had remembered someone telling me we would come out by the house that was visible from the finish line - BUT HOW!! There were some runnable sections here, and I spooked this poor lamb that was sleeping in the middle of the trail.

I managed to step in a huge bog about a mile from the finish line. So much for keeping my shoes clean(ish) and dry! Had to run up a hill and then up to the road to Rhosili. Daf's colleague/friend that I had met the day before met me at the top of the street and ran with me a bit and got a video of me going into the finish.

This is a compilation of most of the videos I took during the race:

Overall Place - 56/73
Official Time - 99:42:10 (I made it under 100 hours!!)

Garmin Time - 99:42:50

Garmin Distance - 212.54

Elevation Gain - 33,958'

Thoughts:

Would I run this race again? This exact race? No. Mainly because of how logistically tough it was to get there, and also, I don't repeat races if I finish them.
Last year, this race was held in May and I was told that it was "hot." The weather this year was a fucking nightmare. I don't think I have EVER dealt with such awful weather - and for such a LONG period of time. It was absolutely miserable being rained on for so long, topped off with high winds? Horrible. I had the recurring thought in my head "I went to Wales and all I got was pneumonia." I have never been so genuinely concerned about getting hypothermia in the middle of nowhere (unless I think about Cowboy, but with that one I had phone service and could have easily evacuated out if absolutely necessary).
I guess I really misunderstood that the course was not going to be marked at all. I went back and looked at the race guide and all it says is "navigation is simple on the major trails ... you will follow the permanent way markers and of course your GPX files." I am really glad I had Gaia on my phone, but that was tough to use in the rain and it killed my phone battery - especially in the harder to navigate sections. I really REALLY struggled without having the turn notifications on my watch.
The course was absolutely stunning - at least what I could actually SEE! There were definitely rays of sunshine mixed in with the fog and rain/hail/high winds. The finish line is unbelievable and I was happy to finish during the daylight to clear skies.
Aid stations were tough because they were SO FAR APART. Especially the first two. But even towards the end, 20+ mile sections on tired legs is hard. All but the first aid station were inside, which was truly a blessing with the garbage weather we had. Most of them also had places to sleep, which was a huge bonus. Food was abundant, varied, and different than what I'm used to so it was great.
Volunteers were AWESOME. They were very creative in finding ways to help us dry out our gear. Hot water foot baths - which I did at CP 7 and my feet were SO happy afterwards.
The runners, their crews, their friends, their families. Absolutely top notch. Everyone was over the top nice and I got SO much help from others.

Essential Gear

UltrAspire Traverse. After much anticipation, this pack was FINALLY shipped out while I was in Thailand. At the time, I was mildly upset I wouldn't have it for that race, but it really would have been overkill. This pack has about 8 liters more capacity than my Zygos, so I was hoping I wouldn't have to cram everything in! I used 2 800ml soft flasks with straws in the front and had a 1-liter bottle in one of the side pockets - I never used it.
Garmin Enduro 2. I love this watch. I charged only once during the race and I think I had about 30% battery left when I finished. The only issue I had was that even though I had set up turn notifications, I didn't get any of them!!! After many discussions with many different people, we think it may be because I didn't have the right European/UK maps on my watch? I definitely have not had issues with this before, outside of Thailand - but under this thought process that would also make sense.
Clothing -

Zensah high neck sports bra
Rabbit EZ tees as my base layer
Rabbit UPF and Patagonia sun shirts for top layer
CVG 5" shorts - three different pairs. I somehow got NO chafing, and other than what I applied pre-race, I didn't even re-apply lube. The only bad thing about the CVG is that once they got wet it was like trying to get out of a wetsuit every time I had to pee or when I changed clothes.
Socks - since Wales has had a hellacious winter, the course was expected to be wet, so I had a pair of socks for every aid station. These were three pairs of stance, 2 pairs of Rabbit, 1 pair of balega, 1 pair Darn Tough and one pair of (I think) Brooks for the last section
Shoes - first 32 was Topo Vista. I think I hate these shoes and didn't love them in Thailand either. At about 15 miles all I could think about was getting rid of them. From the first aid station to the last aid station I wore my Topo Ultraventure 4s. And the very last section because I wanted dry feet I wore my new Mount to Coast T1
Kahtoola gaiters
Runners Roost hat during the day and Bula fleece-lined hat at night
Buff sun gloves or cheap stretchy gloves most of the time. I did use my Black Diamond waterproof overmitts the first night, but since I had to use my phone so much these were annoying. I wore my Craft mittens for maybe 3-4 hours the last section.
Patagonia R1 was great until it just got completely drenched and then I couldn't get it dry enough to use again.
Patagonia Storm Racer rain jacket and REI rain pants. Who knew I would wear this ensemble most of the race??!
Patagonia R2 CrossStrata Pullover was essential when I couldn't use my R1 anymore

