Running Thoughts

This is the most difficult part to write about my experience with Elsie. There’s a lot associated with what happened after the race that took me 2 weeks to fully write this up. Let me begin by saying: I would never change what happened during that event. It’s truly a great and challenging event, and feel immensely grateful. Everyone associated with it has been great, and I truly appreciate those that have reached out to me afterward. I am truly grateful, and I fully intend to run this race again in 2023. I really struggled to handle and fully incorporate all the feelings and emotions that stemmed from this event. I became physically, emotionally, and psychologically drained and it took a toll on me over the following days. I realized I was stronger in many ways than I believed, but also found a lot of weaknesses and vulnerabilities that I am still processing through. Running long distances and races such as this strips away all the extra noise and distractions in the world. Ultimatel...

I’m going to start by thanking everyone at Elsie Enduro Trail Ultra for putting on a tremendous event. This is a running event to fundraise for the Evitt Foundation, which promotes child welfare and education. The swag is fantastic, the atmosphere is fun, and the skill of all the great runners made this an amazing event. This format is very accommodating to runners and athletes of varying skill levels and experience.   The Elsie Enduro is located at the Elsie Holmes Nature Park along the South Chickamauga Creek in Ringgold, GA. There’s a dam nearby and the lower rim runs right along the edge of the creek creating a great view with relaxing sounds. The format of the race is a Last Man Standing format. This is not a point-to-point race where the 1 st person to complete the course wins. Instead, every 40 minutes, runners complete an estimated 2.50-mile loop (my watch measured 2.55-2.60 miles) with an estimated 500 ft of elevation gain, which includes steep inclines and stairways ...