SRC-Brooks Team 2024: The year-end report

In late July I got to pace a friend at the Cascade Crest 100 mile race. It was a not-quite-last-minute thing and was a great opportunity to get to know one another better. Since this leg of the race was on paved and logging roads, I wore my Glycerin 20 GTS and they felt great (they did end up brown by the end from all the dust on the logging roads haha).

In August I volunteered at the Billy Mills Run For Life for the third year in a row and at the Cougar Mountain Trail Series race I was in charge of all things involving prizes as it was the PNTF Open and Masters Trail Championships as well as the first ever PNTF Youth Trail Championship, which included the inaugural Youth Trail Project summer race series finale. So awesome to see so many youth trail runners and to support trail running and racing in our community!

My SRC-Brooks Teammate, Chris Chamberlin, and I swept part of the Teanaway 100 mile course in late September. We got to spend a lot of quality time together, cheered on almost the entire field, and take in some beautiful sunset views of Mt. Rainier. Thanks to my trusty Cascadia 16s (yes, I’m still wearing my final pair – that’s what happens when you don’t run much for a year), my feet felt great for all of the several hours we were out.

I’ve done most of my running on trails the past few months due to my heel injury. It’s been great for my dog, Ranger, because she really enjoys running on the trails and gets to go with me every time. While I’m the least fit I’ve ever been since I started running, she’s probably the most fit she’s ever been! 

More recently, I’ve *FINALLY* been able to run more and even do some workouts! It’s been a real treat being able to do this again and I’m grateful to get out every day for my run, no matter the weather. 

My Brooks apparel makes it easier and more comfortable to get out in any weather, especially with the shorter days and running the dark. The new reflective apparel is so easy to see! And those High Point trail running shorts and wool top are extremely comfortable. No matter the weather, I feel good wearing them, to the point that they kind of disappear – how awesome!

 I’m also getting excited about starting to think about racing again. I’ve got a couple of big races on my radar for the first half of next year. Now to see how long it takes to regain my fitness. Fortunately, my trusty Brooks shoes will help keep my feet and body in a good, strong place as I continue to build mileage and do more speedwork. I’m looking forward to finally having a reason to wear my new Hyperions!

Thanks to my awesome SRC-Brooks Team family for supporting me through a super rough year.

The focus of the second half of the year for me was my first 100 miler – the Run Rabbit Run 100 in Steamboat Springs, CO on September 13. The race takes place mostly at 8,000-10,000 ft and starts at 1 pm, which means the runners race through the night. I wasn’t sure how the elevation would feel as a Seattle sea level gal, but fortunately I was able to spend a week leading up to the race in Leadville with my brother who lives there, which I think helped a bit. I focused on trying to run a smart race and staying on top of my nutrition and hydration. I spent most of the race in 10^th place, which was not where I wanted to be but knew that some people would fade ahead of me or drop, and if I stayed consistent and steady it would pay off. That strategy worked and by mile 90 I had made my way up to 3^rd place. The 20-mile section before the final descent was the hardest for me but it was also where I moved up the most in the field. It turns out in a 100-mile race there’s going to be sections where everyone feels like they’re struggling, so you just have to try to struggle the least. Gotta love ultrarunning! The race went as well as I could’ve hoped for my first 100 miler, and I know there will be more 100s in my future.

Leading up to the 100 miler, I raced the Cougar Mountain Trail Run Series 14.5 miler at the USATF PNTF Trail Championships in August and defended my title from last year with a new PR! It’s always fun to rip around Cougar and was a nice confidence booster leading up to Run Rabbit Run. I volunteered at the finish line afterwards and it was fun to cheer in other runners as they finished the 14.5 miler and marathon. The week after Cougar, I set the unsupported FKT on the Mt Rainier Northern Loop – Spray Park Figure 8 route. It’s a steep, 43-mile route combining two classic loops in Mt Rainier National Park, and I used the run as my last big training effort before the 100 miler. Unfortunately, the weather was not ideal that day, and I was in the clouds all day and never got any views of Tahoma. It’s still a beautiful area in the clouds though, and I had a fun big solo adventure! 

Post 100 miler involved lots of recovery. I took some time off from running and got out on some chill adventures in the fall colors. I was invited to run the North Bend Trail Fest 30k in mid-October and decided to hop in with a focus on having fun, as I had just started feeling recovered from Run Rabbit Run and didn’t do structured training leading up to it. It was a tough, steep course and my legs certainly didn’t feel very prepared for it, but I achieved my goal of having fun and still came away with a 3^rd place finish! 

