High school newspaper

A few of the runners on Mike's cross country team are writers for their school newspaper and they asked me to write an essay about myself for the paper about ultrarunning. This is what I came up with and Mike said I should put it on my blog, so here it is:

A Day in the Life . . . of an Ultrarunner

Zig Ziglar once said, “People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily.” That’s something to think about—and that is what I try to remember every day while striving to lead a passionate, motivated existence. Ever since I was old enough to comprehend it, my life has been an exciting adventure, and I have chosen to make it so every day. From showing up to school in a genuine Dolly Parton wig at age 10 (just to be goofy), to following my Dad up my first mountain at 14, to hitch-hiking solo on the other side of the globe at 19, to ripping the back seats out of my VW and calling it home at 20, to my climbing my first big wall (El Capitan) at 21, to marrying the man of my dreams at 22 . . . and to running my first ultramarathon at 24—my life has been intentionally passionate.
I was forced to begin running when I was 11 years old, “training” my Dad called it, “to keep up on the weekends”. We spent every weekend exploring (on foot) the amazing Montana scenery where I grew up, and my Dad was sick of waiting for me. So, I begrudgingly started running three times a week. Little did I know how it would shape my future. I continued to run through junior high and high school on the track and cross-country teams, and completed my first trail race on my 15th birthday. It was a tough 15 mile mountain run in which I was the youngest competitor by about 10 years, and I actually did okay. I think I realized then that I might have a talent in endurance, and started to feel inspired to run even when I didn’t have to. Yet, I never imagined I would be able to double that distance for a marathon. That race planted a seed in me that grew for almost 10 years before sprouting.
I have always had a true love for the mountains—trails, lakes, flowers, bears, all of it. When I discovered trail running, I realized I could cover long distances without carrying a backpack, and the soft path didn’t hurt my joints like the roads did. Trail running became what I called “my daily dose”, or my elixir for the challenges of life. One day in college, a girlfriend and I decided we wanted to try to run a marathon. So, we found a 26 mile long trail and went to run it. We spent the night in her Jeep at the trailhead, got up early the next morning, and ran our first “marathon” in almost 8 hours. (For those of you that don’t know, that is extremely slow.) We were at once both exhausted and elated upon finishing. Four years later, I competed in my first trail marathon as a race and finished in the top 10. At that race, there were two options for runners—one lap or two—but a lap meant 25 miles. I ran just one, which was a huge accomplishment for me, but my husband ran two for a total of 50 miles. I watched him walk the last 15 miles of the race in misery, vomit at the finish, and deal with head to toe muscle cramps—and thought that would be the last thing on earth I would try. That year, I ran a few more marathons and discovered that I just didn’t feel all that tired after finishing. 13 months after watching him suffer, I ran my first 50 miler in just over 10 hours. Working hard to ready myself for that race was not always easy. It was a process of deciding every day to live deliberately and strive to meet a goal. It was running in crappy weather, when I had a million things to do, and staying focused even when a 5 miler felt like it would never end. I made myself go out for a long run every single week, longer and longer each time until I could do about 30 miles. And it worked! I finished that race feeling great—not sick, not even completely exhausted, just proud. I never even took a day off, but was out running with friends the very next day. That race set the stage for what will probably be a life of ultrarunning (I have some big goals on the books for the coming year!).
In my opinion, everyone needs to find something they are passionate about in life. My passion just happens to be running, and lucky for me it keeps me in shape. Living passionately is not about wealth, a fairy tale existence, or having it easy. It is about enthusiastically setting goals and working through storms on the way without hesitation. It is about deciding every day to utilize talents you’ve been given and to learn, love, and grow. Each of us has the power to make our lives something great—we just have to get out there and do it!

Clyde Minaret

Mark, Katie, Mike, and I had the opportunity to climb the Clyde Minaret this summer. I guess you could say we had a mini-epic. We knew it would be a long day, but the route description we read did not really give us an idea of how long. We had the Peter Croft guide, and he happens to climb all this stuff without ropes. So, he has a somewhat skewed idea of how long these routes are. Anyway, we left camp by 4:30, drove to the trailhead, and started hiking by 5:30am. It's about 9 miles to the base on a good trail, and the climb itself is a Grade IV, about 1500 feet. The climbing was really really good and the summit was tiny, exposed, and fantastic. The problem came when we were on our way down and Katie and I saw some rappel slings in a sucker gully and we convinced the guys to follow us down it. Well...to make a long story shorter, the gully was really nasty and took us 4 hours to descend. The sun set just about the time we made it to the bottom, and we had a 9 mile hike ahead of us. With tired feet and hungry bellies, we arrived back to the car at 2:15am. It was a long day.

The Clyde and its reflection.

The very exposed summit ridge.

The summit register.

Christmas card photo? I think so!

Watching the sun go down while in the descent gully.

Mount Whitney, Mount Russell

While we were in the Sierras this summer, we made it into the Whitney cirque for a couple days. Katie and I retraced my Dad's footsteps from the '60's on Whitney's East Face the first day. On the second day, Mike and I joined forces on Mount Russell's Mithril Dihedral. It is a gorgeous dihedral with a perfect handcrack that continues for about 300 feet. You've probably noticed that we do lots of trips with Mark and Katie--we love them!

