Once upon a time, my friend Christy told me about a 6-hour race around a 0.75 mile track that she was signing up for, and I thought she was crazy. But I did dream of doing ultras and am slightly crazy myself, so I signed up too. The course was at Polo Fields with an aid station on the track, and I’d just run as many laps as possible within 6 hours.

While preparing for the Spring Equinox Half Marathon this past weekend, I kept wondering how my running would be affected by the high altitude in Colorado. I knew my training pace had improved but would the high elevation slow me down? Apparently so, after reading various blogs online. So I didn’t set high expectations for myself to PR (1:49:12, 8:20 pace). I sort of gave myself a free pass even before starting the race. Oh, it’ll be alright if I don’t PR. It’s hard running at high elevation. It’s expected that you’ll slow down.

Some people dream of being a doctor, traveling the world, living a grand luxurious life surrounded by warm beaches and fresh coconuts. My dream? I want to run a 100-mile race.

Is that crazy? Is that even possible?? Now that I’ve immersed myself in the ultra world, it doesn’t seem all that insane. But if I take a step back… an average 100-mile race will take 28 hours. That’s running in the heat of the day, darkness of the night, and again through sunrise, without sleeping. If I really think through the details – blistered feet, aching muscles, monotonous running through barren nothingness – I can’t imagine how this came to me as a dream.