Kogalla and Anker battery banks. Used my UltrAspire waist belt for attachment.
Goodr sunglasses, although I barely wore them.
Leki poles
Nutrition I brought with me - caramel cashews, trail mix (without raisins), nerd clusters, Hi Chew, Raspberry LMNT. Of note, I normally put LMNT in both bottles, try to do half a packet in each. This time I just did 1 packet in 800ml and it worked great. I will do that going forward.
AID STATION ESSENTIALS - Thanks to having just the one drop bag, I got to leave things in my bag and have them every aid station. I needed something waterproof and I picked up a newish product from RTIC, the Ultra Dry Duffle Pack - which worked GREAT. The volunteers loved this bag because it was smaller and easy to move around. It was easy for me to find what I was looking for at all times also. I also used this Roll Drop Organizer from Silo. I was able to keep my smaller items contained and organized. It made it really easy to find things! Any time I wanted to nap I put on my North Face Aphrodite pants. I would get down to my bra and wear my new hoodie for upper layer. My fancy SOL bivy was great, as was my travel rumpl. MY CROCS. I cleaned my feet with a wet one at every aid station and then let my feet breathe. When I wanted to walk around I could use my Crocs. I used mostly TrailSkin (UK based company) on my feet but also some Salty Britches and I think SNB was also used.

Week in Review (April 21 to April 27)

2026-04-28T10:35:00.003-06:00

Tuesday (13,661 steps) - I hadn't bothered to set an alarm since I had plenty of time to get to the car rental place to drop off the car and my flight wasn't until 3:00. Breakfast was supposed to be from 7 am to 9:30 and I went just after 8 and the buffet was already over. Uh... why have such long hours if you aren't going to have full food options after a certain time? I still was able to get some coffee and there were some croissants out. They did also make me a couple poached eggs and sausage.

I headed back to the room to finish up packing and debated about finding somewhere to stop along the way to get a short walk in. Finally decided I was just tired of dealing with the car and driving and that I just would feel way less stressed if I went to return the car. Drive was uneventful, other than the tire light still being on - but not that much traffic once I got on the highway.

Then things went from mildly annoying to worse. The same guy who helped me with the car was the one checking the car back in. They must have made a notation in my account when I called about getting the flat tire because he beelined right for that tire. First, he claimed that the replacement tire was the "wrong one" - even though we replaced with the exact same size that had been on in the first place and was the same size as the other tires. Another one of the tires had a "bulge" on the sidewall and he also claimed there were new scratches to both the wheels on left (passenger) side. He says "don't worry, your insurance company will reimburse for this but you agreed to the pricing when you rented the car." ANY GUESSES ON HOW MUCH I GOT CHARGED????? Just under $1,800 USD. On top of the $200ish I had already paid for the first tire. I WAS LIVID. Are you serious?!?! The video that I had taken when I picked up the car did not show a ton of detail on the tires/wheels and it was raining at the time. I was more looking for dents and chips in the windshield. I have been renting cars for over 20 years and have never in my LIFE been charged for any damages. I will update if/when I get resolution from the credit card company.

Took the shuttle back towards the airport and still had to get on the underground to get to the terminal. When I had checked in for my flight I got a notice that since the flight was full I could check my carryon as well. I was REALLY happy to get rid of that as well and have just the one bag to carry around. I had a lot of time to kill before my flight so I had a second breakfast and coffee before going through security.

One GOOD thing that happened in London is that they have increased the fluid size for going through security! I was able to bring a full unopened liter of water through security. Hopefully the rest of the world catches up with that.

I wandered around for a while since in Europe they don't tell you what your gate is until like 45 minutes before departure. Towards the end of the boarding groups, but the flight was nowhere near full. Not that I minded! Tried watching 28 Years Later and it was so bad I stopped and watched Dead of Winter instead. Also not great, but gave me something to watch. Watched some Gossip Girl episodes. SUPER restless on this flight.