I’ve still been loving the Brooks Catamount 3 as a racing shoe and have found another favorite shoe in the Brooks Caldera 7. This model was a major upgrade from the previous version and was my shoe choice for Run Rabbit Run, when I wanted something with extra cushion to get me through almost 22 hours of running. The Brooks High Point shorts have also become a new favorite running item of mine. They have a built-in belt which is perfect for stuffing gel wrappers into during any distance and carrying everything I need for a sub-ultra race, including a flask! 2024 was a great year of running and I’m excited to chase some big goals in 2025!

It always amazes me how fast a year goes by. I do feel it has been a very productive year on multiple levels though. First off, touching back on my last report, I have been receiving excellent support from my medical team regarding my perimenopause diagnosis and I am feeling significantly better about it and much more like myself. I am already planning running events and races for next year, which is very exciting. This is still a long process of adaptation, but I have some really great tools to work with and finally feel confident that I can get back to more of the training and racing that I really enjoy. I am planning on local events as well as some destination runs/races, and of course lots of volunteer events.

This past summer I was able to do more trail runs, as well as travel down to Arizona for some really solid altitude training in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. It was very much out of my comfort zone, but I was really able to push myself and test my limits. I was also able to do some of our local runs and I got to explore parts of Seattle I didn’t even know existed. I loved exploring new areas.  While my own racing was on pause, I got to volunteer at multiple events such as the Cougar Mountain Series and the Brooks PR Invite. The Brooks PR invite was extra special to me this year because one of the high school athletes I coach got to compete. I spent track and cross country season running with my athletes and very much enjoyed sharing my knowledge and stories of running. I was also a fan of a couple of the latest Brooks shoe models out this year, such as the Hyperion max for my track workouts and the Divide for my trail runs. I tended to have my go-to shoes like most athletes, but it certainly was fun to try the latest innovations in Brooks footwear as well as apparel. 

A big thanks to Seattle Running Club and Brooks for all of those amazing experiences and the stellar individuals I encountered on all of my adventures.

For the second half of 2024 I’ve been focused on the Cougar Trail Run Series and cross country!

In June, I ran the 14.5 mile Cougar race and came in 4th woman (behind some speedy ladies!), I wasn’t sure how it would go just a month after running rim-to-rim-to-rim at Grand Canyon, and with not much recent speedwork, but I felt amazing and had a blast. In July, I ran the 19.5 mile distance and came in 3rd woman in an equally competitive field. I struggled in the heat and didn’t feel my best, but I was able to set a course PR. In August, I circled back to the 14.5 mile distance at Cougar, which was also the USATF PNTF Trail Championships. I made a goal to run even the steepest hills and surprised myself by shaving 11 minutes off my June time for another course PR, and also came in second master’s woman.

October brought the start of cross-country season for me, with the Emerald City Open at Woodland Park. I’d recently had covid and was not feeling 100%, but I ended up with a pretty average time for myself on that course—I’ve run faster, but I’ve also run slower. A couple of days later, I made a last minute decision through-run the Enchantments solo. This is a 20-ish mile, absolutely stunning high alpine journey, through numerous crystalline lakes, bright granite, and vast groves of larch trees (which were at their golden peak!). It had been 8 years since my last Enchantments trip, so it was wonderful to be back, and I had absolutely perfect weather. Doing it by myself, almost on a whim, was incredibly empowering and the whole day still feels like a dream!

Also in October was the Cougar Cup 7.6 miler (scored as a XC race). This is one of my favorite annual events, I am crazy about the flowy, fast course! I felt back to my normal self and ran just 15 seconds slower than my course PR, despite wet conditions. At the USATF PNTF XC Championships in November, I ran exactly the same time as I did last year (to the second!). I didn’t feel my best, but in the final 400m I finally tapped into that next gear I hadn’t been able to access yet this season. At the USATF NW Regionals XC meet a couple of weeks later, the mud only slowed me down a teeny bit from my previous time on that course. I’ve been steadily improving my times over the course of the cross-country season and feeling very good in my training. I’m truly looking forward to giving everything I’ve got at Nationals in December to close out my year!

I really enjoyed volunteering at almost all the Cougar races this year. I was on the parking crew for each race and I think maybe I’m finally proficient in this area, although I nearly parked in a whole line of people at one race—oops! Thanks Chris H. for saving the day! Volunteering has been such a fun aspect to my year, I absolutely love cheering people on and helping their race experience go smoothly.

