28- From Mom to Ultra Runner: Chasing Big Goals, One Step at a Time

Ever felt like a goal is just too big, or that life is throwing one obstacle after another in your way? 
In this episode, Kat, a mom, coach, and lifelong athlete, shares her journey into ultrarunning and how she discovered resilience, clarity, and self-trust. From finding strength after motherhood to overcoming intense physical and mental battles on the trail, Kat’s story will inspire you to chase your own dreams, no matter how ambitious.

Key Takeaways:

1. It’s Never Too Late to Start
   • Kat didn’t begin ultrarunning until after her second son was born, using it as a way to reconnect and find herself.
2. Big Goals are Built Step-by-Step
   • Her journey started with short races and gradually grew, showing that even the biggest goals start small.
3. Adapt and Listen to Your Body
   • Life will bring its own challenges, and sometimes training plans need adjusting. Being flexible is a strength.
4. Embrace the Process and Support
   • Kat’s biggest lessons came from moments of doubt, leaning into support, and staying curious about her own growth.

Catch this episode for an honest look into the mental and physical hurdles of chasing big dreams.

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Transcript

Kat: 0:00

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to chase down a big goal? How about a hundred mile goal? I'm here to share the highs and the lows and the hard earned lessons from my own journey to a hundred miles. Whether you're a runner or not, this episode is for anyone ready to reach new heights in life, push through limits, or just understand what it's like to tackle something that feels, well, Impossible. Welcome to miles from her view, the podcast, where we dive deep into the unfiltered reality of fitness, strength, training, and nutrition within womanhood and motherhood. I am your host Kat, founder of Kat Fit Strength. I'm a career strength and conditioning coach, entrepreneur, lifelong athlete, and a mom of two active boys. In each episode, we explore the unique challenges and triumphs faced by women navigating the complexities of life. From juggling family and career to prioritizing self care, we dissect the systems and the habits that shape our health and wellness. Join us for real stories, authentic advice, and genuine conversations as we empower each other to embrace our journeys and find strength in vulnerability. Welcome back to another episode. I'm very excited to share a little bit more about my running journey. Don't worry. It's not going to be a really long recap, but it's at the heart of what I do. It's the heart of who I am and what I bring into my work. My business, Cathet, and how I help women and mothers prioritize their well being in a very overwhelmed schedule where it feels as if there is no time for you. And any time you take, it feels as though you are not making any progress. I've always been a runner, so to speak, and I have spent some time reflect, reflecting fondly on. The first time I went out for a proper run, talking about not just running around in the backyard or running in gym class. I'm talking about the first time I went out for track and field, and it was a formal run in practice. I fell in love with this. Freedom, the sense of freedom and clarity of who I am, the power that it gave back me having full control of moving my body, hearing the sounds around me, feeling the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, and just that challenge that I was fully in control and no one could dictate to me how I should feel or what I should do. It was me against. The dirt road ahead of me that I was running down, and that was it. It felt incredible. Oddly enough, I thought I would go into endurance in the beginning of my track and field career, but I found that, um, I prefer going to the jumps and the sprints more, and that's where I found myself for the majority of my career all the way through my college career. Though, for me, I love this challenge, the challenge of something being impossible. And I want to be very honest right now. I am not someone who is fiercely confident. I'm actually filled with a lot of self doubt. I do not in a struggle with the fact that, am I actually worth the goal I set ahead of me? By undertaking some of these challenges, it's not that it just proves to me that I am capable or not. But it allows me to sit with those feelings of not feeling worthy and understanding that I can do things. I have more in my control than sometimes possibly the societal narrative. Narratives that have been picked up or formulated in my head. Tell me. Now, I didn't hear of, you know, I was heard of people running marathons, and I thought that was incredible. I looked at my fellow teammates who ran distance and are still currently in their running careers as like, wow, that is incredible what they do. How can you challenge yourself to run these miles? And through all weather. Yeah. In my senior year I heard of this ultramarathoner, um, I didn't know that term at the time, but running an insane amount of miles and ordering a pizza on his run to get food. I was like, what? He's been out there for days and he phones a pizza chef to order. Well, this person was Dean Karnazes and I, you know, kind of dove into like, wow, could I be someone who could do something like that? Could I have that? Or could I and do I have the capacity to challenge myself in that role? Well, life happened and I didn't start endurance running in the traditional sense of running my first half marathon until I was about nine months postpartum with my younger son. I found myself with postpartum PTSD and Running wasn't a way back to me, but again, it was at the heart of who I am. I'm a runner. I love strength training. I love challenging my body. It doesn't always come easy. So I don't want you to think, Oh, this must be easy for her. I do overcome the same challenges that you may be facing. And to be quite honest, there are days. I don't want to work out. That's normal. So I want to demystify the fact that it does not come