Ep 110- Rocky Resolve: A Mother’s 230-Mile FKT Journey

Kat from MilesFromHerView powered by KatFit shares her story of completing a 230-mile Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail section (34,000 feet of climbing) in 98 hours 40 minutes over Memorial Day. She describes the tough “Rocksylvania” terrain, cold rain, and wind, the inner voice urging her to quit around hour 78, and how pacing, fueling, emotional release, and controlling what she can kept her going. She notes she’s an ordinary runner with mostly 40-mile weeks, focusing on endurance and strength as an “insurance policy.” Kat details crew planning, credits her husband, pacers, and belief, and shares her motivation rooted in childhood dreams, motherhood, and her kids’ challenge, ending with recovery updates and encouragement for women to pursue big goals.

00:00 Hour 78 Breaking Point

01:07 Podcast Intro And Mission

01:55 The FKT Attempt Overview

04:23 Why This Dream Started

06:16 Motherhood And Identity Shift

07:24 Why Pennsylvania AT

08:42 Kids Challenge And The Why

10:39 FKT Basics And Support Crew

12:17 Rocksylvania Reality Check

13:35 Training For Duration Not Miles

19:17 Strength Training Insurance

20:56 Crew Logistics And Pace Plans

25:02 Race Start Pacing And Fueling

26:01 Weather, Emotions, And Mindset

29:27 Finish Line And Big Takeaways

32:19 Crew Gratitude And Recovery

34:16 Closing Message And Call To Action

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Transcript

0:00

It's somewhere around hour seventy-eight. I don't know exactly what time it is. I stopped caring about the clock a while ago. What I know is it's dark again, which means I've been moving for at least two full nights, and my body has stopped asking questions and started just filing complaints. My feet feel like someone's wrapped them in wet cr-concrete. My quads haven't been a normal body part since mile hundred and forty. And there's a voice, and if you've ever done anything truly long, you know this voice, that has gotten very calm, very reasonable sounding, and it keeps saying the same thing. "You could stop. You've already done enough. No one would blame you." And here's the thing about that voice. It's not wrong, exactly. I had done enough. Hundred and eighty-something miles, thirty thousand feet of climbing, two and a half days of moving through Pennsylvania backcountry in the rain and the wind and the most relentless, unforgiving terrain in an entire Appalachian Trail system. By any reasonable measure, I had done more than enough. But I didn't come out here to do enough. Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultramarathon runner, and a strength trainer in her 40s. With nearly two decades of experience, I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood, all while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice, or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Welcome back to MilesFromHerView. I am Kat, and I'm telling you the whole story. On Memorial Day weekend, I set out to run the Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail section, two hundred and thirty miles, thirty-four thousand feet of climbing from the New Jersey border to the Maryland border, I chose to do a supported fastest known time attempt on one of the most notorious, brutal sections of the Appalachian Trail. I finished it in ninety-eight hours and forty minutes, and that's just under that ninety-nine hours and just over four days moving the entire time. And I wanna be honest with you about something before we really get into it. I am an ordinary runner, and I want you to hold on to that. I don't win races, and I'm nowhere near a podium when I enter races. From any race I enter, I'm not going to get on that podium. My training runs are mediocre by most standards, and I run fewer miles than most of my peers, and my training plan is my training plan, and it works for me. But it's not the plan that shows up in the highlight reels. I am not somebody with extraordinary talent who's always destined for something like this. I'm just somebody who's really stubborn. And today, we're gonna go into all of that. I'm gonna highlight some of the planning. I'm not gonna bore you with all the intricate details. And please, if you have questions, message the podcast. If you're ever interested in anything like this, message the podcast. I am happy to share. And I'm gonna go into some of the training and the mental frameworks that I used when my body wanted to stop and my brain wasn't far behind. And the crew system that we built, the weather that literally tried to take me out, and goodness me, those rocks. Those rocks, and we'll get into all about those rocks. But I also wanna talk to you about why this matters beyond the miles because I'm a coach, and this is what I do, and I help women build strong, capable bodies in the belief to go with them. And everything I used out there to keep moving when it felt impossible is the exact same stuff I bring into my coaching practice every single week. So this episode may be for runners, but it is just as much for women who has never run a step and is just trying to figure out how to show up for themselves when life is full, hard, and her body doesn't always feel like her own. The scale is different, the terrain is different, but what are you up against? It's the same thing before I walk you through this attempt itself, I need to tell you why I did this. And a couple weeks ago, I did highlight this, so it's going to be a bit of a refresher, this just didn't start one day waking up and just doing this. It didn't even start before I signed up for my first hundred-miler. It started a lot earlier than that. I was this little girl