Never Give Up – Tested. MM50k

This past August, I ran, fell, and tripped my way through the Mid Mountain 50k. I mean that very much literally. We started the run up at Silver Lake which is midway up Deer Valley, only to run back down to Snow Park, headlamps on, and then back up to Silver Lake (mile 5) where the next 26 miles miles would begin. When I got back up to where I started (eye roll here) I felt great! I survived the dark downhill which is what I was most scared of for the day.

Joke was on me.

So when I reached mile 5 – and I reiterate by saying back to where we started – I celebrated by kicking a rock and going FLYING, landing with a hard thud. Fall #1. Most of the impact was in the heel of my hand and dripping in blood and skin coming off of me, I peeled myself back up and carried on.

Fall #2 came right before Empire Link around mile 8– the simple kick of a root covered in dirt. Let out a few curse words, pealed myself back up.  Kept carrying forward.

And so it went. That was the day over and over and over. And over and over. Again.

Fall #5 came just after I somehow survived the treacherous Iron Mountain death rocks only to kick a teeny tiny aspen stump off to the side of the trail. More accurately, kicked the stump and flew off the trail, which was steep enough to take a few rolls down the mountain. Thankfully nice fellow ‘racers’ lent a hand and pulled me back up to the trail. To which I promptly fell again. Oh boy. This was not going well.

You get the picture.  A picture of me covered in dirt and blood and some dangling skin.

And no, this was not the last fall. Not even close.

The last – and possibly hardest – fall I took was coming down Loose Moose at maybe mile 27. So close to mile 31, the finish, but so, so far. I was over it, so frustrated. Scared. Mad! Why was I doing this? True I had taken a few tumbles while training for this but maybe 3 total. Over hundreds of miles! And here I was on basically a fall per every 2 miles.  That is not a good ratio.

And yet it was here, between the tears, that I found what I had come to find. My why. Those last 4 miles – which included a technical Black Diamond trail, a thunder and lightning storm, and a body + soul battered by the day – I had to look deep, deep within.  To find what had I come here for, but more importantly had stayed, to find.

To keep moving forward. Stand back up when you are kicked down – or more accurately, when you literally kick yourself down. To be brave and resilient and press on forward.  You can make it to that finish line even when you doubt yourself. Just have the courage to keep trekking forward. 

True in trail running, unequivocally true in life.  

 Bite sized 50k.

*My other ‘why’ for being here was to hang out with my dear friend Courtney. I am so blessed and grateful that she (and her parents) came to Park City for this ‘adventure’ with me!