easy. There are things that I still have to overcome and I still have to find time for myself and a very chaotic schedule. But what I started to get really good at after numerous times of not prioritizing myself and failing and not showing up. Was having to put the work into me and that's not easy and there's no road map that I can say do this But then followed by this followed by that and that will work for you But for me what I needed to ultimately sit down and say is I am worth it I have hopes, I have dreams, and I am worth it, and I am going to put the time into me to do that. And for me, I wanted to challenge myself to see how far I could go. So that may seem very ambiguous, but I want to have you think about, like, have you ever set a goal that was so big that you just felt like, Oh my goodness, I don't know if I can do that. Like, what was it? And did you start to take steps towards that? Think about that, because I'm a firm believer that every person is so capable. Of making their big scary dreams that they don't feel like they're worthy of come true. And that's my firm belief. It doesn't mean you have to go run 100 miles to discover this about yourself, but whatever that is, I'm a firm believer that people Do not, you know, these big accomplishments are not held for those who are super special. And I don't say that as an ignorant thing or a bash to people who've done far greater things than I have. I have massive respect for that. But I do feel every day, so to speak, ordinary people can do. phenomenal things that exceed their capacity of what they thought and maybe what they thought they were worthy of. So it really became out of curiosity. Could I challenge myself more? So that was like the start of it. First it was conquering the 13. 1. Then it was a 26. 2. Then what's beyond 26. 2? Could I get to 30? Okay, I did 30. What about 40? Okay, got to 40. Hit 50. Oh my goodness. It was something so magical about my first 50 miler. I had so much fun that race. Didn't really like the 50k. The 40 miler was interesting, but like still great distances. But the 50 miler, I was like something just awoke my inner, like inner being. Went to the 100k. Struggled with that one. Really struggled with that one. And I had a DNF. A DNF is did not finish. I pulled myself from the course. So yeah, then it was like, am I capable of doing 100 miles? What is beyond 63 miles? 100 K is 63 miles. What would it feel like? How would I respond? When the fatigue, the pain, the moments of doubt, the wanting to quit and knowing that all I had to do was just say, I'm done. There was, there's nobody out there telling me I had to do this, but it was something that I was curious. Can I get 200 miles? Knowing that it's going to be hours of training, oftentimes by myself. There's going to be juggling all the other aspects of my life with my kids, sports, my business, my own relationships with friends, family, my husband, you know, all the things in life. How would I be able to maintain that without losing myself or burning myself out? And then when it comes to race day, Would all the training that I put in allow me to see that finish line. So a couple weekends ago, it was actually my second a hundred mile race, my first one. Oh my goodness. It was, it was a journey. It was one I didn't think I was going to finish. It was also a very challenging course. in the Allegheny Plateau of the mountains of Pennsylvania. Yes, we do have mountains. They may not be as tall as those in the out west or in other countries, but we do have mountains. We're also on the east coast where we do not believe in switchbacks. We do not believe in, um, and our trails are not, dare I say, manicured. There are rocks. Pennsylvania's nickname is Rock, Slovenia. There are rocks, and then the course that this race is on, some of those trails aren't really trails, um, but you navigate them on that day, or over a course of 36 hours, and that's the um, time limit on the race. You have, um, 36 hours to complete that course. And then there are what are called cutoff times. And it's based off of patterns that the race directors see that if you, um, make it to this point and hit that cutoff, you're not going to be able to make it to the finish line within that 36 hour time frame. Well, my first race. I started off feeling pretty good. I knew I mean I am a average or what's called a middle of the pack runner. Um, I am, Maybe one day, but I'm not a podium runner on these big races, and I'm okay with that. That's not part of my why. I, you know, should it happen? Brilliant. I love doing these races for the joy it brings me. I love the challenge. Um, and there's more deeper things to my why, but I'm not going to belabor the point there. So, With this race, what happened, um, at mile 43 or just before mile 43, I started to feel a hot spot and a hot spot tends to be an area where friction has built up creating the skin to become like a hot sensation and it was on the back of my left heel. I was like, all right, I've got to get to that aid station aid stations in an ultra marathon and in marathons and half marathons down to the 10k. Sometimes they have them in 5k. There are places to get water, nutrition, um, and in your longer races in your ultra marathons, sometimes at the 50k level. But. Beyond 50k, they have crew stops. So your crew, um, that are family, friends, et cetera, whoever's there to help support you to kind of think of like, um, a pit stop for like car racing. So they're there, they attend to all your needs, um, and then they get you out and back on the course as quick as possible. They also help serve as a sounding board. They know what you do need, um, to, so that when you are exhausted because that comes, they can help be your better judgment. So they are people that you really put your trust in, in times of need and times of vulnerability, because doing these races, it is a very vulnerable process because you are, you're pushing yourself. to achieve something that just seems impossible. So when I came into mile 43, I was just like, all right, gays, I need to get like, I've got a hotspot. This