My Brooks shoe lineup has truly contributed to my success this year. My daily trainer is the Hyperion Max, I love the combo of peppy responsiveness and max cushion. I think these shoes have been a key factor in helping me increase my average weekly mileage this year while avoiding injury. For speedwork I love the regular Hyperion. These shoes are soooo light and responsive, they work perfectly with my foot strike and make me feel so efficient. I also loved them for my road half marathon PR earlier this year. On trails, my daily favorite is the Caldera, and for the middle distance races I’ve been doing (and also some of the XC races!), I have been obsessed with the Catamount Agils. These shoes are really special and make me feel like I’m flying down the trails. For clothing, I do most of my runs pre-dawn at this time of year, and I feel like I’m constantly wearing the Brooks Run Visible ½ zip. It is the brightest top I’ve ever worn and is super comfortable for a range of temperatures. I need another because whenever it’s in the wash I’m very sad. I’ve had such a fun year on the SRC-Brooks team. It is so wonderful to be a part of this team and the whole SRC community, a group of people who share my love of trails and of pushing our limits!

September through November has been full of XC races and crisp fall weather workouts ranging from intervals on Lake Washington to tempos down on the Green River Trail. While there is comfort in a familiar workout and location, there is also excitement in trying out new trails and parks. It pays to break out of the comfort zone once in awhile (or once weekly?). My actual running performance has been trending steadily upward over the last few months as measured in not just races but in the workouts as well. I’ve noticed performance improvements in Emerald City/PNTF /Regionals in time from 2023 , but more importantly in how my body was moving and ultimately recovering after the races.  This is a testament to all the work I’ve been putting in the strength exercises, drills, and stretching….all the things that tend to get forgotten when life gets busy. It took me way too long to have  the realization that my glutes/hips were barely working any more and I had to make a serious effort to whip them back into the kind of shape that could put up 50-70 miles a week with quality workouts mixed in.  I certainly have more work to do but it’s a great feeling when you do a hard workout and can still run the next day without having compromised your mechanics and stride. It would be dishonest to not mention that the rotation between my Hyperion Max and Elites for long runs and workouts have been a game changer. I like to save the elites for race days and my toughest workouts, but Hyperion Max is quickly becoming my “If I had to pick one shoe”. One stand out race for me was the October Cougar XC Cup. It was a real test of strength and speed where I was beaten down handily on both accounts by a couple of very strong local runners(Kudos Doug and Zach).  The 7.6 mile course forces you to dig deep on the ups/downs/ and flat if you want to keep up with the front pack! I was happy with a distant third, another reminder of the work I needed to do but always trying to keep in mind what I’ve managed to do thus far! Catamount 3 was my shoe of choice for this race with a great balance of speed and some extra protection from the spicier parts of the trail. I’m thinking Agils next time to crank it up a notch on speed! I did also manage to sneak in a Turkey trot this year which was supposed to be my 5k comeback , however a long course and early start wave mishap prevented that magical sub 16 number , I instead settled for a good 16ish minutes of hard crowd dodging and dodgy pacing. 3 days later I managed to do some mile repeats and run my first mile in under 5 mins since 2016 (This may need to be fact checked but I’m pretty sure it’s been awhile…). With a sub 5 in a workout I was able to meet at least one arbitrary time goal for the year so I’m taking that momentum and confidence booster into my final big race of the year on December 14th.  I expect a muddy, sloppy golf course where obsessing over pace and numbers will get you nowhere!

The second half of 2024 featured a welcomed break from marathon preparation. After getting married in July, I dusted off my coach’s stopwatch and transitioned to training with the Eagles of Cleveland High School for their upcoming cross country season.

My fall racing plans this year aligned nicely with the high school calendar. This provided the perfect opportunity to get in some well-deserved bonding time with the scholastic harriers. Working with the youth running community gives a great perspective on why I appreciate this sport.

Coaching younger runners to achieve their goals is extremely satisfying. I am grateful that as a member of the SRC-Brooks team, I have been able to pursue a handful of ambitious, personal goals. And as a leader in this Seattle running community, I feel empowered to share my experiences and knowledge of the sport with up-and-coming runners.

As the sun sets on 2024, I am looking forward to wrapping up my year with a challenging 10k on the cross country course at the Club National race just outside of Tacoma. It will be a grind, for sure, but thanks to the camaraderie of our team, I know I’ll be in the best company who will share in the delightful misery.

Thanks to the support of Brooks Running and my teammates on the SRC-Brooks team. I appreciate ya! 👊 Hydrate. Breathe. Eat yo’ veggies. And Let’s Run There!

2024 was a challenging year for me both as a person and a runner with job changes, moves, and injuries, but I’m proud that I’ve come out the end of it still standing (and mostly running).  I started the year with a first-place finish (thanks to some errant runners ahead of me) in the Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival 10-mile individual race AND the 6 person relay (after two very cold hours of parking lot volunteering!). I ran most of the Cougar Mountain Trail series and while not performing quite as well as previous years, I thoroughly enjoyed every root and rock. I have had a more productive cross-country season with SRC this fall with times equaling my bests from a few years ago, but at the end an injury curtailed the fitness I had been building since the summer. 

