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My Favorite Young Living Products for the Holidays

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‘Tis the season to be:

  • eating a ton of junk food
  • burning those holiday scented candles
  • over-committing to everyone and every thing – shopping, wrapping, party-going etc.

Fa la la la la, la la la, la!

I’ve compiled a short list of my favorite healthy swaps, gifts and tips to help you get through this crazy time of the year.

Healthy swaps 
This concept is easy: replace items you already use or purchase for a different item that’s less toxic and healthier for your home.

  1. Candles: I know, I get it. They smell good, I use to burn them all the time. The section at TJMaxx use to get me every.single.time. But CANDLES ARE TOXIC. FAKE FRAGRANCES ARE TOXIC. Breathing in that gunk directly into your lungs has a negative affect on your body. It does, look it up! This whole post won’t be me shaking my finger, I promise. But seriously, this is one of the easiest swaps you could make… a diffuser! The possibilities are endless with Young Living, there are hundreds of oils and blends to choose from and not only do they replace candles, but they also replace plug ins and air sprays. Classic option: Christmas Spirit! I personally like to add a drop or two of Orange to the mix as well. I’ll start diffusing this blend the day after Thanksgiving. The desert mist diffuser is my favorite right now because it has the flickering candle light option and runs for up to 10 hours!
  2. Emergen C: I drink at least of 2 oz of Ningxia Red a day and kick it up a notch by supplementing with a probiotic during the colder months. Both help support your immune system (well, whole body! happy gut = happy face hint hint). I personally love the taste of the MightyPro option but when that’s out of stock, I reach for the Life 9. Everyone in your family will benefit from this swap!
  3. Hand soap/ hand sanitizer: similar to the candles up above, fake scents are a no-go in our household. There’s nothing worse than washing your hands and then 2 hours later still having that unnatural scent lingering around. Remember: your skin is your biggest organ. We’ve swapped out traditional hand soap for the Thieves foaming hand soap and the Thieves water less hand purifier. Both contain the proprietary Thieves blend of clove, lemon, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus radiata and rosemary. Have you ever seen this graphic? It’s pretty powerful!

4. Car air freshener: fake scents… seeing the theme? One new item in the holiday catalog is the car vent diffuser! Simply add a drop or two of your favorite oil or blend before hitting the road, and you’ll be breathing easy while rockin’ out to holiday tunes.

Gifts
Here are a few of my stocking stuffer or grab-bag favorites:

  1. Do you know someone who could use a little more sleep support? Do you need more sleep support? I love love love the Tranquil roll-on essential oil blend. It’s already got coconut oil in the blend, so it’s safe to use on the whole family. Keep one by your bedside and pass one along to someone you know who deserves sweet dreams.
  2. Someone on your list deserve a little relaxation? I love the Stress Away bath bombs! No fake fragrances, no fake dyes = they aren’t going to stain your tub! And they are cheaper per bomb than those sold at Lush, I did the math for you. You’re welcome. They are vegan (whoop whoop!) and with their skin-loving ingredients, your skin is going to be soft, smooth and moisturized.
  3. Any athletes on your list? I’ve tested and approve of the Cool Azul Pain Relief Cream! This cream helped me get through my 50k training and is perfect for any athlete that has occasional aches and pains. Or for the parent’s on your list that are chasing little ones. Or anyone really who slept the wrong way. I call this item nature’s bengay… minus the synthetic ingredients. Love!
  4. Lip Gloss – color abundant. I’m not a lipstick kind of gal, I’m a balm kind of gal. And it took me a while to try this lip gloss because I thought it would be a waste of money. But it’s light and adds the perfect amount of color for my special occasions – or day to day wear if the gal on your list is into that kind of stuff. There are a number of color options to choose from with the same formula – no parabens, phthalates, petrochemicals, bismuth, talc, synthetic fragrances or colorants – so it’s even safe to use on the little ones when they ask to dress up as well.

Tips
Have too much to eat or too much of one food group? Grab the Digize essential oil blend that came in your starter kit and rub a drop or two directly on your belly for digestion support.

You feeling a little run down? Need a pep in your step? Get your diffuser crankin’ with a few drops of Citrus Fresh and Peppermint (both in your starter kit) right when you hop out of bed to help you feel energized and ready to take on your day. Kick it up a notch by showering with one of the new Citrus Fresh Energizing Shower Steamers! Make them last even longer by breaking them in half; they’re pretty big!