needs to be addressed. I didn't realize how bad the blister was. The blister consumed the entire heel area. I had also lost a layer of thick skin on the back of my heel at that point. It was gross. I needed to go to see medical. That took a while. That's just, it is what it is. It takes a while when you have to see medical on a course. No big deal. Still ahead of the cutoffs. All of these things. And to expedite this, there was a lot of things that went wrong in that race. I also wound up getting my period around that time. For me, and maybe for yourself, but Sometimes my cycle can be really intense and come with a lot of cramps. I have what's called adenomyosis, which is endometriosis, kind of evil twin. Um, it's not always fun. There's no real cure for it, but it can cause severe cramping. So that was another thing I was dealing with. No big deal. I got this. I trained for this. I looked at this. I said, okay, these things can be here. I know I'm going to be in pain. That's okay. But it can sit with me. I know I still can prevail and I'm going to still push myself. I don't want to be perfectly clear is I have a big motto that I am not going to do anything fatal. All right. So it's do nothing fatal. Like I am not going to put my health and well being in a place where my life could be at risk or my life could be, my health could be altered because I pushed it too far in a race. That's not why I'm out here doing it. Those things. I knew I was in that safe zone, so I knew I could keep pushing myself through that. The whole time on this course, I had this overwhelming doubt that I wasn't going to finish, and that sense of doubt, the voice was there. I think I want you to think about times where you might be embarking on a, maybe a behavioral change or embarking on a goal, and that voice starts to creep up. Can I do this? Maybe am I worthy to do this? You know, think about how that voice may come in. That voice, and to me, and this is from my perspective, may always be there. But the cool thing is, the more you show up and refuse to quit with that voice present, The quieter it can become to almost non existent and it will flare its head at different points, but the better you get at not listening to those doubts, that internal negative voice, you're able to allow it to either just be, but not grab megaphone and tell you, you can't do that to the point where you quit. As I progressed through that course in that first hundred miler. The pain increased. There was a lot of things that were going on. Like I said, it was a course where there was a lot of climbing, a lot of rocks, a lot of, um, technical terrain that I was traversing and the blister on my heel was also increasing in pain and I was losing skin on that heel. The long serratia is with that one, with that a hundred mile race, I barely finished at one point coming through. the aid station. I was one minute ahead of the cutoff. So 60 seconds ahead of the cutoff to say I, you know, a course sweeper, someone who, um, make sure that the runners are stay, they don't make sure the runners are staying on pace, but they come through the course. And if you are falling behind the pace, And are not going to finish by and for this race the 36 hour cutoff They will end your racer like sorry, you can't advance your race is over So coming through the one of the aid stations, I believe it was mile 90 I was one minute ahead of the cutoff with 10 more miles to go and at that point I was in so much pain I had been up for over 24 hours and I knew and I got to a point with myself that it was like If I quit now, if I allow any sound of that voice of doubt, creep up or attempt to grab hold, the race is over. So I will push as hard as I can without doing anything fatal to get myself to the finish line. I finished with about 4 5 minutes to spare before the 36 hour cutoff. In ultra racing and maybe in marathoning and ultra marathoning, they have what's called the DFL. I don't know if it's so much in marathoning and um, half marathons, but in ultra marathons, they have what's called the DFL, that's a dead flippin last, or you put in whatever word you want for the f. Um, I was that in this race, honestly, it was incredible. It was incredible to see everyone around who was there at the finish line cheering me on. It was incredible to hear the aid station volunteers and others about how they were cheering for me. But for me, that race basically told me that I can, that I have the strength to push away the that internal self doubt in me to be able to complete big goals. The funny thing, it wasn't really ever about the miles. And did I need to do a hundred miles to be able to understand that lesson? Well, I don't know. That's where I learned that lesson. I think there are other ways that you can, but that race kind of solidified to me that I am tough enough. I am worthy enough to go after those big goals that I want to do. So after I finished that race, I healed. I instantly was like, I want to do this again. I want to challenge myself and yes, troubleshoot how I got the blister that actually came pretty quickly to diagnose that. I. I started in an old pair of running shoes that still had life in them, still had miles, um, because the pair that I had replaced and had been training in were making my feet feel cranky, so I made a last second adjustment to start off in the pair of shoes, but what I did not realize was in the back of the heel of those shoes, the insole was worn away and the hard rubber was gone. heel form was exposed, thus causing the hotspot. So grateful is that I found that out, that it wasn't a sock issue or water issue or anything else. So the year leading up to training for the 100 miler that I ran a couple weeks ago, I said, all right, we're going to have to look at the 100 miler. I just did. Where are the areas? that I was weakened. Where are the areas that I need to train mentally harder? Yes, there is a physical component to it. I needed to continue building strength, the mobility, the cardio piece, all of that. The cardio cross training piece to spinning. I do spinning as well as