The Brooks Cascadia and Catamount have remained my go-to trail shoes, and I’ve been impressed with how well they grip on PNW trails. I love training in both the Adrenaline (tried and true classic) and Glycerin (so, so soft). 

Getting to volunteer with SRC has given me a lot of purpose this year. We’ve helped maintain trails at Cougar Mountain and I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Billy Mills run for life in north Seattle. I spent much of the year helping to grow SRC as the merch/membership distributor and a board member.  Being part of the SRC-Brooks team has been an honor again this year, not just for the actual running but the amazing teammates I get to race and run with (as an adult it’s tough to find a “team”!). I spent the summer running in Ohio, and I was so proud to run on the other side of the country with the SRC and Brooks logos displayed on my clothes.

The second half of 2024 got off to a great start for me with strong finishes in the July Cougar Mountain 10.8-mile race (1^st in my age group) and the Wy’East Trailfest 28k (2^nd in my age group). Both of those races were super fun because I ended up dueling it out with a couple runners in sprints to the finish line. I came up short on both occasions, but it was a rewarding experience to push myself hard at the end of the race when my tank was empty. The 28k was a particularly great experience because the race was on Mt. Hood, which was both amazing and extremely challenging with tons of steep vert. The one downside of that race was that I came home with a sore hip. The soreness never went away and eventually got worse the more I ran on it. I finally went to the doctor and through x-rays discovered that I have osteoarthritis. Needless to say, I’ve been sidelined from running for a while and will likely be so for the foreseeable future as I work to build up muscles around my hip and seek out treatment options. The life of an aging runner is not for the faint of heart!

On the volunteering side of things, I continued to help with parking at SRC’s Cougar Mountain races and pitched in at the October trail work party. It’s nice to play a small part in making these races run smoothly, and of course to test my Tetris skills by squeezing as many cars a possible into the Sky Country Trailhead parking lot.

I’ve been running in Brooks shoes and wearing their apparel for several years and while they have always been great products, I feel like they really stepped up their game in 2024. I loved wearing the New Ghost Max on my long runs and the new Hyperion Max has to be the best thing out of their shop in a long time. The fit and comfort of both shoes keeps my old legs happy! On the trail side of things, I spend all my time in the Catamount and have enjoyed them on short and snappy runs and out on log hauls through the mountains. The Highpoint trail collection, specifically the waterproof jacket and the shorts, were great additions on my trail runs this year. The shorts are super comfortable and have tons of storage and the jacket is a lightweight security blanket when the weather turns for the worse. While I am stepping back from running next year to heal up, I will still be managing the team, supporting SRC through volunteering, and wearing my Brooks gear wherever I go.

The focus of my summer running was a trip to the Colorado’s Sawatch Mountains to race the High Lonesome 100. With an average elevation over ten thousand feet and a high point over thirteen, I knew I needed to get in some altitude acclimation for my sea-level lungs. I chose a strategy of working up to the high altitudes, first spending a week at 7000′ in Park City, Utah, running in the mountains and taking care of my day job remotely. Then for the week leading up to the race I camped near the course at 10000′, mostly taking easy outings to taper for the race but also tackling my first climb up a fourteener. The weather on Mt Yale was spectacular that day so I relaxed for a few hours at the summit to squeeze in a bit more acclimation; a nasty headache dissipated as I descended below 12000′ so I figured I was ready.

The High Lonesome 100 course is a big loop through the southern Sawatch Mountains, with a lot of long climbs, rocky jeep roads, open high country, and bit stretches on the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. The race was very tough — it’s always hard to keep consuming calories in a long race and especially difficult at altitude, and I suffered for hours from cramps brought on by deep breathing in the thin air. But my fitness after a spring of training was good and I finished with a time I was satisfied with, 29:07 for 21st man.

HiLo turned out to be the only one for me in the second half of the year; a lingering hamstring injury meant I stuck to mostly easy running in the fall. But I enjoyed finding other ways to be a part of the running community. I volunteered from before the start to the finish of the October Cougar Mountain Trail Run. SRC-Brooks teammate Trisha and I spent an evening safety sweeping eighteen difficult miles during the Teanaway Country 100 race. I loved being a spectator at this fall’s cross-country races and am looking forward to the same at USATF Club Nationals soon.

The Brooks Catamount 3 was a major discovery for me this year; they’re a joy to run in on all kinds of trails, including Pacific Northwest mud, sandy desert singletrack, and Rocky Mountains … rocks. I decided to start my 100 miler in them and keep my Calderas available in case I decided I needed some more cushioning as the race went on, but I never did. Love ’em.