We landed like 35 minutes early. Deplaning took barely any time. LONG walk to customs that seemed to go much faster than I remembered, my bags were some of the first to arrive and I was out the door and waiting for Ben to pick me up before our flight was originally even supposed to land. Fun thing that happened was running into someone I used to run with at passenger pickup.

We headed home since I wasn't really hungry to stop somewhere. Took Olive for a walk and then started, did some unpacking and started laundry since I had a lot of stuff to go through. Ben ordered in Panda for dinner.

Had plans to maybe watch something but decided I was too tired and went to bed early - thanks to the time change I had nearly been up for 24 hours again.

Wednesday (12,911 steps) - I probably could have gone to work but decided I didn't want to. Had a very productive morning! Did a short and easy Peloton ride in between doing laundry and finishing unpacking. Took Olive for a long walk to the lake.

Headed up to Runners Roost Louisville with plans to visit with Lisa and walk.

We did a couple miles and picked up trash for Earth Day. Ben picked up a pizza on the way home for dinner. Once again, decided to skip watching anything in favor of going to bed early.

Thursday (10,206 steps) - Woke up stupidly early because apparently my sleep is all out of whack. Ben got us Dutch Bros. to start the day, yay! Another easy Peloton ride before my first day back to work after being out for almost two weeks. "Only" had 305 emails. A decent amount of those were because I forgot to turn off court notifications when I covered Celeste's attorneys before I went on vacation. I was caught up within a few hours so it wasn't terrible. Ariel showed up and we went to Einstein's for a breakfast sandwich. Took Olive for a long walk at lunch and used the sauna. After work I did a delivery before meeting Ben at Torchy's for dinner. We took Olive for another walk when we got home. Finally sat down to watch tv! First up was "The Cutoff" - a film about the DFL runners of Cocodona. We got about halfway through an episode of Good Wife before going to bed early yet again.

Friday (10,382 steps) - Woke up before my alarm yet again. Slept a tiny bit better, but still not great with ankle pain waking me up. Took Olive on a walk before going into the office for work. Took Olive for a walk at lunch.

After work I dropped Olive off at home and met Ben at 4 Noses for happy hour. We didn't stay too long and ordered in Thai food for dinner.

Good Wife.

Saturday (11,767 steps) - We managed to stay in bed until something crazy like 7 am!! We were lounging around having coffee when I saw the Facebook reminder that Nikki's Celebration of Life was later that morning. I decided I would walk Olive and then head up to Broomfield. I don't think there is anything more depressing than a service for a teenager. Ben had gone to Costco to pick up some groceries and got us both lunch from the cafe. While we were eating lunch I realized I had a missed call from Ariel. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. We didn't have any plans PREVIOUSLY, but our new plans included going to Golden to see what is going on NOW with Ariel's car. After doing some troubleshooting, Ben thinks it is the clutch slave cylinder. Yippee. Left Ariel with my car and then Ben and I took Olive to Fairmont trail for a walk.

Went to New Terrain after. It was a zoo, so we didn't stay too long. Ben ordered in Cupbop for dinner.

We watched Scream 7 (how many more of these can they possibly make?) and started an episode of Good Wife.

Sunday (10,964 steps) - Ben picked up Dutch while I did a Peloton ride and used the sauna. We decided we would go up to Boulder for a hike. I had mapped out a little bit of a different route. The sky looked pretty moody, but we didn't really think anything of it.

The "new" trail section was quite nice! Single track and we hardly saw anyone out. Of course that could have been because they weather was iffy.

We were just a couple tenths from meeting up with the main trail when it started to rain. No big deal, how hard could it possibly rain? It hasn't rained in ages? Well, the answer is - IT POURED. We started to run down when the thunder/lightning started. That was not in the plan at all!! We were all completely drenched by the time we got back to the truck. I was wearing a regular hoodie that was saturated and my pants were just as soaked as when I was running in Wales. Olive was also unamused.

We still went over to Rails End since Ben had extra hoodies in the truck. We didn't stay too long, mostly because we were both freezing. Home for a shower and smorgasbord of cheese for snacks. Good Wife!

