Stay Strong - Run Long

This picture...this picture will forever be the reminder for me of determination and grit. I'm not going to sit here and say that this was my finest moment in my running career, but this moment was the one where the chips were stacked against me and I decided to take on the dealer...this moment... I have to admit off the bat that I am super invested in this race. Having lived in Iowa my whole life, I am proud of this state and what it has to offer and this race just makes living here, for me, that much more special. Steve Cannon, the race director, has given me an unbelievable opportunity to be involved and help him with the pre-race "stuff" and I am so thankful to be a part of it. Leading into the 2017 Booneville Backroads 100 mile I had a level of confidence in me that bordered on the cocky spectrum. After my terrible race at Rocky Raccoon, I came into this race hungry for something more. I was putting more and more time into climbing hills, speed work and long ...

For the 2nd year, I decided to give the Grand Blue Mile a go. Being someone who took on the sport of ultra running because I love running, but hate to run fast, running a mile as fast as you possibly can is a little counter intuitive. How bad can it REALLY be? I was fortunate enough to snag a free entry to the race from my employer for the 2nd time. When we were drawn it was during my 100 mile Rocky Raccoon hangover, but I needed something to train for that wasn't an ultra. I took a different approach to this event than I did last year and did focus on doing more tempo work leading up to the event. The tempo work tended to fall on the same day that I was doing 250-300 flights of stairs or being at a 15% incline on the treadmill for 60-90 minutes. This was going to attempt to train my legs to turnover when they felt dead. Leading up to the event, I haven't really been feeling encouraged by my distances of my runs. I've gotten some really good, hilly backroads 20+ miler...