143.39. I keep thinking to myself that this number is absurd. 143.39 miles. In 24 hours. I still can't believe that I did it. I mean, in my heart I knew I could, and it is what I was aiming for, but to have such an ambitious goal realized after over a year of hard training for this very number (or at least 140) is still kind of surreal. Let's back up a little bit. Back to August 16, 2012 in Burlington, Vermont. This was 2 days before the USAT Age Group National Championships.

Before racing the 2016 edition of the Sweltering Summer 8 Hour ultra I had won 6 races overall in my running "career" (including the 2015 edition of this race). I had the mindset going into this race that it would absolutely be my 7th career win. That's how I tend to approach most races these days, unless of course I know it's not realistic. Also, coming into this race I had never successfully "defended" a title either. I also expected that to change. Suffice it to say that

(As taken from race report emailed to my coach afterwards before blog was live) Overall I think I am pretty happy with the results, but think I could have definitely run better...I think part of that was because I hadn't run at all the week leading up to the race. I had Monday off, then decided not to run Tuesday because my hamstring tendon was still a little sore, but Wed/Thurs were just super busy with work and house stuff that I couldn't squeeze it in. Then Friday we were

Three days straight of long distance running, "how hard can this be" I thought. I even managed to convince my fiance to sign up with me for her first ultra race! I mean, basically we were on a camping trip with a bunch of other like-minded athletes and we would get our morning run on then hang out for the rest of the day and relax. Sounds like a blast! We packed up the car from Boston and drove up to the school which would be our "campground" for the 3 days. We weren't sure w

(As taken from race report emailed to my coach afterwards before blog was live) This race went very well! I was very happy with the way my body behaved and reacted as the day went on. I felt myself getting faster and stronger as the hours went by and actually ran more miles the last 4 hours of the race than the first 4 hours (which was the goal). At the beginning I took things nice and easy and was in 2nd or 3rd place at the 3 hour mark. I was actually almost down 2 laps abou