Let me preface this article with an important disclaimer—I did everything wrong. If you want to get injured (probably), want to have a stomach ache (I did for about 6 miles), or don’t want to know what is going on while you run your ultramarathon, Pay attention closely.  Alternatively, you might get very lucky. You can play the odds.

About 2 and a half weeks ago, I thought to myself, “Self, you should sign up for this race. That would be a good idea.” I almost signed up for the Wild Duluth 50k Ultramarathon last year, but opted to go to the cabin instead. That was considerably less painful.

At the beginning of summer 5 months ago, I decided to be really fast this year. I have been very close to breaking the 17 minute barrier in the 5k distance, so I was going to smash through that this summer. That dream was postponed, however, when I injured my knee hiking this summer. Since that happened almost exactly 4 months, I have kept my running to a minimal to prevent from getting more injured. I woke up this morning before the race with the self-doubting thought of “I have only run about 10 times in the last 4 months. I am supposed to go 31 miles today?”

That brings up the things that draw me to ultra running: an ability to completely put aside self-deprecating thoughts, and an ability to be just a little bit insane. They served me well today. When I was running, I had moments where I thought,”I can’t hold this, Pat is probably way faster than me.” But the number of times I thought, “The snow falling on the fresh golden autumn leaves is so f——— gorgeous” outweighed the negative thoughts by a landslide. There were also a lot of thoughts like “I only have 8 miles left, that means I already ran 23, 8 should be easy” or “There probably aren’t that many hills left.” That’s the just a bit insane part of me shining bright.

Yes, I did nurse a lot of blisters, some unfortunate chafing, and muddy cuts on my ankles, but those are a small price to pay for the ability to be running outside for almost 5 and a half hours, meeting people arguably as crazy as myself, and breathing the crisp air on a beautiful autumn morning.

Pictures will be coming

Today I had the fortune of meeting Katie and Matt. They are a couple of super climbers that I ran into at Palisade Head. I wasn’t planning on climbing today, but I have been practicing not letting opportunities pass—and this is one I have been waiting for for years! They were gracious enough to show me how to set up an top anchor, and then even let me climb with them!

This being my first time ever climbing from a top belay, I got to practice my long dormant rappel skills. After a smooth descent, I had the realization that I had to climb up, and there was no room for failure, because the end of the route was at the top. I was stuck on one feature for a while , but eventually made it past the rock by sticking my entire right leg into the crack and blocking my fall that way. The rest of the climb went smoothly, although it was the longest climb I have ever completed by a long shot.

Yesterday, I finally got to go climbing with my Sophie and Zach! We went to my favorite spot on the north shore, just north of Two Harbors, and sport lead 2 routes. I was excited to get out climbing with Sophie since she just got her own harness! Here’s to some more climbs!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton