The past four years I have run my age in miles for my birthday. It started in January 2020 when I was turning 60 and wanted to do something big to commemorate that milestone. Debbie’s Birthday Freeze Fest was born. Then somehow it became my yearly tradition as it continued in 2021, 2022, 2023. Until this year. This year, my college-aged grandson Kadan wanted to run a trail race with his mom (our daughter Elizabeth) and of course, I wanted to participate in this family trail bonding. The race was the weekend of my birthday. “It’s okay,” I told myself. “My birthday Freeze Fest is not set in st ..read more

October 14, 2023 Heartland 100K was my redemption race. After my digestive system nightmare and consequent DNF at Run Rabbit Run 100, I was consumed with trying to figure out the cause of my problems. It felt as if my whole future ability to run ultras depended upon solving this mystery. (If you haven’t read about my experience at RRR 100, you can find that story here.) I had arrived at what appeared to be a solid assumption: I believed that my severe lower GI issues and stomach pain were caused by spoilage of the slurry mix that I carried for long hours during the race. I was eager to test t ..read more

I didn’t plan to run Run Rabbit Run 100. It was a bit random how I ended up at that starting line in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, on the morning of September 15, 2023. In December 2022 I spent some time browsing UltraSignUp—a risky pastime as most of you know! I was considering options for 100-mile races in 2023. I clicked on the page for The Bear 100 which is held in mid-September. I had been eyeballing this race for a while. Already sold out! Rats! I took a peek at the wait list. Two hundred sixty-eight runners. “Not much chance of getting in there,” I thought. Just on a whim, I clicked a f ..read more

Robber’s Cave State Park, Oklahoma, February 10-11, 2023 Running a 100-mile race is always an adventure, but sometimes unavoidable conditions and tough courses swell the adventure to legendary proportions. Outlaw 100 was such an adventure for me this year! Full disclosure: Okay, all of the conditions that made Outlaw 100 harder for me this year were not unavoidable. I decided to run an extremely hilly road half marathon six days before Outlaw. I know. Not the smartest decision I have ever made. I had been wanting to run Argo Half Marathon of a while, but it has always been scheduled on a Sund ..read more

Debbie’s Fourth Annual Birthday Freeze Fest This is a long post as usual, but dig in. The two things I want you to know are in bold. It’s rather embarrassing to tell the story of my Birthday Freeze Fest 2023. That’s because in many ways, it was a rerun of my mistakes in the 2022 version of Freeze Fest, as if I had learned nothing the entire year and was still stuck in the same place on my ultrarunning journey. But in spite of the embarrassment, here goes . . . My annual Birthday Freeze Fest has become a tradition and I didn’t hesitate to commit to another year of running my birthday miles. Fr ..read more

Maybe you have heard that last January I ran sixty miles for my sixtieth birthday (during rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, and high winds). If not, find that story here. It was an epic event, full struggle and triumph. At the end, I quipped, “Next year, I think I’ll just have cake.” But of course, as “next year” drew closer, other ideas began populating my mind. When the possibility of another birthday run in 2021 was mentioned, one of my grandsons said, “I thought that was an annual event!” Now how am I supposed to respond to that? And so, the Second Annual Debbie’s Birthday Freeze Fest beg ..read more

What do I think about while running long miles on the trails? Sometimes I pray; sometimes I let my mind just be blank; once in a while I compose poetry. Fall tends to inspire me to compose poetry more than any other season. I think it is my favorite time to be in the woods. The beauty of the autumn foliage is breathtaking! I would love fall completely—it if did not mean that winter is coming shortly afterwards. For your enjoyment today, a bit of free form verse plus lovely fall photos. God moves the hand of Autumn Sweeping through the woods; Parting the curtain of summer’s heat and haze To r ..read more