Get a stain on an item of clothing while at a party? Add one capful of the Thieves Household Cleaner to a rollerball with water and rub directly on the clothing to pre-soak. Remember, clothing sits on your skin (largest organ), it’s important to assess what comes into contact with your body on a daily basis. A sample of this product is in your kit!

Looking for some new holiday diffuser blends? Check out Pinterest – there are a TON of great recipes already out there – no need to feel overwhelmed.

I could add a lot of items to this list, but alas, I must return from my lunch break. Have any additional suggestions or a specific question? Reach out to me – I’d love to help you one on one! And if you haven’t already jumping into this oily lifestyle, what’s holding you back?

October in Review!

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Are you getting sick of these monthly updates? If so, you’re in luck because there will only be two more. Two! Well, fingers crossed there’s only two. I don’t want to jinx myself or anything.

October was a stellar month for us. Despite barely working at my side hustle (ugh, rain), we still managed to put $6,365.74 toward debt! Boom pow!

This month was a three payroll month for me and we both got raises. Our annual gross salary increased by almost ten grand and I share this not to brag, not at all, but to be transparent, as I have this entire process. However, because coworkers visit this page (hello there, co-workers!) I’m not going to disclose who got what. Ask me how much I make in person and I’ll tell you, I’ve got nothing to hide. What I love most about Dave Ramsey’s plan is that it works, regardless of how much you make. Yes, if your shovel is smaller it may take you longer, but it works. You’d be surprised how much people assume we bring home in order to make this much progress… I can tell you you’re probably assuming wrong.

Rule number 3 of the Four Agreements: Don’t make assumptions.

YOU can do it, you just have to choose to do it.

We also got a boost this month in the form of a refund. $819.64 to be exact, from Navient. Looooooooong story short: one of the beau’s loans was eligible to have the last 6 months of payments refunded back to us once it was paid in full. This was a loan that was paid off back in September and we received the money in record time (compared to the 5 months we had to wait for a previous loan refund). That refund was applied immediately to the balance of the solo remaining loan; we chose not to have it deposited into our checking account.

Back to the stats!

This was our 14th month on our #financialpeacejourney and we’ve paid off a total of $80,937.71! That’s 90.86%!!

We only have $8,137.74 left to pay off! This month we hit the milestone of officially being under $10k!!

57 days until our DEBT FREE SCREAM! (December 26th)

Spending wise, we were pretty tuned in to what our budget dictated:

  • but we did overspend on our grocery line by $14 and by $10 on the eating out/alcohol line
  • the beau donated $10 for the Breast Cancer Walk through his employer
  • and we spent $8.64 on Halloween candy (note: no pumpkins this year)


Fun was once again built into our monthly budget! We got two punches in the Nine Pin 26er Challenge and won free box tickets to see Phish at the TU Center. I can tell you that two beers cost us a whopping $23 at that show! Yikes! And we splurged and went out to dinner the night we got the refund from Navient. We used money gifted to us from Christmas last year (!) for this special date night. It was the first time we had been out to dinner together, just the two of us, since February! It felt funny and I was super conscious / aware of how much I could easily drop in just one night, but we made compromises and had a delicious meal. If you haven’t tried the impossible burger at The Shop, animal style, you’re missing out! And take the gamble on the $3 random cans of beer – they were a fun twist!

Personally, I continued strong with the 30 Day Minimalism Challenge. And despite not sharing each day individually on IG, I did complete 27/31 days. I did a giant email purge during the last week and let me tell you, that one felt oh so good! Logging in each day and only have 14 items in my inbox is a delight. I can now solely focus on what’s truly important. (For reference, I started with 788.) I also purged a shit-ton of trash, legit garbage, from my bedroom closet. Why I had been stashing wrappers, receipts and old band aids (not used) in a box, I couldn’t tell you. I’m continuing to make progress each week and have been focusing on small areas at a time. I know that storage container cabinet in the kitchen is calling my name… so.many.mason jars!

