ultra running

Ready As I’ll Ever Be… [#RRR100]

So, it’s here. Race week has arrived. The Run Rabbit Run 100 starts in less than 24 hours! And I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. You’d think that with the lack of actual training on the trails I’d have every other part of the race day prep mastered. Not true. Not even a little bit true. I spent a good portion of last night sitting on my bed staring at 4 mini totes nicely labeled but not even sort of packed…a pile of clean clothes was tossed on my pillows, a stack of half finished lists were scattered across the bed, two cats are crawling all over me and a half packed duffle bag was hiding behind me.

Rather than check the weather repeatedly I’ve decided to pack everything I own. That’s a valid compromise, right? It’s a good thing I drive an SUV…the list of things I need keeps growing! Yea, yea, I know ultras are all about making due with what’s available, which I can appreciate, but what if I need it before or after the race?! All this insane list making keeps me sane…or at least speaks to the tiny part of sanity I have left.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Witnessing the Reality of 100 Miles [Leadville 100]

I know very little about running a 100 mile race. I might have one on the schedule in a month but I’ll be the first person to tell you I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve soaked up as much information as possible and have high hopes for my abilities to complete the distance but there is a lot I still need to learn. And there is no better place to get a crash course on the reality of a 100 mile race than at the Leadville 100.

My weekend was spent doing just that – roaming around the mountains near Leadville chasing my runner, waiting for a pacer, encouraging strangers and sucking down caffeine. At the end of the day my runner did not make it across the finish line, but he fought hard on the trail and walked away knowing he gave the mountain trails his all. Even though my runner wasn’t able to head home with a finisher’s belt buckle I left Leadville with a wealth of knowledge and a new take on the reality that may go down at Run, Rabbit, Run!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

My Kinda RICE!

If you have an injury (or even if you only have a niggle that might become an injury) one of the first things people will tell you to do is RICE. And if you don’t know what RICE means a quick LMGTFY search will give you this…


(yay for smart Wisconsin colleges…where I paid lots of money for a piece of paper I rarely use!)

…which is a pretty straight forward explanation of what you should be doing to recover from most running related injuries. Now, maybe I’m a little wrapped up in semantics but I am currently pretending that I am not injured…I just have a little niggle that is unexplained and will not go away, no matter how many bad words I call it!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Running the 4 Pass Loop [Maroon Bells]

This past weekend I wandered west on a bit of an adventure…to Aspen and the Maroon Bells with plans to run the 4 Pass Loop with Ann, Holly, Paula and Logan. I’ve spent the last few days recuperating and I think I’m finally ready to actually tell the story. The story of a beautifully ass kicking trail run with some bad ass ladies!

The little adventure was born on Twitter when Logan got us all excited about her run-all-the-trails Colorado adventure and it became real on Friday night when Logan and I spent about 6 hours making the trek from Fort Collins to Glenwood Springs! SIX HOURS! Our late arrival at Ann’s was made even more exciting when the alarms starting going off at 3:37am. We drug our butts out of bed, slathered on the sunscreen and chugged double shots of espresso.

After a little “uh, do I have enough stuff packed?!” panicking we made our way to the Maroon Lake trailhead and were running toward stunning alpenglow mountains before 6am rolled around. We hit the 4 Pass Loop counter clockwise and spent the first few miles scooting along the trail making our way toward Buckskin Pass.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Everything and Nothing [North Fork 50M Recap]

It has been four days since I finished my second 50 Mile race…my legs still work, my feet aren’t broken and the vivid memories of pain are fading away. As of this morning I have officially gone on two short shake out runs since the race and my body has not rebelled. My poor, abused body never fails to impress me.

Now, about that race…

My day started out with nerves – my hands were shaking so bad that I didn’t really need to move my arm to brush my teeth. I was scared. But I knew what I had to do, so I did it. I threw my gear in my car and headed to Pine, CO where I parked at the fire station then grabbed a shuttle to the start. By 6:15am I had checked in, picked up my bib and snuck in a quick bio break – now I just needed to kill 45 minutes before the start of the race. The time flew by with so many familiar faces at the start. I knew people running, crewing, pacing and volunteering…I may have arrived alone and I may be spending many hours alone on the trail but I was going to know a lot of people out there and I was going to soak up ever single word of encouragement!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Bring on 50 miles…

…because I either get excited about the adventure or curl up in the fetal position under my desk and tremble as fearful tears streak down my face. As entertaining as the latter option may be for my co-workers I’ve decided to go with option one and channel my inner crazy girl excitement at the prospect of taking on 50 very hilly miles on Saturday.

At this point running more miles will do no good, so I’ve resorted to fueling. It’s safe to say running 50 miles will burn a bajillion or more calories so stock piling my cookie dough and donuts and gummy bears reserves is a great plan, right? If it’s not, don’t tell me. In my defense I’ve also been sucking down water like it’s Mt Dew…which it definitely isn’t, ftr.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Finding Trail Love

Remember that one time I said I had a game plan for surviving the Quad Rock 50M? And then how I wrote about fitting runs in for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Then I had a really great long run at the Palmer Lake 24 Hour Race! How about that painful run that reminded me that the little things matter, too?

Well, it’s been a long month with my mind and body taking a beating. I’m leaning heavily on my plan to ride it out and make the most of the race while hoping that the 37 strong miles at Palmer Lake say something about my ability to show up and run when needed. We’ll see…soon!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

A Miserable Reality Check

Just a heads up – this post is going to be whiny. I had a rough run this weekend and I want to talk about it. However, there is a pretty good chance you don’t actually care about the running part…so I’ll give you a little mountain eye candy.

On Saturday morning we headed west to Buena Vista to run a chunk of the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run 25M course that Chris will be running on next month. He wanted to get a feel for what he would be racing on and I needed hilly miles on single track…done and done! Turns out I was also about to get a miserable dose of reality…and, now that it’s all over, I’m incredibly glad that Saturday’s run sucked. Because I needed a bad run to make me appreciate the good ones…and I needed this craptastic run to go down before race day on a different course.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago
Palmer Lake 24 Hour Race

Palmer Lake 24 Hour Fun Run {PDR!}

Earlier last week I saw a post about the Palmer Lake 24 Hour Fun Run. On Friday morning Paula, Chris and I signed up for it. Saturday morning rolled around and we headed south with a few bags of food and many layers of running gear having no idea what to expect.

We went in with the goal of 6 [or 7] hours at the race then heading back to real life and such. We really had no idea what we were doing and if it weren’t for Paula waiting for a ride I may have stayed in bed. The idea of showing up at a small ultra terrified me. It was a laid back event put on for the sake of getting people some training miles but I had decided I was going for a PRD [Personal Distance Record] of at least 32 miles and that got me all worked up.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago
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