with untamed hair. It was curly. I never combed it. I was just always out running. One might say I was a tomboy. I just had bigger than life dreams. And honestly, the world had a lot of opinions about that, telling me to calm down, slow down. Who do you think you are? And that beat me up a little bit, to be honest. I was like, you're told the world is your oyster. Go out and do. Dream big. And yet that same world was saying, "Slow down. Calm down. You can't do that. Don't do that. Who do you think you are?" And this novelty of hearing about people going out and hiking, people doing these of incredible physical and mental feats, it intrigued me. It piqued my curiosity. Once I learned of the Appalachian Trail and hearing how long it was, the thousands of miles and the vast terrain it planted a seed in me, something that I was like, "One day I hope to conquer that." Knowing that it would take months, and not sure even how, and being a little girl, 11, 12 years old, you're like, "I don't even know how this could be possible, but one day I'll do it." And those dreams got a little quieter because as life has it, you go in twists and turns. Life is not linear. And dreams get quieter. Some dreams get louder. Some dreams take the place of other dreams, and that's just life. And for me, I found the world of track and field, and that became my life. It became my muse. It became something that I was really good at and something that... Not that my other dreams died, it just, they took a backseat. And then I became a mom, and the world had a whole new set of opinions ready, that I was no longer an athlete, that my dreams didn't matter anymore, that my world was now only about my kids, and anything I wanted for myself was selfish and unrealistic or just over. But that felt wrong. I didn't like that. It set in motion an internal turmoil where I felt selfish a long time for wanting to work out. It's- I felt selfish for asking my husband, the father of my children, to watch the kids, that he shouldn't be burdened with that, that I'm the mom, that I'm the only person that should be doing this and that. I'm supposed to be the sole caretaker of the kids, but that's not what our partnership was founded on. That's not what parenthood is about. That's not what motherhood is about. But that wild, curly-haired little girl always had this internal voice that even when it got really quiet, it was still there. It had that knee-jerk reaction to every single one of those moments, a stubborn knee-jerk reaction to figure out how to do the things she always wanted. So here's where the Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail comes into Like I said, the Appalachian Trail has always been on my bucket list. The full trail, hiking the entire thing, a couple thousand miles from Georgia to Maine, and honestly I just don't know really if that's in the cards for me. I would love to do it one day, but I'm in the thick of life. My kids are in grade school. They are growing. They are active. They are busy. But the section of Pennsylvania, my home state, my terrain, one where I grew up hiking over those blasted rocks and roots, it is most revered as one of the most notoriously difficult sections on the Appalachian Trail. It's not the longest mile stretch in the state. And yeah, there are some sections that there's more climbing but it's known as one of the most tedious and mentally demanding sections. It's in the top four most difficult sections of the Appalachian Trail, and it kept coming back to me. I was like, "If I can't do the whole trail, I'm at least going to hike the entire Pennsylvania section of some sort." And when I got into trail running and ultra-marathoning, that idea just wouldn't leave me. Could I run it? Could I even be considered for a contender as the fastest known time? And that imposter syndrome was like a freight train because, again, I am an ordinary runner, not a podium finisher, not putting up huge training weeks. Three years ago, something shifted. My kids came into the family room, where my husband and I had been watching a YouTube video on Sally McRae. At the time, she had just completed the Cocodona two-fifty. It was her first two hundred mile race. And for those of you who don't know, Sally McRae is a pro athlete and phenomenal female runner very inspirational. I do encourage you to check her out. When my kids came into the room, they were just enthralled. They were like, "Mom, Dad, what are you guys watching?" And they were just all about it. They were in the midst of getting ready to say good night and go to bed, and they found themselves sitting on the floor watching this YouTube video. And then- they turned it to me. They challenged me to run two hundred miles before I was forty-five. At the time, I was forty-one. And honestly, I was like, "Guys." It totally frightened me. 'Cause I was two weeks out from even doing my first two hundred mile race. I was like, "Okay let's slow things down here. I've never even run past sixty-three miles. I don't even know if I can do a hundred miles, and let's just let's cross that off the list before we even get to two hundred miles." And in short, I since then have run four 100-mile races. Over the past few years, the kids never stopped reminding me. They never stopped cheering me on, and they had this belief that outpaced my own belief for the longest time, the belief that just compounded. And somewhere in there, the question mark of could I became a real conversation I was willing to have. So that's why. It's that little girl who was told to be smaller. It's that mom who was told athletic dreams have an expiration date. It's the kids in the family room watching an elite runner, Sally McRae, and daring their