Speaking of the kitchen, we had some great meals at home this past month! Here’s a look at some of the meals we ate (a number of photographs shared on IG):

  • Mondays: Indian stir-fry, tofu scrambles with home fries
  • Tuesdays: lentil soup, black bean soup
  • Wednesdays: spaghetti squash with a tvp & mushroom “meat” sauce, quick veggie stir-fry, tofu and broccoli
  • Thursdays: homemade sushi with spring rolls, beans & greens
  • Fridays: tempeh wraps with roasted broccoli, “fish” tacos
  • Saturdays: pizza!
  • Sundays: eggplant parm., a tomato bake with crescent rolls, beet balls and a homemade “mozzarella”

I also baked a beautiful (and tasty!) cake for the beau. He had been gone traveling for work so I decided to surprise him with a treat the day he got home (a sweet for my sweet). I stayed up late to bake the cake one Thursday night and then got up early the next day to pick flowers from our garden and frost it. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Running wise, I only ran 45.3 miles. I don’t blame my running friend buuuuuuut she’s on holiday and I’ve skipped the last two weeks. I’m lazy and prefer to sleep when left on my own, ha! It’s pretty damn dark out there in the mornings now, FYI. Excuses, I know. BUT I did do two at home workout videos (Cardio Fix and Upper Fix) and it is SAD how sore I was following those workouts. Like, sore for days. Whelp. I need to do more strength training.

October also brought the finale of my second Financial Peace University class that I co-taught with my friend Rhi. It was a success despite only one person showing up and taking a chance on herself. I can’t wait to follow along with her on this journey! I’ll most likely be teaching one more FPU class in January – keep an eye out for that announcement soon! ((I do not get paid to teach this class; it’s 100% volunteer work. I will show up whether I have one person in the class or 50. You do not need to share your specific numbers/debt with me but I will share mine. You do have to show up to all 9 classes. You may have wandered into debt but you cannot wander out (there is no quick fix).))

Whew! What a month! The final countdown is on…

Books I’ve Read: Q3 2018

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I honestly had to go back and look at my GoodReads account to see what/if I read this last quarter. I go through phases: I’m either obsessed with reading and can’t get enough or I won’t pick up a book for months. I’ve got a number of great titles on my list but I’m just unmotivated to read these days. I’m thinking that’ll change soon because it’s getting darker and it’s getting colder in the evenings. I’m determined not to turn on the heat until at least November 1st (Thanksgiving would be even better), so hopefully I’ll be snuggled in earlier in the evening with the beau and a good book. Or three.

I did read two books during the first week of July:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

This story is about 15-year old Christopher who is logistically very smart and decides to write his first novel as he tries to figure out who murdered a dog in the neighborhood, Wellington. I know someone very similar to Christopher – with high functioning autism – who also has a knack with numbers. This first person tale put even more into perspective for me (re: yellow cars) and I have to admit, I too enjoy making lists and found this format comforting. I gave it 3 stars.

The Call by Yannick Murphy

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THE BOOK: The format, it’s told from the perspective of a veterinarian living in the Northeast, receiving phone calls from people within his community. While off-putting at first, you’ll easily adjust and want to read more.
WHAT MADE ME LAUGH: The little stories throughout – what his wife was cooking, what his children were up to.
DID IT MAKE YOU CRY?: Yes, yes it did.

I randomly picked up this book off of the bookshelf at work while waiting for another to arrive, and read it in two days. Chosen only because there was a cow on the cover, I got really lucky. The story is about a father looking for answers after his son was injured during a hunting accident. The format made it feel like you were reading through his personal journal, which made it very easy for me to get drawn in. Yes, I may have seen the ending coming a mile away but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it when it happened. I gave it 4 stars.

And I did start three other books this quarter – reading about 20 pages of each and returning them when they were due.

  • After This: When Life is Over, Where Do We Go? by Matthew Walker
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Claire Bidwell Smith
  • Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews – I still have this book by my bedside and am now about 80 pages in, ha! This is an interesting book to say the least… also on the Great American Read list.

I’ve read 12 of 15 books in 2018.

September in Review!

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Oh, September.

September was a challenging month for me mentally. Our 13th month on this #debtfreejourney and Murphy paid us a visit: we woke up one weekday morning to find not one, but two leaks in our roof. Plaster is falling from our ceiling in two locations. And before I dive further into the specifics and frustrations of this house let me just say, breaking gazelle intensity is effing hard.

I cried during my last FPU class seeing the gazelle outrun the cheetah, despite seeing that clip at least 4 other times. Working so so hard and being so laser focused on a goal for over a year to only be sidelined is mentally tough to wrap your head around. It’s not like I shopped us off track. The morning we found the leaks I just walked out of the house and drove myself to work early, unable to look at what we now faced. And I must clarify, my frustration with this occurrence did not stem from fear. Had this happened a year ago, we both would have panicked over how we were going to afford this fix. Now, despite only having $1,000 in savings, we had a plan: we were to suspend all payments to debt (except minimums) until this issue was resolved.