running. I strength train. four to three times a week, sometimes two times. And that is all based on where I'm at in the training cycle because all these modalities of training are stress on the body. Life is also stressful. The body cannot distinguish between workout stress, running stress, life stress. All the body understands is stress. It kind of gets put into all one pocket. My goal is to do this as healthily as possible in the essence of I want to keep my body as healthy. I want to make sure that I am not training to cause within my control, soft tissue injuries, ligament, tendon injuries, or even overuse injuries or over training injuries or running down my immunity so that I am chronically sick. Those things go into being disciplined about my sleep, my hydration intake, as well as my nutrition intake. And let me tell you, this does not mean I am like a robot. and always get a certain amount of sleep. And with my nutrition, I am not militant or restrictive at all with my diet. I'm of the permanent belief that all foods can fit into a healthy diet. Everything you eat in the meals in which you consume. That's what I can, like your daily diet, not a specific, you know, unique diet. Diet is just for me, anything I eat. in a day. So I looked at non negotiables. I make sure I do periodic checks where I'll be like, okay, I think I'm doing great at hitting my macros. Macros are protein, carbs and fats. And I also look at my micronutrients, making sure all the essential minerals and vitamins are all there as well. I look at that is in ranges. These are things that I will also work with clients on to not every client Do I do that does not mean every client can't do that? It depends on where they're at the capacity that they have so for me I knew I had the capacity and I do check ins where I will log to see am I hitting my protein intake? Am I hitting my carb intake my fat intake? How are my micronutrients? Are there areas where maybe I thought I was doing great at but I could just bump up a little bit When my training, when my miles get higher, I'm really making sure I'm getting good carbs and getting great protein to match it. Protein is going to help regardless if you're training for an ultra marathon, but it's going to help the body repair so that it can build new muscle and maintain the current muscle. If you are not recovering in between workouts, you run the risk of getting soft tissue injuries and your body can feel sluggish over time. Carbs. are great for the body. It's its energy stores. It is something that is going to keep me going on those long runs. I also have a family, so not everyone is going to eat like me. My family does, but I also have to make sure that we're all eating and I'm not a short order cook to myself or to my family. We all take part in meal planning and cooking because it is a shared task. We all allow ourselves to have different tastes and foods where some may not like the dish, but we alter it slightly so that it's not so much as preparing another entree for another individual. With my sleep, I am a little bit guarded with that. You know, there are times where out of my control. I'm not going to get the best sleep for me sometimes coming up before my cycle. I have sleep interruptions So how I mitigate that in my training is hey I may be a little sleep deprived or the quality of sleep is not there, but the duration is there so I am not going to overly push myself if I feel sluggish. This is a fine tuning of how to push your body appropriate to the way it is. It doesn't mean, Oh, I'll skip out on runs. And I want to back that up is I will shut runs down if things do not feel well. I will shut them down and I stand behind this for my clients and for myself and I do have a running coach and I know she stands behind this too, is training plans are not meant to be executed perfectly to the T. Training plans are a great backbone and they are two dimensional. They are not, they don't know your organic life. Does not mean that you can ignore all facets of them because when you are training, in my case for an ultra marathon, there are certain things you need to work on to prepare yourself for the load on that race day. the miles, the terrain, the, um, fatigue resistance because of how long you will be out there. All of these things, uh, the nutritional needs, all of these things, gear, all of it, so many facets that keep popping into my head, all of it. You need to make sure you have a game plan for, and that you have worked with in training and troubleshooted and understand that come race day, you need to have as many tools in the toolbox to keep you moving forward because I haven't run an ultra marathon where I'm like, I thought a plan a executed, put executed plan a from start to finish and boom, there were no hiccups. That is not the case. And that is not the case in any training plan. Forget ultra marathoning. When you embark on a fitness routine or you're overhauling it, there are going to be challenges and struggles and tweaks that need, that are going to be addressed that will come up because training plans are So to speak of two dimensional, they don't know your organic life. And this is where, and I'm going to interject this, this is where I love. And the magic comes in working with my clients is I'm able to help troubleshoot that with them, help adapt their, adapt their plans so that they can keep moving forward. Whether it be work demands, there's a lot of work projects, work travel, holiday travel. We're coming up on holiday season right now. We're also in cold and flu season. Kids are picking up colds and flus or whatever little bugs come up going around. Adults may be suffering from that as well. Um, in two parent households or there could be two careers had where there could be different demands and there is shared load and sometimes the load falls on one partner versus the other. And during certain times careers have certain demands and that's where I can help. troubleshoot like, Hey, you know what? Let's adjust the workout here. Focus on getting really good sleep or how to keep moving forward