mom to do something that was impossible. It's every woman who has been handed the reason why not and decided to find a reason why anyway. So that's why I took on the trailhead at five AM on Memorial Day weekend the training and the attempt. And I'm gonna give you a little context because I know not everyone lives in this world. An FKT is the fastest known time, and it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a self-reported record for completing the route as fast as possible. No race organization, no official chip timing. You can submit your attempt to a governing website with GPS data, and it gets verified. There are two main categories, unsupported, which means you carry absolutely everything for yourself and you accept absolutely no outside assistance. And then there's a supported, which means you have crew that can come meet you at road crossings with food, gear, and you can have pacers on the trail either carrying food for you and I'm gonna say entertaining you, having conversation, et cetera. And my attempt was supported. And I chose supported because I, I don't know. May- it just felt more comfortable to me in some regards. I wanted to share it with people. I wanted to see my kids on course. I wanted to have my husband there. It wasn't solely about me. Like I said, it's about every woman who has been told no because they chose to have children, or they are a certain age, and I wanted to share this with others. My crew was mixed between men and women, and it was an elite crew. I will talk more about the crew, but elite, incredible human beings who were there. And the Pennsylvania section of the Appalachian Trail is about 230 miles, and it spans from the New Jersey line all the way down to the Maryland border. Oh, there are rocks. Pennsylvania has a n- nickname of Rocksylvania. It's also referred to as the place where hiking boots go to die. The every single mile, there are rocks, jagged, big, small. There are boulders that are slippery even when they are dry, ridges packed with slanted, slim rock that challenges every single footstep and beg for a twisted ankle. And when the trail finally looks runnable, like you're like, "Okay, there's no rocks here," there are grass clumps hiding even more jagged rocks waiting for you to trip. And the climbing doesn't stop. And yes, Pennsylvania does not have mountains per se, but we also don't believe in switchbacks. So the grades are very punchy and steep, over 25% in places, and physically relentless. Some of them are full of rock scrambles. And at one point I was climbing down of what can only be described as a sheer rock face cliff that my life flashed before, before my eyes. And both myself and my pacer at that point, we both were like, "Ooh. If this is how we're gonna go, I'm so happy it's with you." And here we go. Down that rock descent we went. This is a terrain I chose to run the fastest known time on,- not in spite of its reputation, but because of it. I wanna dismantle the training a little bit. I wanna go into the training and what it actually looked like for me. And training is going to look different for every person, and I do feel when I tell people, Yeah, I had to train for two hundred and thirty miles," it was a lot, and my schedule's already packed, but it is doable. I was not running eighty-mile training weeks. I was not doing two-a-days every single day. I was not doing anything that would show up as impressive in a Strava recap. Strava is an app for tr- triathletes and runners. I had low mileage. Most of my weeks were forty-mile weeks. My highest training week was around sixty miles. Now, I will say I did a hundred-mile race as part of the training run. It was a way for me to put that in as a really good test to see where my fitness was, and that was a way that I could really load up on a high volume week. I did that four weeks out from the attempt. And so that was a way in my busy schedule that I could carve out time to get in a big training week. What I was doing was treating this attempt for what it actually was, a duration challenge, not a fitness challenge. The question never came, Can my aerobic system handle the distance?" The question was, "Can I keep moving for four days?" And those require very different preparation. I have been training consistently for many years, and that does compound on it, so my aerobic system was trained for this. Again, it was not a, "Oh, three months ago, I decided to do this." This has been years in the making. So yes, that was there, but again, the consistency in training throughout the years allowed for me to be able to better handle this, where I didn't have to stack insane training weeks upon insane training weeks. To be honest, my life cannot handle that. Most weeks, I was training between ten to twelve hours mixed into the week, and so that meant for me to be very clear on my priorities. It meant, yes, the schedule sometimes had no slack. It meant for me to take a deep breath and be like, "Okay, this can get done." It meant for me to utilize every resource around me. And yes, when I say I was not doing two-a-days, there was a couple Sprinkled in there so I could get the mileage in where I needed to break up what was on the training plan to accommodate it to my schedule. So there was a constant adaptation that was happening with it around my schedule. Things that were non-negotiables were my mental health, my nutrition, and my sleep. That's just my personal non-negotiables. My training had to work in the confines of running a business, having two very active kids and getting them to their activities, in partnership with my husband, and understanding the demands of his career and how everything worked together, his travel schedule