I think we’ve resolved the issue… for now. More on that in a hot minute.


Our totals for the month
In September, we paid off $4,040.70 in debt! Boom!

In total, we’ve paid off $74,571.97 over the last 13 months (that’s 83.72%) and we only have $14,503.48 of debt remaining.

In 2018 alone, we’ve paid a grand total of $56,899 toward debt! To put that into perspective, that’s more than the gross total of one of our salaries. We’re essentially living off of only half of the other person’s gross salary. Yeah, really.

So imagine this: if you’re married, take the higher of the two salaries and split that in half. That’s the only amount of money you have to live on for a year. Every other penny will be thrown into the trash. That’s what it’s like paying off debt in our situation. That’s money we’ll never see again. But just think! Once we are debt free, if we continue to live the same way, every other penny will be put into savings, our future, or travelling! Can you imagine?! At what age will we be able to retire? How much of the world will we be able to see?

You may be asking, “how did you do this if you’ve suspended all payments?” Well, the leaks happened before the second pay days of the month. We had already thrown a huge chunk toward debt at the beginning of the month and then just let the cash pile up over the last two weeks until we knew what the plan was for the roof. Our plan: call every roofer we could find. And we did and only heard back from one guy who offered to come out for $425, for one hour, to tell us what the cost would be. Ah, no. Apparently this is the busiest time of the year for roofers, preparing and fixing roofs before the snow dumps down on us all in Upstate NY. So, we took matters into our own hands.

After climbing up on the roof multiple times and consulting with my dad, the beau took some time off from work to fix it himself. Not only did we find a huge chunk of siding that was flapping in the wind, we found a portion of the rubber roof folded down and most likely the spot where the water had been entering the house. The theme over the last two years with this house has been SHITTY WORK: The tale of two homeowner’s who slapped shit together to sell a house. Seriously, everything seems to be done half-way. Or cheaply. Or in a hurry. Or however you’d like to put it. We saw this in little details during the home buying process, we just didn’t expect the scope of it. This past week it rained pretty hard and the adhesive the beau applied seems to be working… we just now have 3lbs of roof adhesive sitting in our basement. Ha! We now need to replace the drywall / plaster in our entire dining room / sun room and most likely one wall before painting and moving forward. But the good news is, we think we can do this after the snow arrives. We think. We’re going to ride it out over the next month or so to see if there are any changes before we jump to having any further work done. I can live with missing plaster on my roof, just like I’m living with drywall in my master bathroom.

With that, we took the $2,000+ we had saved during those last two weeks and dumped it toward debt. We can always pause later on again if needed.

September was a “normal” payroll month for us and I actually only worked at my side hustle three times this month. BUT I did sell the diamond! Dun dun dunnnnnnn. I won’t mention who I sold it to or for how much (that person or partner may read this blog), but I got more than what I would have gotten if I pawned it and I didn’t have to deal with social media. Win win in my book! I also sold a pair of 10k gold earrings with matching heart pendant from an ex-boyfriend. Seriously, they had been sitting in the box for YEARS in a closet. No hard feelings just not my taste.

Items we purchased this month that weren’t originally in the budget:

  • Troy Turkey Trot 10k registration!
  • fuel for my race
  • the 3lbs of roofing adhesive
  • a new-to-me cell phone (iPhone SE used via the internet)
  • leaf bags
  • personal items

Items paid for using our sinking funds:

  • a gift certificate for my grandmother who celebrated her 90th birthday! (gift envelope)
  • the second half of our garbage fee (garbage envelope)
  • our 4th quarter water bill (water and sewer envelope)
  • haircut for the beau (haircut envelope)

Stashing a little money aside each month really helps!

Let’s see, we stuck pretty closely to the dinner meal plan which included our favorite beans and greens served over rice, tempeh jalapeno wraps, plenty of pasta dishes with various veggies from our CSA and a delicious homemade tomato sauce. We even took out a freezer meal (pulled “pork” aka king oyster mushrooms) to use up what we already had on hand for variety. I started teaching another round of FPU on Tuesday evenings, so I’ve been utilizing the crockpot overnight on Mondays so that I have a delicious homemade meal to enjoy after work without having to go home.

