6 weeks prior
“Why aren’t you running Atacama?”
It’s October 8, 2023 and I’m standing on the sideline of the Chicago marathon, ready to spend the day losing my voice and shooting confetti cannons as my friends run by.
This wasn’t the question that I was expecting but my answer was the same as it had been in the spring after LALV: money & timing. Flying to Chile to run across the Atacama desert was going to be expensive and missing Thanksgiving with my family was tough to do. I was already sad about missing it after such a great experience running LALV in March.
“What if it was paid for? There are no women in the field.”
I was immediately more interested: No women?! That can’t happen. Representation matters.
A paid for trip to Chile? Someone wants to pay for ME to run a race? How could I possibly turn that down?
Signing up for a 300 mile race with less than 6 weeks notice is crazy. But luckily, I love doing crazy things.
After a chat with my exceptional wife and my wonderful parents, some quick calls with Quinton, Nils, and Ryan, overnighted @rad_running shoes to be tested in a 50k the upcoming weekend, and phone calls to potential crew (must drive stick and be willing to spend 5 days camping in the desert instead of eating turkey with family)...I clicked submit on the registration form.
I had the support of my wife and family, a brand who wanted to make sure the field had female runners, a bunch of people who believed in me and wanted to make sure I was at TSP Atacama, and two crew members willing to jump into something that was very unknown.
I kept pinching myself but it was all real.
I just needed to plan for a 300 mile race across a desert in a foreign country, that’s now less than 6 weeks away…
Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
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