his training schedule. He also trains. So we had to all work together as a family that we were all set up for success. Did it get dicey? Absolutely. Were there days where I needed to cut back on my training? A thousand percent. This training plan was not executed in perfection. It was executed in adaptation and consistently showing up and understanding what I did that day was exactly what I needed to get myself to that Maryland state line. I had to relinquish guilt and shame in comparing myself to other people's training plans because those things, guilt, shame, and comparing myself, would not allow me to even get to the New Jersey state-Pennsylvania state line, nor would it even allow me to get to the Maryland state line. So I had to develop a narrow focus and be confident, even if it was a shaky confidence, that the run I did that day, the strength training and run I did that day, was what I exactly needed. Was it perfection? No. Could I have done more? Maybe. Should I have been doing more to elicit a faster, fastest known time? Maybe. I don't know. Those are question marks that I don't know. Question marks that I cannot answer. I had to focus on what I could do and understand what I'm doing was enough By doing this, by having that mental foundation and working on that throughout the training plan, that helped me better prepare. Because 98 hours on a trail is also real life. I knew things on the trail were not gonna go according to plan, I needed to adapt, problem solve, and keep moving. And if an entire training block is perfectly controlled and set up, and you're always feeling good, and every run goes precisely how you want it to go, you're not going to be ready for what's going to happen on race day. Because there are so many uncontrollables that are gonna be thrown at you, so many things that you're gonna have to problem solve, and if things don't go to plan and perfect on race day, you're going to fall apart that's where I took solace in the fact that my life, even if my training didn't have the perfect amount of miles or times run, my life was also setting me up for success. And the other piece I wanna highlight here is strength training, and this is something I talk about with my clients constantly, and I really wanna be direct with you about strength training. Strength training is what carried me through 34,000 feet of climbing. The descents on rocky terrain are brutally quad-dominant. The eccentric load is huge on all these things. The dynamic and power that it takes to be able to hop from rock to rock, to have that quick response, to elicit that power, the climbs demand everything from your posterior chain. And if I had not been doing consistent strength work through this cycle, my legs would've given out somewhere in the first 100 miles. They never did. Yes, I had poles. They helped offset some of the pain. My feet did get beat up from the rocks. My goodness, they got beat up because there are rocks. I don't know if I mentioned that. There are rocks on this trail. But I was able to stow my poles and not be so reliant to help offset weight or have my poles carry me through at any point. They really helped in certain areas to save my feet. But for the most part, when things got technical, I was able to move quickly over the rocks. Yes, with fatigue, it was a slower quickness than what it was back in the first 50 miles. So strength training is a non-negotiable for me. To be honest, in my training plan, I cut back on miles so I could strength train because that was the insurance policy that was going to help my body fare through this, that was going to help my bones, my tendons, my ligaments, everything, get me to that Maryland state line, and then being on the other side helped me recover. Now, the operational side of this attempt was just as much work as the training, and I wanna talk you through how I built it because I think it's one of the most underappreciated parts of any big endurance effort because it directly mirrors how I think about client programming. I built a full crew and pacer reference guide. My crew needed to know everything, what stop type we were at, what I needed, how long we had, what to watch for, what not to say. Again, it wasn't like I had a long list of things, but there are certain mental things that help me and certain things that could derail my mental state. There was no room for guessing on the course, and I needed them to be able to function without me directing them because I was going to be in no shape to direct anything. And again, I needed to control the controllables for me, and I trusted them. Every person on the crew and every pacer, I trusted them. I knew they were gonna do a phenomenal job. I knew they had what it takes. We had three types of stops, a rolling touch, which was quick, kinda grab whatever I needed and get back on the trail. A fuel stop, which was a real pause, eat, refuel, handle any gear issues. And then a total reset, which was for longer sit-downs. We were changing clothing getting any body work done. I had what's called a stick, self myofascial release roller out there. Quick massage on the feet and sleep problems and discussing any other problems or what's coming up in the next segment. A defining stop for each time I saw my crew and so that I could keep moving through it. My husband was my rock through all of it. Yes, pun intended, given the terrain. He never wavered. He always had calm words and the best hugs that I needed just to refuel me to get back out there. I also planned With three different pace ideas. I was being really aggressive. I honestly didn't know if I could do it. I didn't even know if I could even come under the current fastest known time. This terrain