Stay Strong - Run Long

  Photo from eHealth Critic I have always been very open and honest about myself. I have brought to light some of my deepest, darkest problems through writing this little blog. I've talked about my addiction to food, my weight problems, yada yada yada and it has really helped me with perspective and healing. I'll be the first one to admit that I am a "food aholic" but recently I had a wonderful conversation with one of my very good friends who also deals with the same issues and it left me wondering, what is really driving me? What is my main goal with weight loss and running ultras? At first my motivation was to look "sexy". I'll admit it. I wanted to loose weight to look like a professional athlete with six pack abs and be able to walk around with no shirt on. There it is. There is the truth. But when I realized that my genetic makeup would never allow me the ability to do that I did it for people to look at me like I was a badass. Yep, when I ...

A full life can not be measured by the stuff you accumulate over your short time on this earth, but can only be measured by the experiences that you encounter during that time. ***This was written nearly 4 months ago and never published. I am finally happy enough with it to publish*** This past weekend was one of those that I won't soon forget. About 10 weeks ago my outlook on life indirectly took a detour that I was truly not expecting. It was a truly normal day. I was at work and was checking Facebook when I saw this from one of our good friends... What???? Blank Children's Hospital.......Leukemia.....CANCER????? What???? When you see this you go through an instant state of panic, hysteria, questioning. Everything. Do I call? Do I text? Do I leave them alone? These people are your oldest friends, call. But, what if they don't want you to call? What are you doing? You need to text them. You need to figure out what is going on. A few days went by and numero...

I have always said that you can have a great race, but there is no such things as "perfect" race, but this one was DAM close. I've written in length in the past how much I love the Dam to Dam. The 5k was my first ever race and the 20k was my first ever long distance race so there will always be a special place in my heart for it. Whenever I get the opportunity to speak to anyone about long distance racing, this is the place that I direct them. There are hundreds of races within 2 hours of Des Moines that are over the 10k distance but all of them pale in comparison (on the roads) to the Dam To Dam. Enough gushing about how much I love this race, on to the race report. This race has gotten so popular in the last couple of years that the window of opportunity to register is becoming slimmer and slimmer every year. Because I am just a person that needs to get signed up, the registration opened at 8:00 and I was registered by 9:00. No questions. Just did it. Now, Mrs. ...

"What a freaking day". These are the words I kept uttering to myself and to my pacer Byron as we very slowly approached the finish line of the Free State Trail Run 100k . It was an incredible day and an awful day mixed into one 14 hour and 45 minute stretch. One with dramatic highs and traumatic lows, but one that I won't soon forget, nonetheless. The decision to do the 100k started just days after the 2012 12 hour Equalizer . I missed my goal of 100k (or 62 miles) by 5 miles in the 12 hour event. I was obviously elated to have completed the 57 miles and had a great time with friends and family that were able to join me, but something was missing. The 5 miles has haunted me ever since that day in October. 5 miles. What if I would have drank more? Could I have done it? 5 miles equals one extra hour on the course. In the grand scheme of things, one hour doesn't seem like that much, but on that day it did. 5 miles and I would have been able to coin myself as a "...