without saying life is too crazy right now. I quit. I can't handle this because we can handle a lot more than we can think. And I'm not talking about. Stressing yourself out, burning yourself out. It's when we are well rested, well fed, and well conditioned physically. Our bodies can handle a high load of stress. Now, you heard me talk about stress and you're like, well It's not good to have a lot of stress. I hear a lot of people say cortisol levels are not or shouldn't be too high. That's a whole other ball of wax, but we can handle a high load without burning ourselves out. But if you don't have the backing of solid nutrition, a good body composition, great sleep and good social emotional, it's going to be hard to facilitate that. I know I kind of went on a little side jaunt there, but coming back to. Ultramarathoning and that is having multiple plans of action is going to help you troubleshoot. Okay, um, so in this last race, and I'm going to kind of back up a little bit going into this race about 8 weeks prior to it. I was about to quit. And here's why. It was a long summer of training. Very long. It was very hot this summer. I didn't feel like my life slowed down. My kids are active. They're in sports. I run a business. My husband has a career. He has his, um, fitness journey, his time. We were on the go. We had gratefully a wonderful vacation. We were able to hit the kids on a vacation, during vacation. And that was phenomenal. We have two dogs that are great and they're very high energy and we love it. We're a very active family, so we just didn't feel like we had downtime. I was plugging and training in and around it, and yes, I was getting full rest, full sleep. But for me, I just felt like I needed a break. And I wasn't sure if I really wanted to run this race again. And I, the reason why I'm bringing this up is there are times when you're going for a big goal, the amount of preparation and training and hours and achieving this goal can feel exhausting. And you're going to fall in and out of love in and out of motivation and question whether or not you want it. That is normal. So why did I proceed? Well, I like to. Take thoughts on a run kind of sounds a little hokey, but I was like, okay, well, if I really don't want to do this, let's take this on a long run. Let's keep proceeding with training and really hashes out. And I had to ask myself if I pulled myself from the race, how would I feel? How would I feel if I said, you know what, I'm all done. How would I feel about that? And I had to get really quiet. I'm in the woods, I'm running, listening to my feet, starting to hit the ground, going over the rocks, you know, listening to the crunching of the leaves that are starting to fall because it's just very early fall time. And I had to sit with that, get really quiet. What is my gut telling me? Is there any ounce of me that's saying, Oh, I wouldn't be happy with this? And I had to get super quiet. It was probably a few miles I went by. And what came up for me in those miles was, I wouldn't be okay with walking out on that. Because it was something I felt stirring my soul that I really wanted to do. So I said, all right, we're going to do this. And it's really cool that when a lull happens, when a really deep Valley of wanting to quit or not sure if you're going to want this came up in training, I hadn't felt that way in a really, really long time, but I know it helped in the race because when you're out there grinding, For a hundred miles and you're on mentally thinking, how's my nutrition? How's my hydration? What is the trail like? What is up ahead? How am I feeling? What are the twinges happening? You know, all the different things that go on, you're going to hit a lull. You're going to sink into this is I'm exhausted. I can't wait to see my crew next aid station. I'm going to quit. And if you make that decision on the trail, it's really hard to come back from. It's really hard. to say I'm going to quit at the next aid station. And then dare I say, miraculously bounce back. It can happen. But when you tell yourself and make up your mind that you are going to quit, it's hard to get back into it. It normally takes a bit of time to, you know, want to get back into doing said thing or going after said goal. So I ran, continue my training in a very, Like, eh, this doesn't fire me up, but I'm just going to sit with it. Nothing was miserable about it. I did have a little bit of a, it wasn't an injury. I just had a little bit of a body whisper talking to me. It was getting better. I saw my physical therapist. I was addressing it. I was working through it with strain training, doing some life mitigation of working through some of the pain. I had a sacrum, a little SI joint issue that sort of flared and training wasn't making it worse. It actually never felt it when I was running except a couple times. Um, but I would feel it every so often during the day, never felt anything when I was lifting. So I just continued to proceed with it. Um, and it was just like, I will be as good as I can go on race day and I'm not injuring it. So like, I'm not making the injury worse or whatever is going on. Nothing's. progressing. It's just staying the same and getting better. So yeah, I proceeded with training. And the cool thing was I rebounded. I started getting more and more fired up. Like, yes, this is what I want to do. I cannot wait to get on those trails. This abundance of new excitement about the race and the big goal just floored me. So I want to kind of ask the question is like sometimes like, you know, like I said, with these life in life or these goals, we hit these walls that just feel insurmountable. And that's how it felt for me. I don't want you to think about have you ever been in that moment where you just wanted to give up? But maybe you sat with it, walked with it, ran with it, et cetera, but then found that reason to keep going. And I think that is really poignant. When you can have that introspection there with your goals, it allows you to deepen the why, the reasoning, and it You find that longevity in going for