Half the Battle: The Cuyamaca 100k
As soon as my alarm went off at 4:30 AM on Saturday I knew I was going to run 63 miles that day. The longest run I'd done in the past 6 months was 20 miles—just over 3 hours—but I was healthy. No fever, no chills, no overuse injuries clawing at my legs. The first few steps I was going to run would be filled with nothing but excitement. After a long stretch of injuries herself, the famed kiwi mountain runner Anna Frost once said she believed getting to the start line healthy was half the battle. For months, this was my goal. Back in February I attempted to qualify for the Western States 100 at the Sean O'Brien 100k. Training had gone perfectly for months. I ran a 50k PR leading up to the race and hit my all time mileage high of 90 miles in one week, but with 4 weeks before the race I started to develop a creaky pain in my Achilles tendon. On top of that, with just 5 days before the start I got the flu. The night before the race my Achilles tendon h...