She finished in 59:58:21….1:39 min to spare under 60 hour time cap for a course that is over 100 miles and 60,000′ of elevation gain. Based on Harvey Lewis’ posts, folks weren’t sure she’d make it when she passed by fire tower – picture above – and she left it all out there!! FIRST FEMALE FINISHER AT BARKLEY and definitely a Badass. In an interview she did a few days later, she talked about how bad she wanted to walk and then found another gear. I keep remembering how at the Hamsterwheel, at mile 48 with my headlight going out, I found a whole new gear also! What a great lesson learned – that you always have more in you.

I was back home trying to do a 30″ timed run hyperventilating from the stress of it 🙂 I like to think I am at least playing in the same sandbox as Jasmine based on this picture of me during my Killington Spartan Ultra attempt back in 2019 – like her, heading out from a pit stop for a long stretch…

We all know this is a big year for me recertifying as a badass starting from being 30 lb overweight and debilitated from stress. During my 30″ timed run, I set a record for the month with an average mile time of 11:46/mile. I think I get stressed out doing these tempo runs one, because they’re hard and two, because I put too much pressure on myself and keep thinking how terrible I am compared to 2019 when I did a 7:30 mile (and even then, I was comparing myself to my high school 5:40 min mile days). Have to remember to be kind to myself. I am taking training one day at a time!! I am proud of my efforts for the last 3 weeks with my new coach and am seeing improvements every week. Three weeks ago, I couldn’t even run 0.25 miles without walking. I have learned in the past how my body recoups and gets amazingly better quickly! This year is the test.

I have 7 days left now until retirement.

This week the craziness continued as I flew to Austin to the ESS conference to speak on a panel, which went great if I do say so myself! See the pic and the comment underneath from my colleagues – trying to hold it all together at work and ramp up my training at the same time.

#Badass here I come