Showing Up With a Go-Big Mindset
Natalie started running when she was in elementary school but it hurt so she stopped. She tried again in her early 20’s. because she knew it was something she wanted to do. It took her some time to realize she had to start slowly and build up her strength and endurance gradually. This is a mindset that she had to develop because she tends to jump in with a “Go big, or go home” approach to whatever she decides to do.
After she had worked her way up to running half marathons she began a quest to do half marathons in all 50 states and then go back around and do marathons in all the states.
She was making the switch to having multi day half marathons and then started thinking about ultramrathons. She saw the video “Western Time” on YouTube and decided to make the leap to ultras. She showed her all-or-nothing approach by deciding it would be a good idea to run three 50K races within a month.
She decided to take on the challenge of running 100 mile races. She had several unsuccessful attempts, but then had success at the Zion 100.
Natalie said that several of her DNFs came from mental exhaustion more than physical trouble. Looking back, she said that several of these races she could have continued, but her mindset wasn’t in it any more.
Going even bigger: The Triple Crown of 200s
In 2021, she made the leap to run even longer races. She planned on attempting the Triple Crown of 200s: Bigfood, Tahoe, and Moab. She got into all three. But she dropped at Bigfoot and Tahoe was canceled because of fires. Moab was her chance to make her mark at this distance.
Natalie enjoyed the rugged beauty of the desert at the Moab 240. Although running there for her was complicated because of the rugged terrain and hot climate. She says the actual physical part, the sleep deprivation, knowing how to rest and refueling was very hard. She didn’t have a very structured sleep plan so she figured that for the first 100 miles she wasn’t going to sleep. After that she planned to take a couple of longer breaks and a lot of short breaks.
She was surprised that during the race she was not able to sleep when she tried. She could only sleep for a few minutes, and never a deep sleep. The only time she really fell asleep was at the end at the last aid station which was 18 miles from the finish line.
Deja Vu Halucinations
She can’t remember much about the last few days, but she knows she was having a lot of walking breaks which she kept as short as possible. She would run for 3 or 4 minutes and then walk for a minute. She had originally thought she would try to run 5K at a time before she walked.
During the first night she started having hallucinations. Her brain was making up logical excuses for what she was seeing and experiencing. Her mind convinced her she had been on all those trails before, and she could actually imagine what was coming next on the trails. She said it was very strange because during the run she felt like she had already been there in the past, and it took her 2 weeks to convince herself that she hadn’t, that she had never been there before. She also spent about 30 minutes thinking she was back home in Alaska, and looked at the map and it didn’t match what she saw.
Natalie got to the finish line and had only two seconds to spare before cutoff. In the last ¼ mile, she could hear the people at the finish yelling for her to run. But she thought her watch showed her she still had time. Several people ran out to her and helped spur her on. When she crossed the finish line, she wasn’t sure if she’d made it in time. But she was official: with 2 seconds to spare.
Natalie is looking forward to being there when the lottery opens next year. She’s going after the Triple Crown again.
Contact Natalie
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