When Lowi mentioned that John and I did a 47-hour race over the weekend, it could be easy to ask yourself: how is that being well? It sounds more like being in hell.

And while there were moments that were a bit hellish and more than a few that tested my resolve and patience a two-day event is all about wellness. It’s learning how to manage your body, your mind and your spirit with every stride and keeping yourself together. Sometimes that required duct tape, other times that involved cream horns and most importantly it involved being smart. It means knowing when to abandon your plan to attend to what’s actually happening in real time. And knowing when your ultimate goal is important enough to keep pushing, keep your focus and keep at it because with that consistent effort you are drawing it to you and you to it, simultaneously.

Covering 100 miles in an event has been a long-held goal of mine. It’s been years in the making. And when I got within 4-5 miles of it I could feel the emotion of it all building. It was an interesting cocktail of exhaustion, disbelief and elation. It’s a heady mix.

It will take me a few more days to fully integrate the experience and discern clear goals around the areas I now know I need to improve but 100 miles feels exactly as difficult and awesome as you might imagine.

Here are some of the highlights of the adventure.

We started at 7 p.m. on Friday night so it was dark and cold. We were also lucky enough to have some rain and snow. Score!

But the next day the sun came out and it started to slowly warm up.

The temperature dropped to around 30 on Saturday night again and we took a few hours for some much-needed sleep.
Sunday morning arrived and while it was a very cold start before long the  sun arrived with better temperatures.

Our races ended with personal bests surpassed by many miles. John reached a new record of 71.75 miles and I ended up with 100.45 miles. John met me at the finish, as he always does, with a huge smile and a hug. Then he asked me if I wanted to continue on as there was a little more time on the clock. I declined, you know, in the interest of being well.

Sunshine & Sarcasm,
Lowi & G