At the Whitney Portal, there is a fish scale to weigh packs on. I opted to carry lots of food in, so my pack lost about 20 pounds for the way out. That's smart packing!

Hiking in--what an awesome Creation we live in!

Mt. Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48, at 14,495 feet above sea level. The spire to the left of Whitney (that is the east face in the photo) is the Keeler Needle.

Katie and I rose at 3am to get the base of the route by sunrise. There were thunderstorms in the preceding days starting before noon, so we wanted to summit early. We ended up summiting at 9:30 and had perfect weather the whole day.

Navigating en route on the East Face.

Proud girls on the summit!

Mike leading the fantastic Mithril Dihedral on Mount Russell.

Mike on top of Russell with Whitney in the background. The lake below is Iceberg Lake, where we camped.

Wasatch Speedgoat (this was in July, sorry out of order)

Elinor Fish, Mike, and I getting ready for the Wasatch Speedgoat 50K (a great race report here). The course went up and down Snowbird ski area 5 times for a total of nearly 12,000 feet of elevation gain in 31 miles. Whew! While I was running, I swore I would never return, but, of course, am already planning for next year's race. I ran the course in 6:28 and took 6th place in women.



El and I posing at the starting line.



El and I running on the course. The scenery was really amazing.



The two of us laughing at the finish line. What a proud day!

Girls Teton Weekend

Katie Menghini, Polly Dacus, and I below the Middle Teton on our way to camp. Polly's blog on this trip is great--check it out here for more photos and description.



Below Irene's arete, a gorgeous 6 pitch 5.8 on Disappointment Peak.



Polly on the first pitch of Irene's.

Tuolumne, Yosemite National Park, CA, July 07

Uncle Mark and Aunt Katie with Joey, half dome in the background.

Crescent Arch.

Katie and I simulrapping from one of the many Tuolumne domes (check out more domes in the background).

A huge bear was stealing our food as we played Scrabble 50 feet away!

Mike cheers Joey on.

Lover's Leap, Tahoe, July 07

Here are some photos from Cali...

Sunrise on day #1, at the Bonneville Salt Flats (UT). This area was made famous by the wonderful movie, "The World's Fastest Indian".

Me on East Crack at the Leap.

Mike about to get his first piece on the classic runout "Fantasia", a 1960's Royal Robbins masterpiece.

Me following pitch 1 of Fantasia.

The descent from the top of the Leap was a beautiful walk through giant sequoias.


Katie and I shaving in the creek.


My sexy man working on his new look, Blue Steel.


Power washing.

4th of July, Rocky Mountain National Park

Some photos from our trip with Mark and Katie to Rocky. We backpacked in to Chasm Lake below the east face of Long's Peak (a.k.a. the Diamond) and climbed the face the next day. Good times had by all.

Mike and I being goofy, posing in the parking lot post run after driving in.

Home sweet home in the summertime! The mosquitoes kept us up all night with their incessant buzzing!

I love the sausage. :)

Breakfast at sunrise above Chasm lake.

The Diamond! From the snow line to the summit is about 2500 feet.

Mike and I on the last traversing pitch of the Yellow Wall. The face was extremely steep and intimidating. I'm glad to have done it, as every climber needs to do the Diamond at some point, but don't feel the need to do it again. (yet)

Mark and Katie met us near the top--they ascended via Stettner's ledges. Katie was trying to protect her sandwich from her new friend on the summit.

Glissading down back to camp.


Mike and Mark getting out of Chasm lake as fast as possible--yes, that is most definitely ice floating in the background.

Check out those pipes!

Long time, no blog

So, it's been about 4 months since my last post--I'm such a slacker! Mike and I had a great summer with lots of playing, camping, climbing, running, and such...and not any blogging at all. We climbed the Diamond in July (Yellow Wall), spent a couple weeks in California's Sierras, and explored the Tetons in August. I ran another ultra, climbed the Grand Teton with my Dad (in a day) for his 60th, and spend a few more days romping around the Tetons in September with some girlfriends. Here are some photos...



Mom and I gave pedicures to the neighbor kids, and Mike couldn't be left out! We were there just after the 4th of July because Mike had a Wilderness First Responder course.



Happy on Baxter's pinnacle in the Tetons.



Mike and I on the summit of Baxter's.



We returned to the Tetons mid-August after leaving California to play in the mountains. My dad is such a stud! Here he is soloing a chimney on the Exum Ridge, Grand Teton (3 days before he turned 60). What a day! We left the trailhead at 7:30 am expecting to do a much shorter and easier route on a different peak. But, we were feeling good and decided to go for the big guy. I had forgotten what a massive mountain it is. 17 hours later, we stumbled into the parking lot and headed home.



More of dad on the Grand.


Me on the summit-at 5:45 pm!! (Waaay later than it should have been, but we had perfect weather and just went for it).



Summit shot. We forced these smiles, knowing we had 10 miles and 7,000 feet to descend before we were done.