these big goals. It's very easy to let someone else's dialogue or, you know, pressures or societal pressures determine where you want to go and what you want to do. But if you take that time and get quiet with yourself is, is this genuinely coming from me or is this what someone else may want from me? Society I feel is demanding from me, et cetera. It allows you to get quiet and tune into. your deep, deep of what you want and where you want to go. So the race, it started, um, it was 6am start. I was pumped up. It was actually really mild start. It was nice. It was like 55 degrees. Um, end of October in West Virginia. And I had been down there in April where I saw some of the trails. Part of the course that we started and finished on was part of another course, a hundred K that I ran down there. So it wasn't like I knew the trails and it was like super easy, but there was some familiarity about it. The other cool thing was I got to see my crew at mile seven. So I was like, I've never seen my crew this early in an ultra marathon. This is super cool. Um, we're going to start in the dark. And the first time I see my crew, it'll be daylight. It's going to start to be daylight. Um, super pumped. And then I'll have 10 miles where I won't see them with another aid station or actually it would be 20 miles, excuse me. Um, with an aid station at 17 miles. And then I get to see my crew again. Um, so I was feeling super pumped. It's like, my husband, my two boys, and then another trail running friend were down there crewing me. My trail running friend was also going to pace me. So in these longer races, you can have someone pace you starting at a certain amount of mileage. And the reasoning behind that is they help you, yes, stay on pace. They can also, they're there to, in those later miles to make sure that you're doing well, that, you know, Yes, there's the buildup of fatigue. You are, have been awake for over 24 hours, um, that your wellbeing is. Fine, because these races tend to take place in remote areas and there can be miles where you don't see anybody. It could be hours till the next aid station. Um, so that's where it can be nice to have pacers. Do you need a pacer in every single race? No, it is great to have them if you like them. Um, some people like to go it alone and that's awesome too. So those, the first seven miles, it felt really good. The next 20 miles. My body, every, oh my goodness, it was talking to me loudly. Your first instinct when something doesn't feel just right oftentimes is to kind of be like, Oh no, what is going to happen? How am I going to persevere? The cool thing that having this sacrum SI joint thing crop up in training Allowed me to troubleshoot things in my training runs so that I could troubleshoot it and have familiarity like we've been here before in the race. I want to clarify something here. I am in no way encouraging you to run through injuries, okay? If your body is whispering to you, listen. If your body is screaming at you, listen. back off and potentially speak to a orthopedist, a physical therapist, whatever medical professional you have access to, preferably someone who is familiar with running, because you should not ignore what your body's telling you and push through at all costs. For me, as I've already prefaced, I'm a I knew I could proceed because I was in that safe zone between working with my physical therapist, who I have a history with, who knows me, and also consulting with my running coach, with the training, and also me knowing my body after years of being an athlete and knowing how to push it and knowing that it wasn't exacerbating, nor was it, you know, going any higher than a one or two. It just got uncomfortable and it would get better and it had been getting better. So in those next 20 miles, a lot of normal aches and pains that can crop up in a, an ultra marathon. Typically they happen later, but sometimes they can happen earlier. So for me, I just was like, all right, this is going to be a long next 24 plus hours. So what are we going to do? What is the game plan? And I immediately thought of what the game plan was. I got into the 20 mile 27 aid station. My kids, my husband were brilliant. They jumped on it. They provided me with the care I needed. And then also the big topamine hip hit of seeing them was phenomenal. So from there I had a big climb and I was like, all right, big climb. We're going to hard hike. We're going to get more calories in. We're going to get that nutrition and we're going to refocus. We're gonna let the first 27 miles be what they were, and we're gonna focus. Now we are entrenched into the race, and let's do this. I don't know, maybe it was that pup talk as I was hard hiking up that hill or whatnot, but my body just felt better. And I just sat with it, and I was like, okay, we're gonna keep listening to our body. I don't think I really looked at my watch most of the race. So I run with a watch. Another thing I do in training is oftentimes I will cover up my watch with a buff. So just kind of like a, um, scar for lack of better terms. If you don't know what a buff is, put it over my watch because I know the miles are going to come. I prefer to run with how I feel internally. I feel we can sometimes get a little caught up on data that We look down and whether it's a pacing, whether it be on a cardio machine and we're looking at time and caloric burn, we're looking at speed on a bike, power output, all of these different metrics may, you know, we're not, it disassociates our internal dialogue and feeling of how we're actually doing and performing. So I tend to do that when I'm training, because when you are out there sometimes. for three to four hours up to five hours in training and You're like you may be having quote unquote a slow day or your body not feeling great and you look at Your watch and you see that miles but come across and it could be slower than what you're normally doing Well that can mentally tank you you can be like, oh, okay. I feel like crap My mile split is slower and you know, it can just really sabotage you. So oftentimes I