Welcome To The Other Side

August 27, 2016.  That was the day my entire life as I knew it changed forever.  That morning I stood amongst a pack of runners in Malibu Creek State Park in Calabasas, California, jumping with anticipation, ready to take on the Bulldog 50K.  When the gun went off I charged from the start line running cautiously, but more determined than ever before.  Six hours and eight minutes later I staggered across the finish line and was handed a finishers belt buckle.  I had just completed my first ultramarathon.  Those six hours and eight minutes felt like an entire lifetime, complete with moments of joy, elation, pain, and despair.  At that point I had been a runner for seven and a half years and had never felt such strong emotions after finishing a race.  When I finished my first marathon in 2010, I thought I had seen it all.  I thought I had just conquered the ultimate running challenge.  And then I discovered Dean Karnazes.  I’ve read his books numerous times and he remains one of my biggest inspirations.  Dusty Olson and Scott Jurek have been equally substantial influences.  For years, I sat back and read and listened to their tales of superhuman endurance, which included running one-hundred-mile trail races through the Sierra Nevada mountains and powering through one hundred and thirty-five miles of road running in Death Valley in the middle of July while I continued to run half and full marathons on pavement, convinced that I had reached my peak by finishing a road marathon. 

One day in Fall of 2015, after years of hiking numerous trails in the mountains of California, a proverbial light bulb clicked on in my mind.  I asked myself a question that would ultimately pave the way for my future as an ultramarathon runner; I can hike these trails, so why can’t I run them?  Following my revelation, I spent several months testing my limits and finally bit the bullet and signed up for the Bulldog 50K that following spring.  Finishing my first marathon changed me but finishing my first trail ultramarathon was overwhelming.  I was blown away by the whole experience from the incredible support given by other runners to the supreme sense of accomplishment.  I loved every minute of it.  The pleasure, the pain, everything.  I felt as if I had stepped into another dimension and I couldn’t believe what I had been missing all those years.  The ultra-endurance world was a whole other universe that I had spent so long on the outside looking in on.  All I could think was “welcome to the other side.  This is only the beginning”.