We got two more punches toward becoming a 26er with Nine Pin cider – planned fun within the budget! Oh, and we visited the garlic festival in Saugerties with my mom and sister! We didn’t break the bank at this tempting outing: we only purchased one bottle of hot sauce and the beau enjoyed some perogies and a potato pancake. With money worked at my side hustle, we got Chinese takeout twice this month.

A personal challenge I took on this month was the 30 day minimalist challenge. Super easy: for each day of the month, you throw out (donate, sell) that many corresponding items. On 9/1 you get rid of one item, on 9/15 you get rid of fifteen items… and so on. Pretty proud of myself for making it 25 days! You can see each day’s worth of items on IG. Between Board meetings, FPU, running and working on the weekends, I don’t always have a lot of free time when I’m home. Golly, I grocery shop on my lunch breaks to avoid having to do it during my scheduled home time! This challenge has really got me motivated to tackle each room in the house and I’ve been cleaning and organizing throughout the process. I’m literally going through boxes that haven’t been touched since we moved almost two years ago! The beau has been a great sport and participating as needed. I’ve been using what I’ve learned from Marie Kondo along the way to make the process a little easier. HIGHLY suggest her first book if you have yet to read it. I’ll be restarting the challenge for the month of October because I still have more work to do.

Dream job: being a consultant that not only helps people get out of debt but helps them declutter.

I really do think the two of them go hand in hand.

Maybe one day when I’ve walked the walk.

Positive thought moving forward into October: only THREE more payments until we’re debt free! THREE!

SRT Run/Hike 30 Mile Race: Part 2

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Where were we? Oh yeah, I was running away from checkpoint #5…

From checkpoint #5 to checkpoint #6
This section of the trail was very easy to run on, despite the inclines. The trail was wider and we were in the forest with plenty of coverage/out of the sun. Exactly two miles after the previous checkpoint, my watch beeped and I had to take a hard left. Totally could have missed this turn but didn’t thanks to the conference call with the directors the previous week. It was shortly after this hard turn that I wandered off the trail to pee (it had been at least 5+ hours since my last pit stop) and within a few seconds of standing up, felt the urge to pee again. I tried, nothing. Oh shit. A UTI on the trail. It was uncomfortable to run but I told myself heck, if I feel the urge to pee, I’ll just let it happen because I was already a sweaty, muddy, disgusting mess. It never came to that BTW – the more I ran, the less I felt it.

Five miles came and went and quickly turned into six miles. I knew I had to be getting close to the checkpoint when the trail spit me out on to a road (pretty sure I saw a young woman doing unspeakable things to a young guy in an SUV at this trail head ha ha I almost interrupted to tell them they should move because a number of people would be shortly behind me, but I didn’t want to stop ha ha). I had to run the road into a little wooded section with an old cemetery and then cross another road (thank goodness for the map app!). I ended up passing two 70 milers who told me I looked strong and encouraged me to keep up my pace. I had to walk up a big ‘ole incline and remember ending up in a field. I had just started to walk so that I could pull out my map when I heard a woman cheering me on in the distance. “Well hot damn I must be close!” I thought and started running toward the sound. I let out another whoop! whoop! as I approached the beau, I think with the BIGGEST smile on my face. 6+ miles well under the two hours I had set for myself. He was shocked to see me so soon.

I didn’t stay for long at all, just enough time for me to give him a kiss and tell him I felt AMAZING. I think I also told him that I was going to do this, I was going to finish 30 miles! I had 7 miles until the finish line and told him to expect me in 2, 2.5 hours? It was all up in the air because I had no clue what was ahead of me, if I’d hit a wall or how fast I’d move in the dark. I remember asking what direction I needed to run (this section of the course was no longer marked, only with random pink tape and let me tell you, the tape was useless) and took off uphill into a grassy field.

From checkpoint #6 to the finish line!
Like I said, the tape was scarce so I frequently had to check my map. It was during a big incline that I saw a woman walking toward me and I thought, “there’s no way I’m heading in the wrong direction.” I confidently told her she was going in the wrong direction and she told me she was quitting the race. Without skipping a beat, I said NO WAY! I looked down at my watch and we had less than 6 miles to go. I told her I was moving fairly slowly up this hill and that I’d love for her to walk with me. She hesitated every so slightly then started up with me.

