These words, pictures, pouring out of my heart are an attempt to share inspiration from my pursuits of riding, running, & living life passionately alongside others who do the same.
Now residing back in the mountains of western NC where I was born. I've spent the past 12 years mountain bike racing with many amazing riders all the way from Miami to the midwest. Mountain biking then turned to an endurance endeavor for me in 2002, competing in 12/24 hour, & 100 mile races. I found endurance was my calling , then in 2009 was introduced to endurance running through an amazing group of people in WNC & have since went on to participate in many ultra running events. I feel like the people I ride & run along side in the endurance world tend to be well rounded & driven by the better things in life, purely because you cant fake or be superficial in this endurance world. Everything I do in my life is to allow me the time & energy to keep pursuing my passion of adventure in whatever form it comes. I was gifted life & the gift of an active life by my still inspiring mother Nancy, whom I lost in 1999 to suicide. I've learned through my adventures & losses to have a blast, don't take your self to seriously, & keep going because there is no finish line. This goes out to you mom.
At 7am this past Saturday, I lined up with nearly 400 other runners to race the 2011 Mt. Mitchell Challenge. This is a 40 mile ultra running race taking you from the town of Black Mt., NC 20 miles to the top of the highest peak east of the Mississippi, Mt. Mitchell & then 20 miles back down. I felt very prepared from all the marathon/50k runs I've been doing with my local WNC trail runner crew. I started out strong with the front top 10 guys, who were setting a blistering pace for a 40 mile ultra, but that's what they do & I guess what I do now. The 1st turn onto trail separated & strung everyone out, so I just chilled & set into my pace. I knew to descend 20 miles back down the mountain, I would need to save a little. The weather was balmy & sunny, rather than feet of snow as years before. I scoured over the ice to reach the summit & turned around to come down feeling really good & ended up taking back 3 positions on the 20 mile decent, being fairly confident in my descending skills. All in all ended up slipping into 9th place with a 5 h & 41m finish. A beautiful day reminding my self to take in the beauty while pushing it very hard & so much inspiration from the runners I got to share this race with.
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