What a wild ride it’s been! Stringing together 100 mile weeks for about seven weeks is not for the faint of heart.
After three high mileage weeks, my body accepted it as, “I guess this is just what we do now.” It was pretty cool to see my body adapt, and a big confidence boost. I’m happy to get through training with no injuries and did some pretty epic runs.
A few weeks ago, I headed up to Leadville to scout out the course. I won an Instagram contest to run with the one and only Courtney Dauwalter IN Leadville, so I made a weekend out of it. They say never meet your heroes, but man, she exceeded my expectations. She is one of the nicest, most humble people I have ever met. Despite shattering two course records at Western States and Hardrock, she wanted to talk about how my training was going and my favorite IPA. Needless to say we got along and we both decided pumpkin beer is the best.
Oh ya, back to running. I took advantage of the opportunity to pass her on a single track. I dropped the hammer saying, “This is my only opportunity to do this!” I thought it would flip a switch in her and she would return the favor, but all I got was “You’re doing so good! Keep going!” The response was the icing on the donut, (donuts are better than cake).
I have met so many encouraging people throughout my training. We’re all going to be out there for a day… well maybe a little over, suffering together. I think I’ve added about 20 contacts to my phone that would do anything at the drop of a hat for a complete stranger (Griffin, Carson, and Taylor to name a few). We found a campsite after running with Courtney and shared stories, laughed, and enjoyed a lot of those IPAs we talked about earlier. Dylan Bowman says it best: trail running will save the world. I am so lucky to be on this journey and cross paths with such amazing people.
Running was spectacular in Leadville. I’m glad I got to enjoy it and take it all in before the big day. See ya at the start! Stay groovy and keep running!
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