is unrelenting, and my A goal was, I'm gonna say a bit obnoxious. I wanted to come under 95 hours. I was just like, "I don't wanna be out there for longer than I need to be." I wanna try and push myself, but without going into the red zone too early that I would pay for it and end my effort before I got to the Maryland state line. So where I actually landed was under 100 hours. I was like, that was more my A goal where I was like, "I just wanna be under 100 hours. I just wanna get this thing done." I... it wasn't like rushed through it. I enjoyed so many parts of it, even though it was really grueling. In my mind, it wasn't like it was a success. It was like something about it, I wanted to be under 100 hours Having multiple plans isn't doubt, it's just preparation. It's just the way to help shift things on the course to recalibrate. At one point, yes, it was tough because I knew the times, I knew where I was at. Shockingly, for a long time, I was way ahead of my of the spreadsheet, which made me nervous because I was just like, "When's the other shoe gonna drop? Did I go into the well too early? What is going on here?" But I knew I needed to trust. I needed to trust my crew. As much as I kept asking them, "How am I doing? And there were several points where I thought.. i lost sight of it because the sections were so demanding and tough that they took longer than I anticipated. I had to push that out. As much as those feelings came up, I had to trust my crew, I had to trust their eyes, I had to trust their belief, even if I didn't see it, and that's where I had to take borrowed belief. All of this is how I coach. The women who hit their goals aren't always the ones who worked the out, the hardest. They're the ones who had the plan, trusted it, and knew how to adapt it in reality, and showed up differently than expected. So when I started at 5:00 AM on the New Jersey, Pennsylvania line on Memorial Day weekend, the first big lesson in- any effort is learning to pace when you feel good. And the first 20 to 30 miles, I felt good, that's really dangerous. Like I said, you don't wanna go into the well too early because if that effort feels easy at mile 10, the same effort is gonna destroy you at mile 80. So I had to keep pulling myself back. Trust the plans, trust that the miles will come, and don't spend it when you'll need it later. It was scary. I kept coming in so early, and I was like this is awkward. What's gonna happen? When is the other shoe gonna drop?" It was just trust moving forward. Keep focusing on fueling. Control the controllables. Understand that I have built a good base, that my body was doing what it was trained to do, that I could keep moving forward I wanna return to where I opened Hour 78, dark again. The voice. The weather already turned on me by this point. Temperatures were much colder than what they were predicted. The wind was whipping. I don't know the gusts. I don't... I was just like, I was dealing with it. Rain was coming in all directions. I was soaked through completely. I stopped a couple times to wring my gloves out, and my goodness, the amount of water that came out of them, I wish it was on video. I had to wring them out several times, and the water just poured out of them. Hypothermia was a real thought that crossed my mind because I started to shiver. I started to get really cold, and I couldn't control the weather. I couldn't control the temperature. I couldn't make the rocks less sharp or the grades less steep. But what I could control was my mind. I knew if I started freaking out, if I started, I don't wanna say giving into the cold. Your body temperature is gonna be your body temperature, but I knew I had to trust that I was gonna be warm. I knew there was a crew stop coming. I knew I could take solace in the fact that I could hop in a car and get warm. I could get out of my clothes, put on dry clothes. I wanna talk about the emotions here because I, I think sometimes with these efforts and what people think is actually mentally tough becomes a misunderstanding. People think that it means you just don't feel things. It means you're a stone, and that's it. I let the emotions come. I didn't suppress emotions. I cried a lot out there. Wasn't like, crying I can't do. It was a release in the body and something I genuinely needed. And at one point, I was so furious at the rocks, I yelled, and it startled my pacer, and she spun around to check on me. I was fine, but I was like, "Goodness me, I'm so over these rocks. Why? Why are there so many rocks?" Because there are only so many miles of rocks that any person can take before they just need to yell about it. So emotion is so vital. The whole goal of being mentally resilient isn't the fact that you don't feel emotions. It's the fact that when emotion comes, you can feel them, and you're in control, that they don't overcome you and cripple you, that you allow and invite them in to be there with you, to sit there with you, that you can continue to still move, and it's what makes us human. The skill, again, is not suppressing it. The skill is not letting it drive you. And I let myself feel everything, and then I kept moving. I thought back to training weeks- When my life was demanding everything from me, and so was my training, I had learned to stay calm and control the controllables and not let things rattle me. Surely, yes. Just as I exploded about the blasted rocks on the trail, there were times where I would let off that "Ugh, why can't this just be easy? Why can't I find the perfect time to work out?" But it was in those moments of daily life that allowed me to handle what the trail was throwing at me. I had practiced for this, and of course it was not perfect. But