will cover my watch and just focus on getting the nutrition in, covering the terrain, being in tune with how my body is. Push when I can push back off when I feel like I'm pushing too hard and really be receptive to that. So that is what I looked at in or what I did and how I executed this race. I was like, okay, we know our body, we know when we can push. and I pushed. I felt good and when it didn't feel the best, I backed off for a little bit. In ultra running, there is hard hiking. Sometimes there's walking, there is running, there's all facets of movement through there and walking is walking with a purpose. We're not out for leisurely stroll. We are walking with a purpose because You, you have cutoff times and you know, some can be very strict and I've been on courses where they are very technical courses in the cutoff times. It's like you start the race and you're already behind the cutoff times. Aid stations are another area where you can lose a lot of time. So you have to have a crew or you yourself have to be very efficient in getting through them. And that's where I love before coming into aid stations is having a game plan, not only for myself, because I do use a spreadsheet, communicate it to my crew. They get the spreadsheet after I don't, I don't look at the spreadsheet again. And after a week out, I give it to them. I don't, I don't look at it. Um, I'm just there to execute. And, you know, they know, um, my husband's been crewing me through all these. He knows he'll have the plan, throw out the plan and start a new plan. Um, because things can be different on race day. Um, they're not drastically different than what is on the spreadsheet because I've rehearsed it. My body knows I know, but I could come in and be like, no, I don't want applesauce. I want mashed potatoes or whatever the case may be. Or Didn't think I need a shoe change here, but I'm going to need a shoe change here or a sock change or I have hot spots that cropped up that are new. Things can change. Um, and that, that's fine. The other thing, um, that also helps is when you come into an aid station and you are mentally prepared with a game plan, I always have three plans. So as I'm prepping in and also kind of helps make those, Because for me, the last one to two miles before an aid station seem like the longest miles. So I'm like, okay, let me distract myself with coming up with plans. What if my crew's not there? Okay. What am I going to do? What if I need to be in the aid station longer? What is my game plan? How is my hydration? Where am I at here? I don't know. Do, am I really hungry? Do I need to get a stronger, what I call them calorie bombs, like getting more calories in here, um, et cetera. What is the weather like? What do I need to ditch out of my pack? You have a hydration pack, kind of looks like a backpack if you're unfamiliar with ultramarathoning terms. So that helps me and provide comfort and safety for my brain. It's like, okay, we have multiple plans. We've already thought this through. We know when we get into the aid station. Boom, this is our game plan. Also, do I need to go to the toilet? All these different things. And this served me really, really well when I was coming into mile 43. When I was coming into mile 43 at this 100 marathon, 100 mile base, my career wasn't there. My first instinct was to panic. Oh my goodness. My crew is not here. I don't have a drop bag. I need nutrition. I stopped that. I shut it down. I said, okay, crew's not here. Go to the bathroom. You need to go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom because they'll probably turn up by the time you get out of the bathroom. There was a bit of a line and there was only a porta potty there, which was awesome. You know, I'm not gonna, not complaining there. Went in, used the toilet, came back out. Crew's still not there. Okay, no big deal. We've thought this through. What is our game plan? It's when you take, you know, yes, I was a little stressed, but I did not allow that emotion to take control. When we get really upset, you know, and I'm not saying, let me preface this, I'm not saying you're not entitled to emissions, but when you let emotion overcome and start to derail you versus thinking a little bit more objectively through something, that's where you can kind of throw your race or throw the plan. So I was like, all right. aid station food. I generally don't eat it for me. I have other food. I'm not on any special diet. I just find like some of the offerings don't sit well with me. Um, but at this race they had gels that I had trained with before. So I was like, okay, cool. I could grab a bunch of those and get on to the next, I think it was like six miles, six or seven miles down. To the next aid station, which I would see my crew at again. So, cool, I could grab those, that will sustain me. Are they perfect? Is it part of my plan? Something I'm aware of? No, but it's something I've used in the past that I know will be fine. Well, by the time I got through the toilet, everything else, 15 minutes later, my crew showed up. Again, that flare of, this stop wasn't supposed to be this long, flared up. I let it be. I was like, you know what? We are so ahead of everything. At the time I was coming in over an hour and a half, almost two hours ahead of what I predicted on the spreadsheet, which was amazing. I was floored, but I was like, we're going to keep focused on putting one foot in front of the other, you know, just getting these miles done, focusing on feeling good, feeling the body, moving up the train, seeing the hill and just being like, we got this, keep pushing yourself up the hill and go. So it was all good. Got my crew. They were amazing. I could see my husband was a little flustered. There was traffic. All things out of our control. Again, control the controllables. Because if we sit here and get worked up about things that we can't control. It prevents us from being able to control the controllables that are within our control. That's a lot of word use of the word control, but if you know the controllables that you can control, you're