Monday (11,147 steps) - YAY FOR WORK FROM HOME!! I had to schedule the tow for Ariel's car, but the good news was that once the car got to the shop they said it was in fact what Ben suspected and they would be able to get it fixed same day.

Did a Peloton ride, laundry, worked, took Olive for a long walk at lunch.

Ariel showed up right as I was getting off work to pick me up so we could switch cars. I REALLY HOPE THAT IS THE LAST OF CAR STUFF FOR A WHILE. Took Olive for a walk when I got back home and Ben made dinner. We watched a few episodes of "Zillow Gone Wild" before more Good Wife.

Stats:

81,038 steps
3.7 miles run
17.57 miles walked
50 minutes of cardio
0 minutes of strength
45 minutes of sauna

Week in Review (April 14 - April 20)

2026-04-22T14:50:00.002-06:00

Tuesday (13,639 steps) - I had plans to start the drive relatively early since I did not want to miss the shuttle and definitely wanted to get a walk in at some point. I took a shower (boo hiss that I forgot conditioner, shampoo "for all hair types" is the death of me) and got ready to head out. Figured out my stuff as much as possible and loaded up the car. Drive was on highway until the last section when I got dumped on extremely terrifying local roads that were narrow and I was so relieved when I finally got to Rhosili - the finish line of the race. I had only about an hour before the bus was leaving so I didn't have much time to do what I wanted to. I first had to figure out where I needed to pay the 40£ to leave my car there for a week. I also had to move it further away as this is a popular tourist area and they needed the closer spots. I decided I would be able to get a mile walk in, so after I used the bathroom I headed out. The finish line area was SO COOL.

Right away, I saw WILD HORSES!!! We weren't supposed to get too close to them, but I figured this one wouldn't mind getting a selfie.

Also saw this adorable mom and baby.

I stupidly had not eaten anything yet, and it was getting closer to the time we were to be leaving. There were a few restaurants open, so I went to one and asked what I could get for takeaway. I got a sandwich of some kind and a few things to drink. It took longer to get than I would have hoped and I was getting nervous about missing the bus. I grabbed my food and then talked to the guy at the shuttle and grabbed my things to load on the bus. I was one of the last people on board and sat in the very back. I did at least sit near some chatty people, at least while we were waiting to depart.

We actually got our bibs on the bus, so that was fun - these are completely waterproof because "it tends to rain in Wales."

Otherwise, drive was kinda boring and just read my book. We got back with a lot more time than expected, so I decided I would walk back to my BNB and try for a nap since I was still pretty tired. Then I had to walk BACK to the Boat Inn area for packet pickup and the mandatory race briefing. Sat with Krista, Guy and their crew. Rachel got a picture of the three American ladies (and with only 27 females toeing the line, we are 1/9 of the female runners!

This was very chaotic and not a huge space for so many people. The briefing didn't cover that much, I didn't think, but we did also have to do the gear/kit check, which took some time. I did find out from Rachel that they don't flag/mark the course at all, which was shocking to me, but thankfully I had the map in Gaia and planned to run the route on my watch as well. Krista ordered pizza and offered me some to take back with me. I dropped everything off at the BNB and then rushed up the street to pick up some bottled water from a nearby convenience store. I had dinner and got all my stuff ready to go. Read more of my book and tried to go to bed relatively early since I had an early wake up.

Wednesday (116,215 steps) - Wild Horse South Wales 200

Thursday (122,858 steps) - Wild Horse South Wales 200

Friday (86,354 steps) - Wild Horse South Wales 200

Saturday (91,319 steps) - Wild Horse South Wales 200

Sunday (54,210 steps) - Wild Horse South Wales 200. Once I crossed the line I was SO HAPPY that I was going to be able to take my shoes off. My drop bag was brought directly to me and I put my Crocs on. I wasn't sure how far back Daf was, but I did want to watch him finish. I dropped my stuff off at the car and then went up the street to get some food and a coffee. Went back to the finish and saw some people cross. Spencer mentioned that if I was going to the bunkhouse that they had to go there now, so I was going to have to follow them up. Felt bad not sticking around for Daf!!