enough that when I needed it on the trail, I had something to reach for. And that's the transfer. That's what training actually builds. It's not just the physical stuff When I crossed 98 hours and 40 minutes and I tapped that sign at the Maryland State line, it was surreal. The whole thing was surreal. The first 24 hours after, I still was in disbelief. Was it all a dream? It did not feel real. And I keep coming back to that number. It's not a round number. It's not a clean finish. It's exactly how long it took, that-- and there's something about that specificity that feels right to me here's what I don't want to happen with this episode. I don't want you to listen to all this and think it's a story about someone exceptional because I already told you at the beginning. I'm an ordinary runner with ordinary talent who's really stubborn. That's the whole story. What I want you to take from this The world is going to try and tell you're not worthy of big goals. It will have a lot of reasons ready. You're a mom. You're in your forties. You're in your fifties. You didn't start when you were young enough. It's too late. It's too much. Who do you think you are? And I wanna be very clear, who the F do they think they are? What do they know? I have clients who are older than me doing absolutely incredible things. The body is resilient and adaptable in ways that the fitness industry does not always want you to know because there is more money in selling you the idea that your time has been expired. Your strength, your power, your real capa-capability in your forties and fifties and beyond is not only possible, it is the work I do every single day. The FKT taught me, and what I try to bring into coaching relationship is this: Believe in the plan and keep showing up. Plans are not meant to be executed perfectly. Adapting the plan is part of executing a sound training plan. Combination of strength work, cardio, mobility done consistently over time will set you up not for perfection, but for the capability when you need it most. Work on those internal stories, the ones that tell you can't. That voice is a bully the world has installed through the years of telling you to be smaller. And if I had listened to it every single one of those thousand times it chirped in my ear on the trail and off, I would have never stood at that finish line. It would have stayed a question mark. Could I? Followed by the, "Oh, that's not for people like me." And finally, being a mom, being in perimenopause, being post-menopausal, being someone who came to this later than you think you should have, none of that means your dreams have an expiration date. None of it. Back to my crew. My crew and pacers are some of the most incredible humans. I am forever grateful they took the time out of their lives to be there with the calm words, full of belief in something that probably looked from the outside like a hair-brained adventure If any of them ever ask me to join them on something crazy, I'm there, no questions asked. Recovery has been real, and I wanna be honest with you about that. I'm still recovering. It's been a week and one day since I finished. Right now I'm going into an unstructured training plan. For the next six to seven weeks, I'm gonna run when I feel like it. I'm not gonna hold myself to certain mileage weeks, which I never really did. I do time duration-based training anyway. I'm gonna go out and let the body heal. I'm gonna get back into strength training. I'm going to just enjoy for a little bit. It doesn't mean being on a training plan, it's not enjoyable, but there's something to unstructured time. In the Northeast here, we are going into the summer months, which means my kids are gonna be out of school. It means schedule's gonna be a little bit out of the norm, and I'm just gonna enjoy not thinking about training for a race, not thinking about I'm gonna see that deadline to meet. Yesterday I got out on the trails, and my goodness, I missed it. You would think I had my fill of trails, but oh, it was so great. I am not burnt out from the training. I am not burnt out for life, and I'm so incredibly happy to be on the other side of something so physically demanding. And leading up to it, there was many points I did not think I was going to get to that start line, that I've come out the other side feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and fired up for more. I don't know what's next. I don't care to answer that because I am just enjoying this for right now. So yeah. What's next? I'm still sitting with that question. But I wanna leave you with this. Life is too short to stand still because of some narrative someone else is selling you about what you're capable of. Go out and try. You may genuinely surprise yourself. Find your village, the humans that believe in you, who see what you actually can do. They are out there. And when you find them, hold on to them. If you wanna be part of mine, you know where to find me. If you have any questions about this episode, feel free to message the podcast. I read all my emails, and I do get back to everyone. If you haven't already, hop into the show notes, hop on my newsletter. I reach out every week. I don't have time to spam anyone's email. I'm probably out on a trail or logging miles or in the gym or in the car, mommy taxiing my kids somewhere. So trust me, I will not spam your inbox. And if you're interested in training, book a call with me. I'd love to connect. Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast, and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into next. You can connect with me on Instagram @KatFit Strength or share this episode with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.