going to be able to keep moving forward. So at this point, went out to the, it was an outback course, got out to mile 52. It was still warm at mile 52. The plan was bundle up for overnight because the temps were going to go down to 30 degrees. I was still too hot. I was like, give me arm sleeves. Cause if I put that jacket on, I'm going to be overheating. My body's going to be burning more, um, calories and fuel. I'm going to be sweating in my jacket. And when it gets night, I'm going to be in wet clothes. So that plan worked double or. went to turn around, ran the six miles back, grabbed my pacer, and it was time to do the overnight miles. In my last 100 miler, my fear going into this one was I hit a major mental low and lost my focus between, I don't know, it was in the hours of the morning, maybe it was like 2am to 4am. I had a really hard time moving forward. Again, in training, you don't, at least I don't, maybe some other people do. I don't train overnight hours for me with my life. It does not make sense. Um, I'll get up early and train. Um, but running in the middle of the night to get practice in the middle of night does not work with my busy mom's schedule. It's too exhausting and too much to come back from that. It does not warrant that practice time during that time. Others may, and I think that's awesome for them, but it just is not conducive for me and my training style. So I had told my pacer that, I don't want to move at any slower than a certain pace. And the goal is to keep moving forward. But it also said, if I need to sit down and close my eyes for two seconds, to refocus, I am going to do that. We kept moving forward that time in the middle of the night flew by. It was quite amazing. I was so honestly impressed that I was able to just move forward. move forward. That doubts didn't creep up. It was just we're moving forward. This is a task at hand and the belief that grew inside me was incredible. I genuinely feel all of that comes from Put showing up and putting the practice those busy manic weeks in my life where I'm like How am I going to fit my training into an already overwhelmed schedule? But find a way without You know cutting into my sleep my nutrition all of those things Allowed me to persevere in the dark hours of the night When you are tackling a big goal, you are going to learn many aspects of yourself. You're going to have growth. I feel the best thing that you can do when you are tackling a goal that scares you is to remain curious. Allow yourself to have emotion. They are a pivotal part of life. growing, but don't be overcome by that emotion. Good, bad, or indifferent. Yes. I had some ugly cry out there. That's normal. You're, you do get a motive on the trail. Um, but don't let it dictate how you're going to train or how you're going to show up for that goal. Look at it, grow from it. And see, like, hey, what felt really good, what didn't feel good, you know? And also find areas where you can lean into support. Because when I started my ultramarathoning journey, I didn't like running, writing, excuse me, training plans for myself, like run training. I was really great at writing the strength training. I felt fine in that. I knew my run training plans, I thought they were good, but I'd always be like, is this enough? Is this not enough? Should I do this? Well, what if I change this? Am I still going to get the same outcome? For me, I didn't want to coach myself on that, so I wound up finding an incredible coach, and she handles all that. And we work together, she's the, the, um, genius behind it, and I say, hey, you know what, I feel like I need to tweak this here, and we work together. on it. And it's nice because, you know, I have that accountability. I have that support. Also within my house, I do have that family support. My kids are involved in sports. They're also involved in music. My husband and I both have music and so to speak sport too. We have our own respective interests there, but we support and push each other. We also help each other you kind of discern, maybe we need to back off or maybe we need sleep. And I think that is really vital. So I challenge you, if you are looking to conquer something big for you, look at your support. Who are the people that are going to be your crew? And are they going to be a good sounding board? Maybe you need to hire someone to help. And I'm going to use a sense of, um, fitness. If that makes it easier, you know, maybe you know how to write it. Like I knew how to write, run training programs. I help clients through certain things. I was a previous track and field coach. I knew how to do a lot of these things, but I was just like, it's causing me too much mental strife. Yes. I recognize and full heartedly understand it is a luxury, but it was one that brought me to piece to allow me to commute, continue training the way I wanted without the mental stress. So look at, identify kind of where you need support, where you can lean in for support and look at around kind of not only just pertaining to that goal, but in everyday life. So I want to leave you with that. I know it was a big overview. I hope you got something out of it. But whether you ever want to tackle a hundred miles or you're looking to tackle a huge career goal or maybe something personal, remember that our big goals are always within reach. It's step by step, mile by mile. And while it may not be easy, the journey will truly show you the strength you did not know you had. So I appreciate you taking the time with me and I would love. to hear your own experiences with big goals and resilience. You can message the podcast. Just click on, um, the podcast and you'll be able to send me a message or you can email me at cat K a T at cat K a T dot fit F I T or reach out to me on social media. Also, I would love for you to follow the show because that's how other people find it. The show just like you did or share it with someone where they might take some value from it. But until next time, keep challenging yourself. Stay true to your why and trust that you are capable of incredible things.