My Leadville 100 journey began at the finish line of the Silver Rush 50 in 2014. Looking down on Dutch Hill, two thoughts came to mind. 1. Am I about to be engaged?! My favorite Keith Urban song “Somebody Like You” was ironically playing and my now husband was holding a bottle of champagne to celebrate my first 50-mile finish. 2. While scrambling to find lip gloss in case the engagement were to happen, I thought “that was SO fun; I’m not ready for the day to be over.
Although an engagement didn’t come at that moment, my quest to conquer the illustrious Leadville Trail 100 Run came on in full force. Feeling like I wanted more miles, and more of Leadville, I didn’t realize I was about to embark on a multi-year journey to join the ranks of those who experience a Leadville 100 finish line moment on 6th Street.
Finishing 100 miles is never guaranteed and although I lacked ultra experience, I’ve always tried no matter the scale of the risk vs reward. With a heavy dose of naivety, the belief that it was possible and a deep core desire to explore my boundaries with running, I found myself on a multi-year journey of 100 miles that spanned getting married and having two incredible children.
Realizing I had a solid foundation/natural capacity for ultra races up to 50 miles, I was quick to learn that attempting 100 miles was where my personal threshold was expanded. My first attempt at the Leadville 100 Run in 2015 showcased my innocence with how much training was truly needed as my achy knees brought me to a stop at Twin Lakes outbound. I giggle thinking back on my “long” 10 mile runs along a railroad in my home state of Minnesota. I finished 50 with relative ease so at the time, I didn’t realize my training needed much more structure and time.
Following that experience, I took my mistakes to heart and knew this was the perfect opportunity to learn from them and hire Boundless Founder, Ryan Krol as my coach. This decision was the most influential of my 7-year Leadville 100 journey. Having never worked with a coach, a new world opened for me. I appreciated Ryan’s custom run and strength plan which I was eager to follow because I knew it was guiding me far beyond my own expertise. While working with Ryan, I was never injured, heaps stronger in speed and strength, and much more connected to what a scientific/curated training plan can do for runners.
In 2016, my first year training with Ryan, I was amazed to make it to Half Pipe in the early morning hours - the farthest I had run to-date and nearly 20 miles longer than my first attempt. While this goal was surely taking longer than anticipated, I pushed pause for a year to welcome our daughter Sienna in October of 2018. Having such momentum before she was born, I had a newfound variable to my training with being a first-time mom. The call of finishing what I started pulled me out of pregnancy onto the dirt roads around our house in Nederland, CO at 8,200’. I remember the feeling of joy in being a new mom, and also feeling so unsettled in being so far from the strength I had built pre-pregnancy. Sleep-deprived nights didn’t stop me from giving the best effort I could in those first weeks and months back at running. Three miles was hard. Little did I know that mom power is a real thing and mentally, I was growing much stronger than before. Ten months after giving birth, I proudly lined up on 6th Street for the 4:00 AM start in 2019. I felt stronger than ever, mentally and physically prepared, and I had a newfound purpose in running to show our daughter that grit, guts and determination can bring you to such adventurous new heights.
With three past attempts under my belt, I knew anything could happen. I set a primary goal of making it to Twin Lakes inbound so that my husband and I could conquer the second half of the race together with him as my pacer. To get there, I first had the joy of Ryan pacing me from Winfield to Twin Lakes. There’s nothing like grinding it out with your best buddy during the toughest section of the race. Thank you Ryan!
Chris and I were used to being up at night together raising Sienna, but this time, we had a date under the stars and focused on moving forward with every step. My quads started to be the thorn in my step as we approached the Power Line climb at night. We saw our second sunrise coming down into May Queen and I’ll never forget the feeling of triumph to have reached this far in the race, and then quickly, another crushing defeat when we faced the realization of missing the May Queen cutoff by 4 minutes at 88 miles.
As we hugged hard in that moment, the numbers “2022 and Leadville” flashed so clearly in my mind. I weirdly found comfort in this premonition and despite feeling so bummed by a near finish, I had broken a new personal boundary and my first time running 88 miles. On the drive home from this Leadville defeat, I may have registered for the Javelina 100 that October and instead of Leadville being my hopeful first 100-mile finish, I crossed the finish line of Javelina on my birthday that year.
Nearly one year later in December 2020, we welcomed our second child Fischer and doubled down on training for what was to be my 5th attempt at the race in 2022. They say Leadville never leaves you and in my case, it’s royally true. Not only for the challenge, but the impeccable community. IYKYK. It’s very difficult to set a goal that is far reaching, not guaranteed, time consuming, and the opposite of instant gratification. It takes extreme patience, consistency day over day all while enduring the ever-evolving variables of being parents to such young kids.
In 2022, I returned with the same bright-eyed hopes, more miles under my belt and now two children watching their mom go for a “long run.” At age 3 ½ and 1 ½, they brought the extra dose of power that propelled me to relish in a Leadville 100 finish during golden hour alongside my hubby. I am struck every time I think about the seriousness of the commitment I made to myself and the lessons of perseverance this goal embodied.
An energizer bunny from suburban Minneapolis who grew up with dance and cheerleading, started running casually in college to avoid the “freshman 15” is now a mom of two young kids with a passion for ultra running that includes 4 DNFs and 1 coveted Leadville finish. I am so grateful to have cracked open this new passion and endurance adventure thanks to Leadville and can now pass along some of the greatest gifts to our kids: the power of perseverance and self-belief.
2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of my first attempt at Leadville and my husband Chris and I’s 10-year wedding anniversary. We’re eager to bring a whole new meaning to our Leadville story by racing this one entirely together with our kids (now 4 and 6) as our biggest supporters.