When I got to the bunkhouse, parked the car. Hoped to nap for a few hours before driving to my hotel in Swansea. When I got there Spencer noted that my back left tire was very low. He said they would find a pump and help me put air in it before I went out on the road. Was brought into the main room and was sitting there charging and catching up on some other stuff when Spencer came back in and said that my tire was now completely flat. WTF!! I went out and looked and he was right. Of course this would happen on a Sunday on the coast and 45 minutes from anything. The other volunteer - I cannot remember his name and feel bad about it - sat with me and helped me to make phone calls. He found someone that would be able to come out that same afternoon and put a new tire on!

I fell asleep at some point and was woken up while the tire guy was there. I went out to talk to him and he said that the tire wasn't exactly the same (which was a bummer because when I had talked to the people at the car rental place they said a). it was my responsibility to get a new tired b). they don't have spare tires for a reason and c). I had to get the exact same tire). At this point I didn't even care because I still have to get home. Charge for the tire? 170£ (over $200 USD). UGHHHHHHHH.

I stick around for just a bit longer and then finally decide to start the drive to Swansea. Back on the super sketchy narrow roads. The map didn't take me to the right address the first time so there were some navigational challenges that were annoying. Finally found the hotel and checked in. Room on the third floor. Of course. Showered (again with no conditioner, boooo). I was also hungry and in no mood to drive anymore and the only thing nearby was McDonalds. Ok, I can eat that. So I walked over there and had to order from a kiosk because customer service doesn't exist anymore. The machine didn't print out a receipt and it was busy, but I sat close by and listened as they were calling out orders. I heard my name and went up but didn't see any food. By now it's been almost 20 minutes. I finally talk to a manager and they don't have my order. "where did you order it from." "Do you have a receipt" "it's not that I don't believe you, I just don't see your order." After over a half hour they finally remade it for me. I ate every last bit and was really glad that I had gotten the Oreo McFlurry -SO DELICIOUS. When I got back to the hotel I hung up all my really wet clothes so things could dry better before going home. Also went to the lobby to get some bottled water and pillows I could elevate my swollen ankle. Went to bed early. Trashed.

Monday (14,580 steps) - Woke up and still had a mess of things to pack.

Originally I had hoped to get things down to two bags, but that wasn't seeming likely. Also - SUPER IMPRESSED with how great my feet held up - especially with all the rain and mud.

Ankle still swollen!!!

I found a castle that looked interesting that would be on my way to the hotel that I was staying the second night. The Margam castle and grounds were free, I just had to pay to park.

I had no idea where I was going, but there seemed to be a lot of walking paths, so I just wandered around. I followed signs for "Farm Trail" that took me to an outdoor "zoo" of sorts. There were adorable pygmy goats!!

And donkeys and Shetland ponies!

And of course, more sheep. I wandered around for quite a bit, thinking my ankle was feeling decent, but then decided I was hungry and wanted something to drink. I wasn't even sure where the restaurant was, but finally found my way back to the castle. I got a coffee, sandwich and carrot cake (yay for no raisins!)

Walked around the other side of the castle and decided I had enough and didn't need to visit the gardens - 4 miles on a sprain is probably more than enough.

On the way to my next hotel I decided I better stop and get some compression socks for the plane ride home - especially since my ankle was still so swollen. I mapped to a running store in Bristol. This is where things got truly terrifying. Now the rental car I had was supposedly compact - I don't see how that is possible. This town was so scary. The most narrow roads ever and I had no idea where to park. I finally illegally parked in a grocery store lot and walked over. I was in and out of the running store in minutes, so I think it was probably fine. Another 20£ spent - I should've just brought socks from home!!

I had nothing to drink so I made yet another stop at a travel center. Picked up Costa coffee and more bottled water. I kept making wrong turns and being in the wrong lane for the roundabouts. I cannot wait to get rid of this stupid car, driving here is NOT FUN.

The hotel is seemingly in a suburb. The lot was also teeny tiny and terrifying to park in. My room was really complicated to get to and I had to go up/down about 5 flights of stairs to get there. Thankfully they had a restaurant on site because - NO MORE DRIVING. I waited a bit to go down and by then there was a wait. It was a relatively fancy dinner and way more than I wanted to spent (about $40).

A gin espresso mocktail since I'm still not drinking

I asked the girl at the desk for ice so that I could elevate and ice. Tried to watch some tv and everything was garbage so I just went to bed.

Stats:

499,175 steps
212.54 miles run
9.68 miles walked
0 minutes of cardio
5 minutes of strength
0 minutes of sauna