Hellgate 100k++ That Didn't Happen

I have always had a knack for getting in over my head. At any given time, my attention may be devoted to hundreds of activities, when a half dozen is the reasonable number.

I like to stay busy. I like to have a plan. I like to be the best at everything I do.

That's just who I am. 110% if there ever was such a thing.

The knee injury I carried through the entirety of September was a nagging beacon of honesty about the road that my over-scheduled lifestyle was leading me down. I was helpless, and the only solution to regaining the use of my right knee was to simply stop. Being physically incapable of doing what you love is a powerful lesson, and the most painful I’ve ever learned. I could barely walk, and should not have tried to, but that awful voice I have that makes me overschedule, overcommit, and over-try made me walk.

A month later and I was at rock-bottom. It was embarrassing. It didn’t have to be though; I made it that way, because I can’t be happy with anything less than my version of perfect. 110%. But when one is physically and mentally injured, 110% has to be put on hold for a while.

Along the way to rock-bottom, I’d decided that making myself busy with clubs and double-majoring was the obvious solution to all of my problems. Distracting yourself from what is really wrong is the best way to make things better, right?

Oh yeah, and I’d sent in my Hellgate 100k++ “application” when I was still powerless over a flight of stairs.

Hellgate was the day after I would be returning from a week-long geology conference in San Francisco, California. So it only made sense to sign up for it, right?

Too many things.

By mid-October, I could run again. I was definitely not in the shape I was in the summer, but I'm getting there one week at a time.

So here is a brief description of how Hellgate 100k++ went for me.

8pm Thursday: Land in Roanoke after flying for 8 hours.

9pm: Good night

10am Friday: No I don’t want to.

4pm: Ughhh here we go

8pm: I really just wanna hang out with people and put all these temporary tats on my legs

12pm: HAHAHAHAHAHA!

12:45pm: Did I really just fall into the stream…

2am: Good run. Time to go home.

That’s all.