Her name was Claudia and it was her fifth time running this race! I get it, we all don’t have great race days but I wasn’t about to see her throw in the towel this close to the finish line (especially because she wasn’t limping or visibly in pain). I asked her if she needed anything – world peace was her request – and we pressed on, chatting our way to the cliffs, where I stopped to take a photograph of the sunset. Having someone on the trail really made the miles go by! I had been out there solo for miles and just about everyone knows I’m a social runner and never run by myself (it’s just not fun ha ha)…

This was when a 50 miler ran by us. Claudia had told me to pick it up if I wanted to and this was the perfect opportunity. We had just passed two other 30 milers and I think they waited for her, so I took off. He was moving much faster than me so my goal was to keep him in sight. I caught up to him when we had to cross the marshy swamp area that had a water crossing up to my shins. He stopped to rinse his face (I had done that two times earlier in the day, took everything in me not to stop for a swim, ha!) and we also came across a couple that were in my initial starting wave (in the first photograph I shared in the previous post). They started following me!

They hadn’t seen anyone in quite a while and like Claudia, were happy to have the company. We all ran after the 50 mile guy (who I think was Alex after looking at the race results), walking when he did up the incline, and taking off when he’d take off. When we’d get to tricky intersections, I’d whip out my map and lead the group in the right direction. Everyone else’s watches had died earlier in the day so when another mile would pass, I’d hold up my fingers signaling how many more we had to go. The anticipation was building and there was no stopping me!

No matter how fast I tried, there was no beating the dark at this point. Alex already had his headlamp on so I paused to get mine on. I eventually caught up to him at an intersection and made the comment that his lamp was MUCH brighter than mine. It was at this point that he said he owed it to me to light the way since I had the electronic map. Yes! He’d light the way and I’d lead the way! Those last two solo miles with him were a blur. They were my fastest, strongest miles of the day and I had him to thank. When the blister on my left heel burst, I let out a little moan of ouch, this effing sucks and told him I might slow down a tad… he said that would be fine, he was only hauling ass because I was! That was just what I needed to push on! We crossed the rail trail bridge under the stars and I thought the race couldn’t get any better than this *easy* finish. We passed a family walking in the dark and I made the comment that we HAD to be close (no one takes two young kids out walking in the dark, do they?) and before I knew it, we could see the glow of a few head lamps waiting for us at the finish.

We pushed it hard down the gravel path to the finish, to the sound of his crowd of cheerleaders (3-4 people who I am assuming were family or friends). If you’re looking for a big finish, this race is not for you. There are volunteers physically writing down bib numbers and times and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Alex (gosh, I hope his name is Alex ha ha) turned around and gave me a big fist bump and thanked me for the help and I stood there looking for the beau. He had missed it! He was on the other side of the road in disbelief that I had just finished when I did.

He asked me if I wanted to run up the hill again so he could get a photo finish – ah, no.

I crossed the street to the finisher’s tent where I got my medal and chugged a ginger ale and ate a handful of delicious green grapes. I chatted with some other runners that I had seen at the start and then saw the couple who were following along behind us finish. I tried to go to the bathroom again – no go – and grabbed my t-shirt before heading to the car. This is where I took my shoes off and saw the HUGE blisters that my feet were covered in. Woof! I texted my family and running friend Caroline and then we hit the road for home. I wasn’t hungry but ordered some Chinese food and ate takeout in bed after soaking in an epsom salt bath (this was all around 11PM).

My thoughts on this race: I fucking loved it! When I crossed the finish line my first thought was, “I could have gone another 20 miles!” but didn’t dare say that out loud after finishing with Alex who had just ran 50 miles. I feel like I’ve got some unfinished business on this course and am already looking forward to the SRT 2019 to give it a second go, this time without walking the first entire half of the race. My official finish time was 10:45:00. It took Jen and me almost 6 hours to hike the first 13 miles and it took me only 4:45 to finish the last 17. I’d love to race again and aim for sub 9 hours.

Race details: as mentioned in the previous post, you cannot receive any help throughout the course of the race. While there are checkpoints, there are ZERO aid stations – no water, no fuel, no medical tents etc.. Your bib doesn’t have a tracker on it, the course isn’t specifically marked for the race and it’s your responsibility to know how to read a map and navigate the trails. If not, you must alert the race director before search and rescue teams are dispatched looking for you. Was it more difficult that I thought it would be? Yes, tenfold. But I think that’s why I loved it so much! It truly felt like I was hiking, very rarely seeing other people on the trail.

p.s… this was my fortune that night… I think that means I have to go for it! (Registration is open!)